Cycling is more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities • Hacker News Board

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

#761

Post by disgruntledphd2 » Sun, Apr 11, 2021, 7:58 AM UTC

rtlfe wrote: post #704

thehappypm wrote: post #662

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What are the main problems you think of local government? I'm curious what the perception is in Europe. American cities aren't the pretty, walkable, public-transit oriented cities you have in Europe but that doesn't mean they're failures either.

I shared this link in a sibling comment, but here it is again: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/neighborhood-defenders/... A big problem is that local governments place a lot of weight on "community input," but the people giving input don't accurately reflect the community. People who show up to meetings tend to be strongly opposed to change and fit into demographic groups that have a lot of free time, i.e. older…

This is kinda how democracy works, in all it's terrible glory. Apply your same logic to national elections, and you are essentially saying that the votes of some people should be worth less, and others more.

I don't disagree with you that this happens, but I'm not sure that removing the local democratic infrastructure is the right way to solve this problem.

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

#762

Post by orthoxerox » Mon, Apr 12, 2021, 2:05 PM UTC

Ygg2 wrote: post #703

orthoxerox wrote: post #634

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take a train? Rent a car?

No train there. Rent a car? We're back to square one.

We're not back to square one, as you won't need a rental car every day.

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

#763

Post by u801e » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 1:43 AM UTC

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #746

u801e wrote: post #730

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have any statistics to back up your assertion that faster traffic does not change lanes to pass a cyclist taking the lane where taking the lane is defined as riding between the center of the lane and left your track? One experiment [1] demonstrated that motorists consistently changed lanes to pass when cyclists rode in the position I described. [1] https://iamtraffic.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/BicyclistP..…

Do you ride a bike? You wouldn't say such total nonsense if you rode a bike.

I do ride at least 1000 miles a year on roads with traffic speeds ranging from 0 to 50 mph. I've been doing this for over 15 years at this point and my personal experience matches up with the results of that experiment I linked to in my previous comment.

Do you cycle? Do you ride in the primary position that I described earlier by default?

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

#764

Post by eythian » Tue, Apr 13, 2021, 9:46 AM UTC

temp8964 wrote: post #660

eythian wrote: post #657

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You dress up better. For the past several years, biking was the only way I went to work, the only exception being if my bike was in the shop for repairs when I'd take public transport. You'll notice that regardless of the weather, people bike. Chuck some rain pants and a rain coat on, or carry an umbrella, or get a bike poncho thing, or all of the above. It's not hard. If it's seriously shitty weather, the public tra…

You are only thinking the situation where biking is a minority choice. If you want biking become a choice for most people, these solutions do not work.

Huh? I'm literally thinking of the opposite. I'm describing where I live, which is somewhere where biking is not really a minority choice, it's what most people do.