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Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

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Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#561

Post by brippalcharrid »

briga wrote: post #413
supertrope wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up trained at school to always put on a helmet else I'd end up a vegetable after a bike accident. Not one mention of how American roads are designed for car supremacy at the expense of human safety. A helmet won't do you much good if a texting SUV driver hits you.

Meanwhile in Europe barely anyone wears helmets. It turns out you don't need them when bikes have their own dedicated infrastructure.

Motor vehicles aren't the only risk; whether a helmet would prevent serious injury in an accident depends on factors such as how fast you're travelling, and you don't need to be sliding along the ground too fast and connecting with a a kerb/a wall/street furniture for a head impact to cause life-changing injuries.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#562

Post by WalterBright »

Tiktaalik wrote: post #436

Switching to electric cars from ICE cars is continuing to do the wrong thing and make the wrong choices, but doing this wrong thing a bit better. It's still the same status quo, woefully terrible and unsustainable transportation model. Automobile oriented transportation doesn't scale, is a huge waste of resources, and perpetuates unsustainable, ultra expensive and resource intensive sprawling urban development patter…

In the Seattle area the existing train tracks are removed and turned into bike paths which transport about Seattle also will dig a new transportation tunnel, and fill up another tunnel with the excavated dirt, so a lot of money is spent and capacity does not increase.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#563

Post by briga »

brippalcharrid wrote: post #561
briga wrote: post #413

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Meanwhile in Europe barely anyone wears helmets. It turns out you don't need them when bikes have their own dedicated infrastructure.

Motor vehicles aren't the only risk; whether a helmet would prevent serious injury in an accident depends on factors such as how fast you're travelling, and you don't need to be sliding along the ground too fast and connecting with a a kerb/a wall/street furniture for a head impact to cause life-changing injuries.

So I've been biking most of my life and I almost never wear a helmet. Not because I don't think they would help if I hit my head on the ground, but because in the past 20 years I haven't been injured while biking once. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I think 99% of it is just being cautious and aware of my surroundings while riding. At this point riding without a helmet is simply a risk I'm willing to accept.

(knock on wood)

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#564

Post by torgian »

Somehow, I feel like the best compromise is to have cars all be underground. Underground tunnels to go to different parts of the city, with public subways and carriages to take you wherever you need to go. Underground parking too.

And from there, only walking and cycling traffic above ground with buses and trains for public transport.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#565

Post by torgian »

porb121 wrote: post #551
nightski wrote: post #512

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many people want to live in dense cities without any means of escape? It sounds miserable to me. But I live in a really small city (< 250k) and drive maybe 3-5k miles a year (mostly to our cabin in a neighboring state) and bike a LOT. It's kind of ironic I am pretty far from your utopian dense dream yet largely living it.

> How many people want to live in dense cities without any means of escape? It sounds miserable to me. Some 30m people in Tokyo seem to be doing fine.

Doesn’t mean they actually want to be there though.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#566

Post by howinteresting »

supertrope wrote: post #497
Dylan16807 wrote: post #496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not like driving is a sweat free experience at 38C. It is if your car isn't a junker.

38C is very hot. You'll be sweating in 5 min. Parking garages are generally not air conditioned. Cars don't cool down from 50C quickly. The sun stills shines on you through the windows.

Many electric cars let you turn on climate control remotely. Do that a few minutes before getting in and you'll enjoy a cool (or warm) car.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#567

Post by golemiprague »

In many places people use electric bikes so it still requires some electricity. In cities where bicycles are viable people use it anyway and they don't need any encouragement or special planning and investment. Slapping a bicycle lane in cities where it is not viable, like spread suburbs or where people must use helmets or where the weather is too extreme, is not going to change anything.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#568

Post by megablast »

geoduck14 wrote: post #521
fvdessen wrote: post #307

Cycling is not only good for the environment, but for cities in general. During the last confinement, when car traffic completely stopped, I realised that cars are the single biggest reason why living in the city can be unpleasant. People may not realise it consciously, but when they move out of the city, what they are looking for is a place with not as much cars driving around. Cars destroy cities by making a viciou…

I've seen various threads promoting bicycles - and my life style is SO different that I can't conceive of using bikes and getting rid of my cars. I drive 6 miles to church. My kids are in the minivan and can't ride bikes yet. We also have stuff with us: diapers, water cups, snacks. My work (before WFH), is about 7 miles away. I could bike - but I take kids to day care, and they can't bike. Also, I can't wear "athleti…

Yes there are people with kids who don’t own a car. Madness. I guess they just don’t make excuses.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#569

Post by rixed »

geoduck14 wrote: post #521
fvdessen wrote: post #307

Cycling is not only good for the environment, but for cities in general. During the last confinement, when car traffic completely stopped, I realised that cars are the single biggest reason why living in the city can be unpleasant. People may not realise it consciously, but when they move out of the city, what they are looking for is a place with not as much cars driving around. Cars destroy cities by making a viciou…

I've seen various threads promoting bicycles - and my life style is SO different that I can't conceive of using bikes and getting rid of my cars. I drive 6 miles to church. My kids are in the minivan and can't ride bikes yet. We also have stuff with us: diapers, water cups, snacks. My work (before WFH), is about 7 miles away. I could bike - but I take kids to day care, and they can't bike. Also, I can't wear "athleti…

s/car/bike/ is obviously not the solution. Not organizing your life around cars is. This has more impact on one's life than just replacing a car with a bike, as a comparison between, say, a typical north american household lifestyle and a typical dutch household one readily shows.

Re: Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

#570

Post by olivermarks »

olivermarks wrote: post #427
dfgdghdf wrote: post #387

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I listened to your source, but I'm afraid it wasn't very convincing. The evidence they presented was an ambulance driver who had to go around a modal filter via side-streets to get to a patient who later died. We do not know if the patient died because of the LTN. I am aware of a case where Ealing council failed to delivery keys to an ambulance service - perhaps this was that? That error has now been rectified. Needl…

There's plenty of Private Eye coverage as I previously stated if you're interested in their perspective in 'rotten boroughs' although it sounds as though you are a convinced enthusiast of LTN. Not sure if you bothered to listen to the part of the podcast about the claim (also a component of resident lawsuits https://twitter.com/ShimanoSteve/status/1358509807297298432 etc) that wealthy 'leafy' boroughs are having traf…

https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/anti-ltn-campaigners-t...
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