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A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

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Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#131

Post by TulliusCicero »

nightfly wrote: post #70
wil421 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Atlanta we had one of our main highways collapse, I85. It was the exit after my place. Everyone adjusted and it actually forced people to ride the train. The train stations had to borrow parking spaces from businesses and schools. Everyone will adjust. On the first day it will be a disaster if it’s unexpected.

For years I commuted by train/bus to school/work until I could afford (the extra $200ish per month) to switch to driving to claw-back an hour of time I spent commuting each day. If traffic devolved to the point that I wouldn't be able to drive to work anymore I /would/ adjust, but I'd be generally less happy for it.

This is fair, but it's also fair to point out that the reason why public transit in the US tends to be so much slower than driving for commuting is precisely because we've invested far more money and land and policies into driving.

Now that I live in Munich, doing folding scooter + train is faster than driving to work. Mostly because public transportation here is good, rather than bad, because they've chosen to invest seriously in multiple modes of transport, rather than just one.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#132

Post by Kerrick »

majormajor wrote: post #127
saikit wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The locals in the US are militant against anything that reduces street parking in their neighborhoods. See 14th street bus lanes in NYC. https://www.amny.com/transit/14th-street-busway-lawsuit-1.33...

Depends on where you are. Outside of the denser places like NYC, SF, and LA, street parking is often undesired and seen as something like a sign of blight (only the poorest neighborhoods don't have space for off-street parking). Bike lanes remain horribly under-provisioned even there, but it's not really a street-parking thing. It's just a car-first thing. A two to four lane road with no street parking but still no b…

It's funny, because in St. Louis, MO (often considered a heavily-blighted city by outsiders) the presence of densely-occupied street parking is usually seen as a sign of wealth. Blighted areas instead have what appear to be extra-wide roads, because they are two-lane roads with space for parking -- but nobody's parking there.

Both blighted and wealthy areas are full of city lots drawn before automobiles, so nobody has much room for parking without sacrificing part of their back yard. Some wealthy people do build parking pads and garages to do this, but the alleys are so narrow that navigating something like a Cadillac SUV into a back-of-lot garage is... problematic.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#133

Post by tastygreenapple »

halbritt wrote: post #79
saikit wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The locals in the US are militant against anything that reduces street parking in their neighborhoods. See 14th street bus lanes in NYC. https://www.amny.com/transit/14th-street-busway-lawsuit-1.33...

This, pretty much. Motorists can be extraordinarily vocal without realizing how extraordinarily entitled they are to be able to operate their motor vehicles in urban environments where accommodating those motorists has an extraordinarily detrimental effect on the community in terms of space, traffic, pollution, congestion, etc. Not really a slight against motorists, I am one and never had this realization until I spe…

In America, Motorist == Community. It's bikers who are deviations from normal. We've built our cities for cars, now these bikers demand 'inclusion' on infrastructure they broadly don't pay for while flagrantly violating laws (ever seen a bicyclist come to a complete stop at a stop sign? Me neither).

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#135

Post by mrmanner »

Johnny555 wrote: post #116
WD-42 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Infrastructure like dedicated bike parking in itself shows a cultural acceptance of biking: it's like a "you are welcome here" sign. It helps.

Not as helpful as bike lanes that let you bike there safely. To get to my previous employer, I had to bike across a freeway overpass with exits/entrances and high speed traffic, and then ride along a two lane road (35mph posted speed, 45-55mph actual speed) with no shoulder. Despite being an avid biker and living only 4 or 5 miles away, I only biked there a handful of times, dealing with traffic was too scary. There…

The basic idea of “experimentation is good” holds for bike lanes as well — before making a permanent strategy decision for an entire city they could try painting bike lanes in a neighborhood or for one commute where people are willing to try biking. When it works out, it’s easier to convince car people that they’re better off when there are fewer cars on the road even if the road is smaller.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#136

Post by scythe »

frankus wrote: post #35

Local governments (at least in the US) seem to systematically underinvest in experiments like this. Things like traffic congestion have a ton of weird, largely unpredictable positive and negative feedback loops. Seattle removed its waterfront viaduct from service for a couple of weeks before changing over to the new $3.3B tunnel and traffic was mostly fine, despite apocalyptic predictions of gridlock. It's not entire…

I think the applicability of these types of observations may be limited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_critique

People respond differently to a change they expect will be temporary vs a permanent change. You wouldn’t buy a bike to use a temporary lane, for example.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#137

Post by _ph_ »

greenshackle2 wrote: post #6
whalesalad wrote: post #2

> A light, quick, cheap solution so good, it should be copied the world over. It is. This can be seen all over... SF, LA, DC, Austin, Ann Arbor ... I have seen this everywhere (in the US)

Hopefully not so light that a thief can load up the whole thing and steal all the bikes.

It happened to me once that I chained my bike to a stairway railing, certainly not moveable. When I returned, my bike was gone... actually the railing was gone. It was about to be replaced, so the construction workers had cut away the railing. They had placed my bike carefully a few meters away, though it wasn't tied to anything any more, as the railing was removed :).

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#139

Post by GateCrasher »

frankus wrote: post #35

Local governments (at least in the US) seem to systematically underinvest in experiments like this. Things like traffic congestion have a ton of weird, largely unpredictable positive and negative feedback loops. Seattle removed its waterfront viaduct from service for a couple of weeks before changing over to the new $3.3B tunnel and traffic was mostly fine, despite apocalyptic predictions of gridlock. It's not entire…

Dutchman living in NYC here. Manhattan seems perfect for cycling: small distances, wide roads (lots of space for bike lanes), not very hilly. Sometimes it rains but definitely not more often then the Netherlands. That they choose to fill all the streets with big Suburbans bewilders me. Especially when the only alternative is the subway.

Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles

#140

Post by ghostly_s »

tastygreenapple wrote: post #133
halbritt wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This, pretty much. Motorists can be extraordinarily vocal without realizing how extraordinarily entitled they are to be able to operate their motor vehicles in urban environments where accommodating those motorists has an extraordinarily detrimental effect on the community in terms of space, traffic, pollution, congestion, etc. Not really a slight against motorists, I am one and never had this realization until I spe…

In America, Motorist == Community. It's bikers who are deviations from normal. We've built our cities for cars, now these bikers demand 'inclusion' on infrastructure they broadly don't pay for while flagrantly violating laws (ever seen a bicyclist come to a complete stop at a stop sign? Me neither).

There's something almost cute about hauling out an argument this tired on a site for people who like to consider themselves on the cutting edge.
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