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Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

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Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#321

Post by maerF0x0 »

Faaak wrote: post #306
maerF0x0 wrote: post #247

In San Francisco one major barrier to cycling is theft. You basically cannot leave a bike for > 1hr. This additional burden means many who would bike (such as myself) no longer consider it an option. I previously biked upto 45minutes each way for work. > A 2013 report by the city’s legislative analyst estimated that 4,085 bikes worth $4.6 million were stolen in 2012, with the downtown and South of Market neighborhood…

Buy a sturdy lock ?

They get cut all the time. I assume you're not from SF? I agree that a sturdy lock works elsewhere (for example in the Canadian cities I've lived in) .

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#322

Post by village-idiot »

mmirate wrote: post #275
imgabe wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also these things called "clothes" humans have been using to protect themselves from the elements for quite a while. Humans walked across Siberia with little more than animal skins. I think most can handle a 30 minute bike ride when it's a bit chilly.

Sure. But in other geographies, what kind of clothes can possibly protect from 96-degree heat and 100% humidity?

Look at how Bedouin nomads dress.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#323

Post by village-idiot »

Spivak wrote: post #272
village-idiot wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And creating the infrastructure is wildly unpopular, because typically it involves either taking lanes away from cars, or slowing them down. The initiative to reduce car-pedestrian collisions in LA has stopped because the drivers put pressure on politicians to stop slowing traffic down. Advocates are implying (and sometimes outright saying) that a few dozen deaths a year are an acceptable price to pay for a shorter c…

> Advocates are implying (and sometimes outright saying) that a few dozen deaths a year are an acceptable price to pay for a shorter commute. Why are you implying that this is faulty reasoning? I mean traffic deaths would be virtually eliminated if the speed limit across the board was 15 mph. But I know I would rather drive 65 because the risk is worth it -- and over a large population that increase in risk turns int…

It’s all BS because the people who are saying “this is fine” know they’ll never face the risks personally. It’s a psychopathic way of running a community, and anyone who advocates this way is incredibly suspicious to me.

Anyone that says “someone else should face high risk and cost for my convenience” is not to be trusted.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#324

Post by vkou »

brightball wrote: post #227
vkou wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having access to automobiles, vaccination, running water, and anti-biotics goes against biology. On the other hand, getting eaten by a tiger, living with ringworms, having your teeth fall out before middle age, or having 50/50 odds of dying by the age of 4 is perfectly natural, does not go against biology. I don't think biology is a great litmus test for how we want to structure society.

Aside from automobiles, the other examples you have are things humans have done to further the survival of the species. More advanced versions of seeking food and shelter essentially. Which is a natural expectation of the species...

What if the survival of the species requires us to take steps to, over generations, reduce our population to ~1 billion?

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#325

Post by deathanatos »

brightball wrote: post #98
village-idiot wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, so that reinforces my point. Millenials aren't going to buy up those suburban homes.

Because they aren't having kids... Not because there's a problem with the homes or the locations. It's because somehow, an entire generation has grown up with the idea that the one biologically necessary act to further the survival of the species...is not a good idea. Maybe it's marketing, maybe it's the message, maybe it's the intensity of school causing people to believe that workaholism is necessary, maybe it's pr…

> It's because somehow, an entire generation has grown up with the idea that the one biologically necessary act to further the survival of the species...is not a good idea.

No, because they don't believe they're financially stable enough to support children[1]. Millennials have dealt with stagnant wages and rising housing costs.

(While some of the responses to that story ([1]) do indicate a desire to do things other than raise children, many of the responses indicate a desire, but a lack of ability. Additionally, leveling off the population growth of humanity would likely have benefits for the environment, though certainly some current government schemes assume infinite growth, and those will have a bad time.)

I'm personally in the "can't" not "won't" bucket. Real-estate in SV is nuts, and I will have to (as James Mickens calls it) complete the "sisyphean task" of escaping SV and its housing crisis.

[1]: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/05/upshot/americans-are-havi...

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#326

Post by village-idiot »

jbob2000 wrote: post #289
adrianN wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people can't drive due to medical conditions or because they're too young or too old. Should we stop building roads?

Nope, but those people can be driven by someone else. How the hell do I drive my mother to the hospital on my bike?

“I might occasionally need to use a car, therefore I should use it all the time no matter the context” is a very weak argument.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#327

Post by u801e »

kennyadam wrote: post #14

Give me bicycle lanes and I'll cycle to work every day! Force me to share a lane with multi-ton metal beasts travelling much faster than me and I'll just get the bus thanks.

> Force me to share a lane with multi-ton metal beasts travelling much faster than me

That's the problem with the keep as far right as practical law that only applies to bicyclists. For other slow vehicles, it means that they use the rightmost lane available for traffic. For bicyclists, it means that they need to share the lane side-by-side with a car in a lane that's only wide enough for the car by itself or two bicyclists riding abreast.

If the bicycle specific keep as far right as practicable law was repealed such that the cyclist could just use the entire width of the lane they're in, then people riding a bicycle in traffic wouldn't have the lane sharing problem you describe.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#328

Post by village-idiot »

weberc2 wrote: post #279
village-idiot wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, you actually need winter tires. All season tires are garbage.

I’m guessing you’re not accounting for wear. I can’t tell the difference between my all seasons and winter tires, but the performance gap between summer tires and all seasons (in winter conditions) is enormous.

Wear matters a ton. Winter tires are usually made of very soft rubber to maintain pliability below freezing. Driving them when it gets warm destroys them quickly.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#329

Post by saltcured »

smileysteve wrote: post #131
option wrote: post #40

I wonder how a bike or even public transit is going to replace a car? 1) How am I supposed ro go to the beach with two kids, stuff for picnic and surfboards on a bike or even on a bus?!! 2) Public transit is all good, but have you ever been in a PEOPLE jam during rush hour in a subway? Because I had. And I will take SV traffic jam over it any day. The truly bad things happen because of radicalism - it should not be b…

In LA, the train goes right to long beach. You have your two kids carry picnic stuff; you may just want to rent a surfboard there. *note, I lived in LA for 4 months w/o a car; It's a pain to fit a longboard in an UberXL.

In westside neighborhoods, it is not unusual to see people with modified beach cruiser bikes going to and from the beach. These have a surfboard rack that puts the board parallel to the bike. Basically two deep, foam-padded u-shaped brackets jutting out on one side of the frame. When carrying a board, it just shifts the center of gravity of the bike a bit in between the frame and the outboard cargo.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#330

Post by weberc2 »

village-idiot wrote: post #328
weberc2 wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m guessing you’re not accounting for wear. I can’t tell the difference between my all seasons and winter tires, but the performance gap between summer tires and all seasons (in winter conditions) is enormous.

Wear matters a ton. Winter tires are usually made of very soft rubber to maintain pliability below freezing. Driving them when it gets warm destroys them quickly.

I'm not sure if you meant that as a rebuttal or not, but I completely agree. :)
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