Silicon Valley is not exactly a dense city.. It's more a suburb.
Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
51–60 of 345 posts
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#52A good way to accomplish this (not mentioned in the article) would be to build more housing close to Mountain View's campus. Office space has been outstripping housing growth in Mountain View for a very long time. See for example https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/01/stop-being-bullied-lets-sue... .
The problem isn't Mountain View alone, it's balkanization. You can't just build housing in Mountain View unless you really believe "Alphabet" will be there forever -- that's different from believing that tech will last a long time, because one company does not an industry make. It makes more sense to build 2000 units in each of Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Redwood City, San Mateo, East Palo Alto,…
Facebook took over Sun's old campus, and I imagine some corp would take over Google's campus if they left. Ultimately office space is office space, and planning for a mass regional exodus seems unwarranted. Most or all of the cities mentioned can accommodate new housing developments as easily as office parks now...it seems like a reasonable means of allocation.
I don't even think crazy annexation schemes are needed...what would really change the region is a unified school system.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#53So you can bike from giant parking lot to giant parking lot?
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds like it could be easily solved by you riding a more suitable bike for commuting. It seems people in the US fetishize road bikes with drop bars and skinny tires as the 'best and fastest' kind of bike and then complain about how uncomfortable biking is. Even in the tour de france they don't use 23mm tires anymore. Going to a wider tire won't affect your speed adversely and to an extent will actually speed y…
I only ride hybrids, I've ridden my hybrid on steep mountain highways and gravel roads, although mostly thousands of miles in the city. I agree that wider tires are best. However, having a durable bike with durable tires doesn't "solve" the problem of riding on gravel, it just makes it less painful. If Silicon Valley actually built a decent bike network I might consider moving there from Seattle. As it is I'd feel li…
I've commuted a few times from NE San Jose (near Milpitas) to Google MTV campus via the (mostly-gravel) Bay Trail on a hybrid bike. It's telling when the commute makes your arms are more tired than your legs... I agree w/ GP: Pave that section of the Bay Trail.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
This sounds like it could be easily solved by you riding a more suitable bike for commuting. It seems people in the US fetishize road bikes with drop bars and skinny tires as the 'best and fastest' kind of bike and then complain about how uncomfortable biking is. Even in the tour de france they don't use 23mm tires anymore. Going to a wider tire won't affect your speed adversely and to an extent will actually speed y…
"It seems people in the US fetishize road bikes with drop bars and skinny tires as the 'best and fastest' kind of bike" I don't think that true. The general opinion I've seen where I live is that bikes are toys and paying above a few hundred for one is ridiculous. I do agree that you probably don't want a race oriented road bike if your goal is to commute to work a few miles but if you enjoy the sport and know what y…
Outside the Bay Area in the US, I see a lot of hybrid and mountain bikes. In Silicon Valley, there's definitely a preference for multi-thousand $ road bikes -- and people ride them, hard.
Still, riding your carbon race bike to the office is akin to driving your Ferrari to the grocery store -- uncomfortable on rough roads, no storage space, and when you get there, where do you park?
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#56Quote: --- They tackled the problem with data. "Rather than looking at what bike infrastructure is there, they looked at the user experience [...] They looked at levels of stress faced by bicyclists, and how those could change based on the infrastructure that could be there in the future," --- The innovation of this project is mind-blowing. Bicycle lanes! A whole network of them!
Nothing more Silicon Valley than overthinking a very simple problem. Actually, not overthinking it (I'm sure there was limited thinking involved), but at least over publicizing what should be (and has been) an obvious problem and solution pairing.
If they thought into it a bit more, they may have come to realize that it's entities like Google (and similar mega-campuses) that actually make the entire region a disaster for commuters and for citydwellers.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
I know its not an option for everyone, but a good cyclecross bike will do wonders for that kind of commute. I picked up a hybrid bike and got a set of tires with some tread on them and I can now handle gravel fairly well, and still get good rolling resistance on the rest of my ride
I had a hybrid with fat tires, which I used to ride on trails like that. It makes the ride somewhat more bearable, yes. But the point is - no pavement, no speed, regardless of what kind of bike your using. Pave those things, and your average speed on a bike would double at least.
Double? I doubt that. Typically, I ride ~20km/h on gravel and ~23km/h on well-paved roads at commute speeds (i.e., no sweating). Maybe the gravel roads are terrible in SV, but around here, it hardly makes a difference in speed as gravel roads are well-maintained.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#58I applaude this effort. I think many people discount how capable they are of making the switch to commuting via bike to work. Almost any commute less then 10 miles can easily be done via bike, and making a "safe" route to connect the metro area is a great first step. The unfortunate situation is that if you are over 10 miles to your office ( which many are ) you will have a hard time making that commute in a acceptab…
I don't want to show up to work sweaty. And I want the utility of a vehicle if my plans change. So I'll drive regardless.
Honestly it's a great way to wake up to get some exercise in, then drop by a gym for a shower (if your office doesn't have one).
Showers at the office are probably one of the most underrated perks ever.
As a sidenote, the whole point is that "the utility of a vehicle" shouldn't far exceed the utility of a bicycle/public transit in an area as developed as Silicon Valley.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#59A good way to accomplish this (not mentioned in the article) would be to build more housing close to Mountain View's campus. Office space has been outstripping housing growth in Mountain View for a very long time. See for example https://www.jwz.org/blog/2015/01/stop-being-bullied-lets-sue... .
They tried, multiple times, and were explicitly rebuked http://www.mv-voice.com/print/story/2012/07/13/google-housin... http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/26/technology/google-plans-ne... etc It comes up every few years.
While I think the situation is ridiculous, I also can't help thinking that if you're one of the most successful companies in the world and you can't get this done. It's either not that great of priority for you or you're doing something wrong.
Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen
#60I just biked last evening from downtown San Jose to the southern vicinity of the Google campus. There are two main options: Central Expressway or something close and parallel to it, which I've declined. Or trails near the bay shore, which is what I chose. Bad choice. The trails are for the most part unpaved. Riding my sleek, rigid road bike on those things was torture. Never again. If those trails were paved, that wo…
Man! You guys are a bunch of complainers! I second the get-an appropriate bike line of thinking. I have a basic CX bike with a steel fork and wider tires. Riding on gravel or dirt roads isn't as fast as paved roads, but I'd hardly call it torture.