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I got downvoted recently here for saying that Austin is not bike friendly and you'd be really lucky to live close enough to work (or wherever you're going) for

I got downvoted recently here for saying that Austin is not bike friendly and you'd be really lucky to live close enough to work (or wherever you're going) for it to even be feasible. Not sure what reality people live in where they feel safe biking in Austin. If you can afford to live downtown and you work downtown (which is a very, very small percentage of the Austin population) then yeah maybe you can bike to work, but like I said in my previous comment that is basically an edge case.

teslafire124 5y ago
That's depressingly accurate. US infrastructure is so bad.I went to Austin a month ago and there are a lot of highways outside of the main city. Biking along those roadways sounds insane.
twalla 5y ago
It does't help that the Google maps cycling directions are often woefully bad. I just put in my old (2 mile, downtown) Austin commute and the entirety of the suggested route was on streets I would never ride on for fear of my own safety, and my personal risk tolerance for these types of things is pretty high. There's protected bike line on most of 3rd street that can get you across the entirety of downtown and Google maps just ignores it.
prox 5y ago
I heard a few years back it the same for London, I do hope it has improved last time I was there.
- midasuni 5y ago
  I’ve ridden in centeal london over the last 15 years. The biggest problems have always been buses and taxis. Riding in 2020 when everything was abandoned was great. I was in a hotel near Blackfriars during the first lockdown, and rode along Oxford street, barely any traffic at all - it’s normally chock full of buses attempting to kill you. Ride confidently, take the lane, ignore the bus and taxi drivers who think they own the road, and it tends to be fine. Outside of london there’s a big problem with car drivers though - every year in the U.K. about 40 pedestrians are killed by car drivers while they are on the pavement, yet we continue to turn a blind eye to drivers who drive on the pavement, and even those who attempt to murder people with their car get off with less than a year in prison https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/dad-hurled-himself-over-3ft-5593822 https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/dad...
  - CalRobert 5y ago
    For any confused Americans, "pavement" means "sidewalk". (For Brits/Irish, "pavement" effectively means "tarmac" in the US)
  - prox 5y ago
    Is there a big movement like in Paris to make it more bike friendly? Own lanes and that sort of stuff?

teslafire124 5y ago

That's depressingly accurate. US infrastructure is so bad.I went to Austin a month ago and there are a lot of highways outside of the main city. Biking along those roadways sounds insane.

twalla 5y ago

It does't help that the Google maps cycling directions are often woefully bad. I just put in my old (2 mile, downtown) Austin commute and the entirety of the suggested route was on streets I would never ride on for fear of my own safety, and my personal risk tolerance for these types of things is pretty high. There's protected bike line on most of 3rd street that can get you across the entirety of downtown and Google maps just ignores it.

prox 5y ago

I heard a few years back it the same for London, I do hope it has improved last time I was there.

midasuni 5y ago
I’ve ridden in centeal london over the last 15 years. The biggest problems have always been buses and taxis. Riding in 2020 when everything was abandoned was great. I was in a hotel near Blackfriars during the first lockdown, and rode along Oxford street, barely any traffic at all - it’s normally chock full of buses attempting to kill you. Ride confidently, take the lane, ignore the bus and taxi drivers who think they own the road, and it tends to be fine. Outside of london there’s a big problem with car drivers though - every year in the U.K. about 40 pedestrians are killed by car drivers while they are on the pavement, yet we continue to turn a blind eye to drivers who drive on the pavement, and even those who attempt to murder people with their car get off with less than a year in prison https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/dad-hurled-himself-over-3ft-5593822 https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/dad...
- CalRobert 5y ago
  For any confused Americans, "pavement" means "sidewalk". (For Brits/Irish, "pavement" effectively means "tarmac" in the US)
- prox 5y ago
  Is there a big movement like in Paris to make it more bike friendly? Own lanes and that sort of stuff?