5 ms·

It's not a zero sum game. Improving bicycling also improves public transit and walkability usually because bicycles take up so much less room than cars so buse

by vhold 7y ago

It's not a zero sum game. Improving bicycling also improves public transit and walkability usually because bicycles take up so much less room than cars so buses have more space, and it's extremely rare for a bicycle to injure a pedestrian, but it happens hundreds of times a day just in the US alone with cars. Also bicycle infrastructure is way cheaper to build and maintain than car infrastructure. And even when bicycle infrastructure is totally busted for awhile, people find a way around, where as with cars if there is any blockage it becomes an incredibly high priority emergency.

briandear 7y ago
https://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=26394 https://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx... Most bike-car accidents are the fault of the cyclist, at least in Mountain View.
- bkor 7y ago
  I once made a mistake on my bike, I didn't watch properly and overlooked a car. Fortunately the car watched out and stopped. What's entirely strange is to blame one person and blame all the fault on the other. Accidents happen. What's great is to find ways to minimize them. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model
asjw 7y ago
In my 44 years on this planet, having traveled a lot in many biking friendly cities and living in one, the opposite is true. Cars respect pedestrian much more than bikers do As a walker I hate walking in Belgium or Berlin, where you have to share the sidewalks with bikes that usually go high speed, faster than the average car, don't look too much around them and treat pedestrian as obstacles (try to walk on a bike lane in Bruxelles or Berlin and wait for the biker to start a fight with you, it's not gonna take long) If you optimize you infrastructures for basically unregulated means of transport, you're just moving assholes from cars to bikes. At least when they are on a car they can be policed and fined. Bikes should share roads with cars, they have wheels, they are not pedestrian friends.
- bkor 7y ago
  > As a walker I hate walking in Belgium or Berlin, where you have to share the sidewalks with bikes that usually go high speed > Bikes should share roads with cars, they have wheels, they are not pedestrian friends. Biking is its own thing. You have walking speed, cycling speed, moped speed (or quick electric bikes), car speed. There are different speeds between them. They should NOT share the same space! Further, the bike lane should NOT be some crappy paint on the pedestrian path. It should be an obvious difference to any other form of transport. Having bikes which go 10-15 km/h share the same infrastructure as 45-55km/h just makes the accidents and the severity of the accidents go up like crazy.
  - wackro 7y ago
    Speed isn't the only issue. A lot of accidents in inner city areas are down to cyclists being in the blind spots of buses/lorries.

by vhold 7y ago

briandear 7y ago

https://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx?BlobID=26394 https://www.mountainview.gov/civicax/filebank/blobdload.aspx... Most bike-car accidents are the fault of the cyclist, at least in Mountain View.

bkor 7y ago
I once made a mistake on my bike, I didn't watch properly and overlooked a car. Fortunately the car watched out and stopped. What's entirely strange is to blame one person and blame all the fault on the other. Accidents happen. What's great is to find ways to minimize them. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_cheese_model

asjw 7y ago

In my 44 years on this planet, having traveled a lot in many biking friendly cities and living in one, the opposite is true. Cars respect pedestrian much more than bikers do As a walker I hate walking in Belgium or Berlin, where you have to share the sidewalks with bikes that usually go high speed, faster than the average car, don't look too much around them and treat pedestrian as obstacles (try to walk on a bike lane in Bruxelles or Berlin and wait for the biker to start a fight with you, it's not gonna take long) If you optimize you infrastructures for basically unregulated means of transport, you're just moving assholes from cars to bikes. At least when they are on a car they can be policed and fined. Bikes should share roads with cars, they have wheels, they are not pedestrian friends.

bkor 7y ago
> As a walker I hate walking in Belgium or Berlin, where you have to share the sidewalks with bikes that usually go high speed > Bikes should share roads with cars, they have wheels, they are not pedestrian friends. Biking is its own thing. You have walking speed, cycling speed, moped speed (or quick electric bikes), car speed. There are different speeds between them. They should NOT share the same space! Further, the bike lane should NOT be some crappy paint on the pedestrian path. It should be an obvious difference to any other form of transport. Having bikes which go 10-15 km/h share the same infrastructure as 45-55km/h just makes the accidents and the severity of the accidents go up like crazy.
- wackro 7y ago
  Speed isn't the only issue. A lot of accidents in inner city areas are down to cyclists being in the blind spots of buses/lorries.