Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

csail.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–187 of 187 posts

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#181

Post by BlackjackCF »

kchoudhu wrote: post #167
cortesoft wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of issues with this. One, Los Angeles is VERY sprawling; people are traveling from every direction to every other direction, there are no easy routes you can make that will cut very much traffic. You would need to turn a LOT of streets into one-ways with bike lanes. Two, the traffic density and management is crazy here. So many traffic lights and stop and go traffic. Major streets are constantly cr…

This also makes otherwise walkable neighborhoods very difficult for pedestrians to navigate. Red lights need to cycle much, much faster.

This. It's also really, really annoying that all the lights on an entire stretch of a street cycle at the same time. It really fucks up traffic. To make it even worse, people often try and race to the other side even on yellows and block up the intersection, which makes traffic even worse.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#182

Post by stuaxo »

jdminhbg wrote: post #163
randyrand wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

32F is definitely warm enough to bike. I've Skied for 8 hours in 20 degree weather with no complaints. Exercise keeps you warm.

It's also cold enough for black ice.

Urban roads + cycle paths all get salted though ?

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#183

Post by kchoudhu »

BlackjackCF wrote: post #181
kchoudhu wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This also makes otherwise walkable neighborhoods very difficult for pedestrians to navigate. Red lights need to cycle much, much faster.

This. It's also really, really annoying that all the lights on an entire stretch of a street cycle at the same time. It really fucks up traffic. To make it even worse, people often try and race to the other side even on yellows and block up the intersection, which makes traffic even worse.

I didn't realize it was such a huge problem until I moved to Los Angeles a few weeks ago. We did a bang up job finding an apartment with grocery stores, restaurants and parks within walking distance. Unfortunately, the red light situation makes it somewhat difficult to get to these amenities.

LA needs to do a better job of balancing pedestrian and motorist interests. With more and more people abandoning or at least de-emphasizing cars, I hope and expect this balancing act to happen sooner rather than later.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#184

Post by stuaxo »

awjr wrote: post #115
mgce wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if you're already aware of this, but NYC has also been aggressively building out cycling infrastructure since the Bloomberg administration. So your point is not unknown to policy makers: http://www.amny.com/transit/new-york-city-to-reach-1-000-mil...

I have Sadik Khan's book on her work in New York http://www.jsadikkhan.com/streetfight-the-book.html

It could get confusing if she came to London to work with our Mayor Sadiq Kahn.

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#185

Post by hobbyjogger »

ced wrote: post #138
hobbyjogger wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, people tend to overlook the role climate plays in these comparisons. There's an enormous difference in cycling's viability as a primary means of transportation in a place like the Netherlands where average high temperatures rarely exceed 75, as opposed to Texas where a typical summer will have a prolonged period of temps in the 90s and multiple 100+ days. The average high temperature in Amsterdam's warmest two…

Heat isn't the only issue. From Wikipedia for the Netherlands: Ice days (maximum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) usually occur from December until February, with the occasional rare ice day prior to or after that period. Freezing days (minimum temperature below 0 °C (32 °F)) occur much more often, usually ranging from mid-November to late March, but not rarely measured as early as mid-October and as late as mid-May.…

From my perspective, the worst months in Austin (July and August) could be doable with a shower at work. Without one--totally unthinkable unless your job involves outdoor labor. I biked daily for 3 years when I lived in Boston but there's just no equivalent to putting on a big jacket for heat/sweat.

Look at the dew point (which far better comparison than humidity because it doesn't fluctuate with temperature). Here are the August daily averages for Austin[0] and Toronto[1].

Toronto's dew point range (~53-63) has a max that is right around our minimum (Austin range: ~63 - 72).

Also keep in mind that, Toronto's daily high temps in August (~77F) are right around Austin's lows (~76), with our highs reaching around ~97F.

I'm going to suggest that you may be misremembering how humid it felt - in my opinion there's no way to bike any reasonable distance for the majority of July and August (and often June and September as well) without showing up a sweaty mess. At least I haven't figured out how to do it--even though I bike commute regularly from October - May.

[0]: https://weatherspark.com/averages/29672/8/Austin-Texas-Unite... [1]: https://weatherspark.com/averages/28390/8/Montreal-Quebec-Ca...

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#186

Post by LordKano »

Retric wrote: post #169
antisthenes wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b... For a city that was "intended to not be dense from the start", it sure is up there as far as density and would be #16 on the list if it counted as a part of a state. DC is incredibly dense by American standards and is actually one of the very few places in the US that you can get by without a car (which is, of course, priced into exorbitant rents and pro…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris DC has 158.1 km2 with 681,170 people or 4,308 people per km ^2. Paris has 105.4 km2 with 2,265,886 people or 250,065 people per km2 In other words DC has less than 2% of Paris's population density. Note, Paris is a turist destination so many shot's look like DC, but this is the real city: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/04/15/17/278DF7CF0000057...

DC would have a much greater population density if developers were permitted to build upwards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_of_Buildings_Act_of_191...

Re: Study: carpooling apps could reduce traffic 3x in NYC

#187

Post by BlackjackCF »

kchoudhu wrote: post #183
BlackjackCF wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. It's also really, really annoying that all the lights on an entire stretch of a street cycle at the same time. It really fucks up traffic. To make it even worse, people often try and race to the other side even on yellows and block up the intersection, which makes traffic even worse.

I didn't realize it was such a huge problem until I moved to Los Angeles a few weeks ago. We did a bang up job finding an apartment with grocery stores, restaurants and parks within walking distance. Unfortunately, the red light situation makes it somewhat difficult to get to these amenities. LA needs to do a better job of balancing pedestrian and motorist interests. With more and more people abandoning or at least d…

I see it happening in different parts of LA. Santa Monica and West Hollywood are starting to adopt the "rent-a-bike" system that I've seen in NYC and Denver. They're also starting to set up more bike parking areas to be more bike friendly. I don't know how well it will work out in the long-run, but I do really hope to see more bike lanes in LA to encourage bike commuting.
Post reply on HN