quick survey : how many readers actually ride to work?
Boston. Every day. Rain, Shine, Snow, Winds, etc. 3.5 miles each way. Gets prettttttyy bad in the snow, but better than the subway.
A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
71–80 of 307 posts
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#72It would be useful for cities with colder and snowy seasons like Toronto, where between summer and winter bicycle traffic varies greatly.
These already happen to be implemented in Toronto as bike corrals which take up the length of just under two car parking spots. They are removed for snowy seasons and reinstalled in the spring.
Picture: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/903d-Parki... More details: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-tra...
FWIW, I feel more confident in parking my bicycle in these corrals than I probably would if parking on the platform featured in the link, as the bike corral is protected on the three sides facing the road.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
The avarage bike around here retails for about $1500, so $15000 in a single swipe isn't bad. I have seen an entire bike rack being pulled out of the ground using a truck and winch, so yes it does happen. Research has shown over and over again that penalty is seldom a factor in decision making, gain vs perceived risk of getting caught is, and stealing a single bike is still a felony. You don't need a tow truck license…
If you pass a pickup truck on the highway carrying an overflowing load of bikes haphazardly strapped down you passed a professional bike thief. They are carrying a load of bikes from one town, often a college town, to another. If you've bought a bike from a Craigslist seller who turns out to have a dozen or more bikes locked to a rack, often on a college campus, you bought a bike stolen from a town down the road. But…
While that is probably a factor, most of those places seem more like the guy who raids all the neighborhood trash days to pick up free bikes that will be thrown away, fixes them and sells.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#74the real question is what colour it should be
It is a rack not a shed.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#75This introduces an element of temporariness into the fight between cars vs bikes parking. I think the issue needs to be dealt with at a fundamental level, do we as a country/city decide to use more bikes or cars? As far as I'm aware there has been a decisive victory by the cars in the US over the past 50 years mainly due to oil companies pushing for it and lobbying against public transportation. Using cars also pushes the boundaries of technological progress, anything that requires more technology (ie. cars more than bikes) will make the society more technological and will create more jobs in the technology sector. Even if the solution to transportation can be solved without as much tech, sometimes it may be desirable to create more tech for the sake of creating more tech and not because of necessity because there will be times when the same tech or expertise in tech can help solve an orthogonal, but existential problem. (eg. we don't need to have a space station but we do, ISS has allowed the creation of technological advances that have provided benefits to society on Earth in areas including health and medicine, transportation, public safety, consumer goods, energy and environment, information technology, and industrial productivity [0])
[0] https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Benefits-Stem...
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#76It would be useful for cities with colder and snowy seasons like Toronto, where between summer and winter bicycle traffic varies greatly.
These already happen to be implemented in Toronto as bike corrals which take up the length of just under two car parking spots. They are removed for snowy seasons and reinstalled in the spring. Picture: https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/903d-Parki... More details: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-tra... FWIW, I feel more confident in parking my bicycle in these corrals than I p…
We have those “corrals” in Cambridge and Somerville ma (USA) as well
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Atlanta we had one of our main highways collapse, I85. It was the exit after my place. Everyone adjusted and it actually forced people to ride the train. The train stations had to borrow parking spaces from businesses and schools. Everyone will adjust. On the first day it will be a disaster if it’s unexpected.
For years I commuted by train/bus to school/work until I could afford (the extra $200ish per month) to switch to driving to claw-back an hour of time I spent commuting each day. If traffic devolved to the point that I wouldn't be able to drive to work anymore I /would/ adjust, but I'd be generally less happy for it.
I’ve since moved houses and jobs. Both are impossible by train or bus.
They are putting bike lanes on about 40% of my commute but 12 miles each way is a bit of a stretch.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#78This introduces an element of temporariness into the fight between cars vs bikes parking. I think the issue needs to be dealt with at a fundamental level, do we as a country/city decide to use more bikes or cars? As far as I'm aware there has been a decisive victory by the cars in the US over the past 50 years mainly due to oil companies pushing for it and lobbying against public transportation. Using cars also pushe…
There is a chicken and egg situation with cycling and cycling infrastructure (as there is with any mode of transport). Any method that allows for incremental advances has got to be an improvement to the chances of increasing cycle usage.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#79Local governments (at least in the US) seem to systematically underinvest in experiments like this. Things like traffic congestion have a ton of weird, largely unpredictable positive and negative feedback loops. Seattle removed its waterfront viaduct from service for a couple of weeks before changing over to the new $3.3B tunnel and traffic was mostly fine, despite apocalyptic predictions of gridlock. It's not entire…
The locals in the US are militant against anything that reduces street parking in their neighborhoods. See 14th street bus lanes in NYC. https://www.amny.com/transit/14th-street-busway-lawsuit-1.33...
This, pretty much. Motorists can be extraordinarily vocal without realizing how extraordinarily entitled they are to be able to operate their motor vehicles in urban environments where accommodating those motorists has an extraordinarily detrimental effect on the community in terms of space, traffic, pollution, congestion, etc.
Not really a slight against motorists, I am one and never had this realization until I spent some time trying to use other modes of transportation. People are accustomed to being able to drive everywhere and that just isn't sustainable.
Re: A “bike platform” that temporarily swaps one car parking space for ten bicycles
#80https://www.denhaag.nl/nl/in-de-stad/verkeer-en-vervoer/fiet... Here's a bit more information on the things, in Dutch. They have 10 of them in Den Haag (The Hague), they are placed on a parking spot and left there for 3 months. Should there not be any complaints the thing will be removed and replaced with permanent cycle parking within another 3 months. The device seems to be free-standing and to rely on weight alone…
There's a similar project in Dortmund, Germany, but you can lock your bike inside it:
https://www.adfc-nrw.de/kreisverbaende/kv-dortmund/fahrradha...