Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together • Hacker News Board

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#71

Post by Tade0 » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:27 PM UTC

robomartin wrote: post #46

lonelyasacloud wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Climate and terrain aren't that big a deal. Single biggest impediment to cycling is the how likely people are to be maimed or killed by drivers.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2021/09/cycling-injuries-three... From the article: "VeiligheidNL estimates that there were actually some 80,000 injuries of which 50,000 were serious." And, of course, the idea of biking and the reality of it are quite different things: https://www.bikelaw.com/2019/05/amsterdam-not-cycling-paradi... I love how people tend to have this impulse to reduce reality to a single variable: Bike…

FTA:

> Often a faster biker would pass within millimeters to get by me as I pedaled in an already narrow bike lane.

This is the number one thing I hate about mixing sidewalks with bike paths, but it appears it's also an issue on the latter.

Anyway this figure representing the fraction of trips done by bike in the Netherlands is interesting in context:

https://www2.deloitte.com/xe/en/insights/focus/future-of-mob...

Looking at the modal split for Amsterdam and Rotterdam, people still drive cars as much as in other European cities, it's just that cycling has replaced walking and public transport.

Frankly I don't see the benefit here.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#72

Post by toomuchtodo » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:29 PM UTC

soared wrote: post #55

toomuchtodo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knoxville and Nashville have walkable potential in the core, and of course Asheville, NC, but outside of that, the south is as you said very pedestrian unfriendly.

Oddly enough I’m in Chattanooga and going to Knoxville tomorrow. I’ll find out :)

I highly recommend the UT Gardens, the Sunsphere, Remedy Coffee, and Yassin’s Falafel House if you’re looking for suggestions. Enjoy!

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#73

Post by jseban » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:33 PM UTC

enriquto wrote: post #62

jseban wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cycling is the primary mode of transportation in their city centers. It's not when there's cold rain in the winter, guarantee it.

I think the worse is rain in hot summer. You'll end up soaked whether you cover or not. Winter rain is OK, you just need appropriate clothing. Source: I cycle during the whole year, and sub-zero temperatures are not a problem at all (for a couple of weeks at most in my latitude, but still), even if it rains.

I disagree, it's a very real annoying problem to dress your whole body in both warm and waterproof clothes, and even if you like it, most people don't. And it is objectively, relatively, much less convenient and much less comfortable than the alternatives of a bus/subway.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#74

Post by VBprogrammer » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:34 PM UTC

ResearchCode wrote: post #66

doctorhandshake wrote: post #20

Yet another example of how Barcelona feels societally futuristic in some ways. For a couple more - they were way ahead of the curve (at least from an American perceptive) on superblocks[1] and they have centralized vacuum municipal trash collection[2] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-r... [2] https://enviropaul.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/all-the-garbage-...

It feels more dystopian than futuristic. There are countries where children don't have to commute in large groups to avoid crime.

I think the safety is to do with road traffic rather than deliberate criminality.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#75

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:34 PM UTC

ResearchCode wrote: post #66

doctorhandshake wrote: post #20

Yet another example of how Barcelona feels societally futuristic in some ways. For a couple more - they were way ahead of the curve (at least from an American perceptive) on superblocks[1] and they have centralized vacuum municipal trash collection[2] [1] https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2016/may/17/superblocks-r... [2] https://enviropaul.wordpress.com/2016/03/22/all-the-garbage-...

It feels more dystopian than futuristic. There are countries where children don't have to commute in large groups to avoid crime.

[deleted]

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#76

Post by jseban » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:35 PM UTC

AlotOfReading wrote: post #69

jseban wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Cycling is the primary mode of transportation in their city centers. It's not when there's cold rain in the winter, guarantee it.

You should probably tell the Dutch that they don't cycle in the rain. Over 1/3rd of days are rainy in the Netherlands on average and yet they somehow manage to put on their ponchos.

I would love to see the difference in bike use in the Netherlands relative to the weather, I bet only a small fraction will use the bike in bad weather conditions and they will need capacity in public transport to cover for these days.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#77

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:36 PM UTC

VBprogrammer wrote: post #74

ResearchCode wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels more dystopian than futuristic. There are countries where children don't have to commute in large groups to avoid crime.

I think the safety is to do with road traffic rather than deliberate criminality.

[deleted]

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#78

Post by stevenwoo » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:40 PM UTC

inglor_cz wrote: post #3

It is my experience that two things correlate positively with widespread adoption of biking: a. Relatively flat city terrain. (Not the case in Prague, for example; a lot of the residential areas are at much higher elevation than the city centre.) b. Moderate temperatures at both ends of the summer-winter scale. Most people won't bike to work at -20 or +35 Celsius.

I've been in Barcelona during a summer month during a heat wave. People still biked and walked, many of the streets and paths will be shaded at least on one side by the three to five story buildings on most streets except when the sun is directly overhead, and down the middle of some boulevards there are some very generously wide paths and trees providing shade. It's a very different experience from Houston which is pancake flat by comparison to Barcelona, Barcelona actually has hills.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#79

Post by enriquto » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:42 PM UTC

jseban wrote: post #73

enriquto wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the worse is rain in hot summer. You'll end up soaked whether you cover or not. Winter rain is OK, you just need appropriate clothing. Source: I cycle during the whole year, and sub-zero temperatures are not a problem at all (for a couple of weeks at most in my latitude, but still), even if it rains.

I disagree, it's a very real annoying problem to dress your whole body in both warm and waterproof clothes, and even if you like it, most people don't. And it is objectively, relatively, much less convenient and much less comfortable than the alternatives of a bus/subway.

> much less convenient and much less comfortable than the alternatives of a bus/subway

This is quite subjective... For one, I've commuted by bus+subway for most of my life, in three different European cities (Lisbon, Barcelona and Paris). Two years ago I had a sort of epiphany looking at the bike lane that followed the same path as my crowded bus. I bought a bike, in order to "try" the bike commute, and I've never looked back since. Even some days with hard weather, I prudently walk to the bus stop, and then say "no shit" and walk back home to pick my bike.

Thus I politely disagree with you that it is "much less convenient", at least for everybody.

Re: Barcelona’s Bicibús: hundreds of families biking to school together

#80

Post by tpm » Sun, Oct 24, 2021, 6:43 PM UTC

jseban wrote: post #67

tpm wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's solved when you live very close to subway station and it goes everywhere you need. So not a lot of times in many cities.

Yeah well, in this example and many similar big cities in europe, you have subway and buses that will take you to any street corner. Sure, in a small town in australia or the US, not the case, but I highly doubt bike lanes will be any viable alternative there anyway. My point is that it's not a good idea to expand bike lanes in big city centers where you already have public transport, especially not in places that do…

> My point is that it's not a good idea to expand bike lanes in big city centers where you already have public transport

I don't know what is your background, but many cities are doing it and it's not only about enabling bikes but also to disable passenger cars, and the main reason is it makes the places more livable and enjoyable: it's quieter, the air is cleaner, the streets are safer, people actually spend more time outside. So this is a practical solution to a problem people have: noise, pollution, loss of public space to car infrastructure.