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Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

forbes.com

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Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#751

Post by qball »

entropicgravity wrote: post #686
abricq wrote: post #172

This news literally makes me so happy. I can't wait to see it propagating around the world ! Riding a bike it better for your health, for the environment, makes cities much safer places, better for your mood as well & even better for your wallet. For people who have the chance to work reasonably close to their work, it's THE perfect solution. I bike to work every day since 4/5 years, in Switzerland. Since roughly 18…

I ride an e-bike and I'm very fond of it, but it's a transitionary solution. What will propagate in cities within twenty years is almost all EV's with covered roads (no poisonous gases) and 'cars' that take up a half of a current lane and can carry three people at most. The car market will split between 'long distance' similar to today's cars and 'city cars' that are tiny compared to today. This will happen because E…

>EVs can happily scale to a much smaller size than ICE cars can

No, they cannot; in fact, small size is their primary weakness. Compact car-sized EVs currently get about 200-250km of range at best- they're physically unable to carry enough battery power to make them viable. Gas-powered subcompact cars get 2-3 times the range of the comparable electric and have a significantly smaller TCO. They aren't an upgrade, and will never be an upgrade.

Where EVs shine is in the inherently energy-wasteful lifted station wagon (SUV/crossover) market segment that's overwhelmingly popular today (to the point where a significant number of manufacturers have abandoned standard cars entirely), mainly because those vehicles are big enough to hold the number of batteries needed to get a somewhat-competitive range with their similarly-sized gas counterparts. Yes, this means we burn even more natural gas at night to charge those land yachts up to the point it's kicking out more emissions than encouraging subcompact gas cars would, but out of sight, out of mind, right?

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#752

Post by amalcon »

ars wrote: post #539
uoaei wrote: post #392

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we taxed suburbs what they actually cost us as a society, no one would want to live in suburbs. The land use is abysmal compared to cities. Suburbs are effectively subsidized by the cities they are near, and those living in suburbs get off way too easy. That's a good thing if you have an extractivist, individualist mindset, but if we are to continue functioning as a whole society, something needs to give. We love…

If we actually tax them, it would be a negative tax. So many people don't seem to realize that without suburbs you don't have farms. Suburbs and farms produce all the things that cities rely on. You don't see heavy industry in the middle of a city. So we actually wanted to do your plan then cities should cough up way more money than they currently do.

Nonsense. Farms obviously predate suburbs, for one thing: nothing resembling the modern suburb could exist without steam power or something newer than that. There's never really been heavy industry in the suburbs: the modern suburb exists because people didn't want to live near the heavy industry in the cities.

The North American suburb, which is what we're discussing here unless I misunderstand, more or less came about in the post-war era. It would really be an extraordinary claim that farms and heavy industry couldn't exist in North America until the 1950s...

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#753

Post by unity1001 »

seadan83 wrote: post #656
glacials wrote: post #450

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. European cities were, in general, well-developed before the car was invented. US cities are built around the car. This means more space dedicated to parking, which means less space for homes and businesses, which means things are farther apart, which means people need cars. It’s a negative feedback loop.

I don't think this is quite true. To nitpick. My knowledge is that European urban planning was very similar and car centric until the late 60s. At that time things diverged, US stayed the course with car centric split zoning where Europe shifted away from car centric design and heavily favored mixed zoning Eg, in many US cities, it is illegal to have a bakery on the ground floor of an apartment building. Though, bott…

> My knowledge is that European urban planning was very similar and car centric until the late 60s

There was and is scarce 'city planning' in Europe because there is scarce planning that can be done. The majority of cities have emerged in the middle ages at the latest, and there is nothing that can be done to 'plan' them. Even for the peripheries (as they are called) this is so: They formed around the villages or remote settlements in the peripheries of the cities, so there was no planning there at all.

The closes that can be said to be built 'around cars' would be the urban construction of gated communities or high rises in the peripheries. But they still were not built around cars - those communities can still perfectly live within their own locale by having access to everything. The only difference that requires a car would be those people having jobs in the city and having to drive 20-30 minutes every day to the city and back.

> Though, bottom line, my point is US and EU cities were designed very similarly from 1940 until 1970

That is patently false.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#754

Post by sleepybrett »

raphaelj wrote: post #36

Somewhat unrelated to the article, but I live in a mid-size EU city and dumped my car for an e-bike a few months ago. Surprisingly, it hasn't been that hard (my GF kept her car, and I have a car-sharing subscription): Pros: - Immediately stopped having insomnia. Better feel overall; - about €300/month in additional disposable income. That's basically a free lunch everyday! - significantly faster if parking is taken i…

> - you will not kill someone if you ride after a night drinking;

You might kill yourself though.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#755

Post by syntheweave »

r00fus wrote: post #524
em500 wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most Dutch parents don't bother with harnesses in cargo bikes. Or with helmets on normal bikes.

