3 ms·

Nothing wrong with driving. Just drive appropriately. Car sharing. Taxi / Uber. Hybrids. Electric cars. Self driving cars. The freedom to transport yours

Nothing wrong with driving. Just drive appropriately. Car sharing. Taxi / Uber. Hybrids. Electric cars. Self driving cars. The freedom to transport yourself is a powerful force for good, and socialized public transport and bikes are not a real solution in many / most places. (am a biker, love biking, only commute by bike to work 3 months of the year)

yason 9y ago
Driving with shared cars, Uber, hybrids, evs, and self-driving cars doesn't fix the one and ultimate problem with cars in cities: space. A person walking needs maybe 0.5m². Self-driving electric Uber still needs ~50-60 m² of space per vehicle in moving traffic. Plus parking. And if we allocate enough space for people to drive in the first place they can only drive to places. The distances grow too long for biking and walking.
ufo 9y ago
Cheaper taxis and self driving cars should reduce the need for parking space but I would expect that it would result in more cars using the road overall.
photojosh 9y ago
> (am a biker, love biking, only commute by bike to work 3 months of the year) Living somewhere where I commute by bike (or run!) every single workday, I'm curious as to what limits you to 3 months.
- keerthiko 9y ago
  Weather. Boston for example has three months that the casual commuter would find tolerable.
  - pen2l 9y ago
    But that's not because of the weather, but rather what the conditions are of the bike infrastructure in that weather. I think Amsterdam weather isn't very substantially different from Boston's... but in Boston winter weather bike lanes are practically un-existent when snow-plowing trucks have cleared the snow for cars to the area where bike lane would be (if it even exists to begin with). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate
    - photojosh 9y ago
      Thanks for the info. I can imagine you do NOT want to share the roads with cars in those conditions.

yason 9y ago

Driving with shared cars, Uber, hybrids, evs, and self-driving cars doesn't fix the one and ultimate problem with cars in cities: space. A person walking needs maybe 0.5m². Self-driving electric Uber still needs ~50-60 m² of space per vehicle in moving traffic. Plus parking. And if we allocate enough space for people to drive in the first place they can only drive to places. The distances grow too long for biking and walking.

ufo 9y ago

Cheaper taxis and self driving cars should reduce the need for parking space but I would expect that it would result in more cars using the road overall.

photojosh 9y ago

> (am a biker, love biking, only commute by bike to work 3 months of the year) Living somewhere where I commute by bike (or run!) every single workday, I'm curious as to what limits you to 3 months.

keerthiko 9y ago
Weather. Boston for example has three months that the casual commuter would find tolerable.
- pen2l 9y ago
  But that's not because of the weather, but rather what the conditions are of the bike infrastructure in that weather. I think Amsterdam weather isn't very substantially different from Boston's... but in Boston winter weather bike lanes are practically un-existent when snow-plowing trucks have cleared the snow for cars to the area where bike lane would be (if it even exists to begin with). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amsterdam#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston#Climate
  - photojosh 9y ago
    Thanks for the info. I can imagine you do NOT want to share the roads with cars in those conditions.