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1. We still need a way to make deliveries, moving trucks, emergency services, and mobility for disabled people. 2. We will need to radically change how roads a

1. We still need a way to make deliveries, moving trucks, emergency services, and mobility for disabled people. 2. We will need to radically change how roads are weatherproofed, especially in winter-- snow needs to be cleared fast, salt/sand applications, etc...

vidarh 4y ago
You'd get far by consciously reducing the number of roads where cars have preferential access and high speed limits without banning cars entirely.
kennywinker 4y ago
Canada Post just started an initiative to replace their smaller package trucks with electric trikes. Electric cargo bike delivery is VERY feasible, for everything but inter-city cargo. Even moving vans - my brother used to work for a bike delivery company, and he was able to borrow an electric cargo trike to help my with my last move. It took two loads instead of the one it would have taken with a van, other than that it was entirely painless. Which is not to say that bikes can handle 100% of the tasks, but they can handle much more than you might think.
- PuppyTailWags 4y ago
  This will not work as well for eg. a thriving restaurant ecosystem, where whole animal carcasses and multiple pallets of produce need to be delivered. There are entire categories of stuff that cities need to thrive that bikes cannot fulfill. When I was talking delivery, I meant commerce-related delivery.
  - kennywinker 4y ago
    And commerce delivery is what the company my brother worked for does. This kind of trike: https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2018/01/10/rad-power-bikes-launches-commercial-division-and-electric-cargo-trike https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2018/01/10/rad... can handle about 700lbs. You can add powered trailers if you need more in a single delivery, and since they're cheaper than vans to buy and operate, sending two or taking two trips is an option. For probably 70-90% of commercial logistics within a city these will work fine. For the other 10-30%, yeah - we'll still need some vans and trucks around. Some serious rethinking of our needs and expectations around transportation is absolutely required if we're going to cut this climate emergency off at the pass. Businesses can still run fine if their deliveries come twice a day instead of once.
  - fknorangesite 4y ago
    > There are entire categories of stuff that cities need to thrive that bikes cannot fulfill. Okay? So still use the truck for the situations that need it. No one is suggesting just launching them all into the sun. This kind of objection is ridiculous.
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
Mobility for disabled/old people seems to have been the first to move to electric. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_scooter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_scooter With an aging population, these may be a powerful force for deprioritising cars in urban spaces. Particularly if pedestrians feel they're cramping their space.
Kim_Bruning 4y ago
If you're not already doing that, then yes you do. If you have just one mode of traffic ("everything is a car") , buses and fire-engines can get stuck in traffic, disabled people might not be able to park in front of the door, and delivery vans might end up blocking the road all over the place. Once you start splitting traffic modes and managing them separately, you'll find that deliveries, moving trucks, emergency services and disabled mobility are all examples of modes that you could be splitting and managing separately, to get them to their destinations as quickly and efficiently as possible.

vidarh 4y ago

You'd get far by consciously reducing the number of roads where cars have preferential access and high speed limits without banning cars entirely.

kennywinker 4y ago

Canada Post just started an initiative to replace their smaller package trucks with electric trikes. Electric cargo bike delivery is VERY feasible, for everything but inter-city cargo. Even moving vans - my brother used to work for a bike delivery company, and he was able to borrow an electric cargo trike to help my with my last move. It took two loads instead of the one it would have taken with a van, other than that it was entirely painless. Which is not to say that bikes can handle 100% of the tasks, but they can handle much more than you might think.

PuppyTailWags 4y ago
This will not work as well for eg. a thriving restaurant ecosystem, where whole animal carcasses and multiple pallets of produce need to be delivered. There are entire categories of stuff that cities need to thrive that bikes cannot fulfill. When I was talking delivery, I meant commerce-related delivery.
- kennywinker 4y ago
  And commerce delivery is what the company my brother worked for does. This kind of trike: https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2018/01/10/rad-power-bikes-launches-commercial-division-and-electric-cargo-trike https://www.bicycleretailer.com/industry-news/2018/01/10/rad... can handle about 700lbs. You can add powered trailers if you need more in a single delivery, and since they're cheaper than vans to buy and operate, sending two or taking two trips is an option. For probably 70-90% of commercial logistics within a city these will work fine. For the other 10-30%, yeah - we'll still need some vans and trucks around. Some serious rethinking of our needs and expectations around transportation is absolutely required if we're going to cut this climate emergency off at the pass. Businesses can still run fine if their deliveries come twice a day instead of once.
- fknorangesite 4y ago
  > There are entire categories of stuff that cities need to thrive that bikes cannot fulfill. Okay? So still use the truck for the situations that need it. No one is suggesting just launching them all into the sun. This kind of objection is ridiculous.

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

Mobility for disabled/old people seems to have been the first to move to electric. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_scooter https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobility_scooter With an aging population, these may be a powerful force for deprioritising cars in urban spaces. Particularly if pedestrians feel they're cramping their space.

Kim_Bruning 4y ago

If you're not already doing that, then yes you do. If you have just one mode of traffic ("everything is a car") , buses and fire-engines can get stuck in traffic, disabled people might not be able to park in front of the door, and delivery vans might end up blocking the road all over the place. Once you start splitting traffic modes and managing them separately, you'll find that deliveries, moving trucks, emergency services and disabled mobility are all examples of modes that you could be splitting and managing separately, to get them to their destinations as quickly and efficiently as possible.