371–380 of 392 posts
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> Both can kill you easily. What a ridiculous statement. Motorized vehicles are involved in the vast majority of road casualties. You are much, much more likely to die from a car accident than a bike accident.
Motorized and bikes are not exclusive.
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>>> say “hello” first when talking to someone, the absence of a hierarchical relationship between hospitality personnel and customers These two are generally adhered to in the US as well. May be the hierarchy part is there if you're staying at really exclusive resorts. But by and large, most folks are polite. There is obviously the random asshole. But those exist everywhere.
> These two are generally adhered to in the US as well I'm not sure; granted I did not visit a lot of places in the US, but when I was there (Miami/Denver/Phoenix), I virtually never saw e.g. a customer greets the cashier when buying things.
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Have you looked at any actual data about the rate at which drivers and cyclists kill people in your area? Can you even find news about the last time a cyclist killed a pedestrian in your city? Because I keep an eye on the official Police stats in Toronto and it is eye-opening. Statistically, drivers kill people, and cyclists don't. It is not even remotely close.
Just a single anecdote, but one death made the papers here last year because it was an e-bike that hit and elderly gentleman. The e-bike had been modded and the media was suggesting the cyclist faced jail time as a result. (if I remember correctly)
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Especially in the rain, with a kid on a bolted-on backseat behind you and while sharing the road with cars that don't want you to be there. Just throw in an electric motor and will suddenly become fun.
Kids are too big for bolted on seat sadly...
Krakow is a great city. Did you try an electric bike? They make 8 km seem like nothing.
Here's an opinion about bicycling in Paris https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI-1YNAmWlk
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Not really. Unless the restriction is to take a generic lane and dedicate it to buses. But if restriction is to take a generic lane and give it to bicycles, then both cars and buses sit in the same traffic jam.
So, first, it would be rare to bring in restrictions of this sort without doing something to buses. But even if you _don’t_, reduction in traffic helps buses (assuming you already have bus lanes, which any city doing this stuff generally would, the main problem for buses is intersections, which this helps with)
My city excels at this. We are at level where bus system is not enough at all. But the municipality is trying to avoid it since it’s seen as politically tricky. Nobody wants to start it, take the beating and then let opponents cut the tape a decade later. The bus system is struggling too. Old buses, incomplete bus lanes and so on. When one jackass got an idea to reduce car traffic and started with adding obstacles to cars without improving public transit… Traffic did not better. And buses get stuck with the rest. Thankfully remote/hybrid work is all the rage. In recent decade quite a few offices and other workplaces moved away from urban core. That helps the situation a bit.
I moved from LA to Paris, my mental and physical health improved dramatically. I don't even take the subway, walking and biking are enough where I live. Hopefully we can reach the comfort of dutch cities within a decade.
How many kids do you have? How comfortable is the downtown core for families with 2-3 kids?
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Homicide in US cities is an inner city issue. It's not mainstream. There's bad areas - stay out of them. It depends if pick pocketing is ubiquitous or prevalent only in specific places.
The homicides in the US are not random, they are targeted. There is no need to avoid “bad areas” unless you are attempting to start a new gang or sell drugs there.
I don't think that's really selling it to me. it sounds like there is a organised crime problem in the USA.
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Get a rain coat, a warm coat, take it off, and make sure you've got a big crate on your bike. Wind does suck. I can't help you there.
Unless you have a place to shower and change at work or wherever you go, biking is utterly impractical. That's also assuming you have a safe place where to leave your bike, and that your commute is like 10 miles or less.
There are millions of people who find cycling incredibly practical, so claiming it's impractical for some easily debunked reasons only shows the limitations of your experience. But you can fix that. Give it a try.