If they don't have to deal with cars, perhaps it's ok - but yikes. Helmets for everyone because even at 20kph someone could get a nasty/fatal head injury when they're yeeted out of the cargo area.

It's all in a combination of infrastructure and riding style. If you're forced to ride with car traffic you have to go fast, which predisposes you to an aggressive road biking style. But if you do that then you also have trouble with stops and starts, which creates additional risk.

If you can go slower like a Dutch commuter, then you can also ride like them, using a step-through frame and a lower saddle. That keeps your center of gravity down and allows scooting starts. All of this adds up to a substantially smaller risk of going head-first in a fall.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#756

Post by dagurp »

rhaway84773 wrote: post #294
ghusto wrote: post #99

My main transportation vehicle for anything under 15km is a bicycle. I go through rain, ice, snow — doesn't make a difference to me, I'll be cycling. Yes, I've cycled through storms, can't see what the fuss is about really. I would still never cycle in London. It doesn't have proper cycle infrastructure, just some painted lines on roads designed for cars. You're taking your life in your hands there. The car drivers a…

Ice scares me. Rain and snow are not a problem. But I usually bike in areas with shared infrastructure with cars. I wonder if I would be less worried about ice if slipping and falling wouldn’t mean I will potentially get driven over by a car.

Get studded tyres, they work incredibly well.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#757

Post by rootusrootus »

qball wrote: post #751
entropicgravity wrote: post #686

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I ride an e-bike and I'm very fond of it, but it's a transitionary solution. What will propagate in cities within twenty years is almost all EV's with covered roads (no poisonous gases) and 'cars' that take up a half of a current lane and can carry three people at most. The car market will split between 'long distance' similar to today's cars and 'city cars' that are tiny compared to today. This will happen because E…

>EVs can happily scale to a much smaller size than ICE cars can No, they cannot; in fact, small size is their primary weakness . Compact car-sized EVs currently get about 200-250km of range at best - they're physically unable to carry enough battery power to make them viable. Gas-powered subcompact cars get 2-3 times the range of the comparable electric and have a significantly smaller TCO. They aren't an upgrade, an…

> Compact car-sized EVs currently get about 200-250km

What qualifies as compact? A Chevy Bolt will comfortably go 400km. More if it were strictly used at city speeds.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#758

Post by slifin »

gambiting wrote: post #506
novok wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol Tokyo and many other mega cities in the world are great examples how none of those things are actual barriers. London's issue is political will, because too many wealthy and politically connected people currently profit from the current status quo at the expense of the exploited supermajority.

Just saying "look at Tokyo" doesn't mean anything. How exactly would you change London to be more like tokyo? As the simplest question - which areas of London would you demolish to make room for high density Japanese housing? Alternatively, if you're going to build wide, how would you connect those areas with the centre, if building new metro lines is pretty much impossible in London for historical reasons? "London's…

On street parking is banned in Tokyo

When buying a car you have to prove you have access to a drive way

that's step one

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#759

Post by zip1234 »

scythe wrote: post #453
alkjsdlkjasd wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> - weather might make the ride unpleasant; As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. I would strongly recommond a pair of water/wind proof trousers to go over your regular trousers, if you don't already have some. This has lead to a much more pleasant riding experience, especially in winter. They aren't very practical on a regular bike as they make you uncomfo…

>As the Dutch like to say: there is no such thing as bad cycling weather, only bad cycling clothes. What kind of cycling clothes will mitigate a 40 C / 70% humidity afternoon in Memphis?

Memphis is full of underutilized 4 lane roads--remove 2 lanes and add a bike path + trees. The difficulty is that unless there is a bike network, it will get limited utilization. Need to build out a way to get places and people will use it.

Re: Cyclists now outnumber motorists in City of London

#760

Post by jjgreen »

emj wrote: post #722
_-____-_ wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cyclists on the pavement make me so angry. (Also, "pavement" means "sidewalk," for the Americans reading.)

Why be angry about it; they are just scared of cars like the rest of us, I live in a neighborhood where the cyclepath just merges into the pavement. The cyclepath actually continues on the pavement if you look at the papers. My point is that we have pretty heavy traffic of inexperienced cyclists, and I never have an issue with them. As a cyclist I avoid pavements, the are very seldom the best route anyways. I do unde…

I use the pavements to walk on, and I don't fear cars, they tend to keep on the road. In the UK it is a criminal offence to ride a bike on the pavement, and with reason: the elderly, small children should have some safe means of getting from A to B. If these selfish criminal cyclists are so scared of cars then they should get off their bikes and push them along the pavement.
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