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Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

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Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#61

Post by TulliusCicero »

dkhenry wrote: post #14

I 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…

> 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 acceptable amount of time, unless you actually make an effort at going fast.

OR, unless you get an eBike. Which, while more expensive than a regular bike, are still vastly cheaper to purchase and operate than a car. A good pre-built eBike will probably sell in the $1000-2000 range and uses a negligible amount of electricity.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#62

Post by hyperion2010 »

Based on the photo at the bottom they are going to fail the same way that many other US cities have failed when trying install bike lanes.

You MUST put the parked cars between moving traffic and bikes. If you do not bikers are going to get hit and doored and will obstruct turn lanes.

Pretty much everywhere in Europe gets this right. Traffic -> parking -> bikes -> peds. How did the US get everything completely backward?

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#63

Post by rar_ram »

How about they fix the public transport system first ? The bay area (united states in general, except for a few places) has the worst public transportation system.

The VTA light rails and buses are nothing compared to new york or even boston for that matter!

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#64

Post by mc32 »

To my mind, one of the main issues, in addition to protected bike lanes is the spread. Bike friendly cities are more compact. Commuting to work via bike is not a strenuous fifteen mile commute one way. They tend to be leisurely few mile rides. Now, not to say it's not possible, but a one to five mile bike ride is not the same as a ten to fifteen or more miles bike ride.

Now, I do like Copenhagen's above ground bike roundabout, I've seen. It'd be nice to see those at dangerous or busy intersections.

I'd also like to see "turning boxes" where to make a left you go to a perpendicular boxed out area on the right and wait for your light. They have these in Asia for scooters and bikes.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#65

Post by ethanbond »

azakai wrote: post #10

Odd to see this in the middle of the article, without context before or after, > Google plans to give $5 million in matching grants to cities in the area that want to start building out a better bike network. But even the matching grants don't come free: The money is offered as a community benefit, contingent on Mountain View's approval of Google's North Bayshore redevelopment. Without describing what Google's propos…

This, maybe? Agreed that context would be nice.

http://www.mv-voice.com/print/story/2015/05/08/linkedin-wins...

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#66

Post by TulliusCicero »

hyperion2010 wrote: post #62

Based on the photo at the bottom they are going to fail the same way that many other US cities have failed when trying install bike lanes. You MUST put the parked cars between moving traffic and bikes. If you do not bikers are going to get hit and doored and will obstruct turn lanes. Pretty much everywhere in Europe gets this right. Traffic -> parking -> bikes -> peds. How did the US get everything completely backwar…

I agree with you. To a certain extent there's institutional inertia around it now. Another issue is actually pedestrians not liking the idea of cyclists (who are all reckless scofflaws, of course) being right next to them. What they don't realize is that a) the reckless cyclists are a tiny minority of the people willing to bike in good infrastructure, and b) even a reckless cyclist probably still poses less of a threat to a pedestrian than a car, so moving people out of cars and onto bikes is almost always a win for pedestrian safety.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#69

Post by davidw »

hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #60
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #7

I 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.

Growing up in Oregon, at a certain point I'd ridden all the roads what seemed like a million times, so my friends and I started seeking out gravel roads that were relatively smooth. We put together some epic rides on those, on our road bikes.

This was always one of my favorite climbs when going on rides from Padova:

https://www.google.com/maps/@45.4724563,11.5982143,3a,75y,18...

A bit rough to go down, though.

Re: Google Wants to Make Silicon Valley as Bike-Friendly as Copenhagen

#70

Post by comrh »

nkassis wrote: post #41
stbtrax wrote: post #18

Earlier 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…

I think it is a young, hipster-ish thing. Usually people ride a mountain bike as a kid and think of road bikes as "bikes for grownups."
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