4 ms·

I need max. 15 seconds to unlock the bike and start riding it. You say you can't be 30s faster on a bike than someone travelling at walking speed, even for shor

by dzorz 18y ago

I need max. 15 seconds to unlock the bike and start riding it. You say you can't be 30s faster on a bike than someone travelling at walking speed, even for short distances? I guess you can't only if it is 30s walking distance.

silentbicycle 18y ago
As a rule of thumb, people travel 4-5x as fast on a bike as on foot. (Hills, ice, etc. complicate this, of course.) Bikes are probably best suited to trips of about 1/4 - 10 miles, alone, with less than fifty pounds of cargo. (That covers more trips than many people realize.) Riding a bike three blocks is probably not worth the trouble, and riding fifty miles is (while quite possible) going to take a few hours.
khafra 18y ago
Nah, he's saying that trips are usually made in the company of one or more persons, and that those persons are on foot. Thus the total trip time is composed of unlocking, travelling at a walking pace, then re-locking. This is true, in my experience, but isn't a very good argument against making bicycles available to everyone for free. (alternatively, if you're rolling in dough, try something like the Xtracycle which can carry passengers and cargo)
- anamax 18y ago
  > This is true, in my experience, but isn't a very good argument against making bicycles available to everyone for free. The majority of college students who walk between classes have bikes, so why would the availability of free bikes change their behavior?
anamax 18y ago
> You say you can't be 30s faster on a bike than someone travelling at walking speed, even for short distances? If you're more than 2-3x faster than pedestrians, you're a danger unless you're separated from them, and bicyclists are rarely separated enough on a college campus. 1mph is 264ft/minute. Reasonable walking speed is about 3mph, or over 750ft/minute. A safe bicyclist will cover that distance in about 20 sec, saving at most 10 sec. Meanwhile, the walkers had a conversation. And, since students have 10 minutes between classes, the time saving of faster transport doesn't buy them anything even if they're going 1,500ft.. That's why students who own bikes don't use them all that much. They're only useful to/from campus and for long-hauls.
- silentbicycle 18y ago
  Agreed, though the to/from campus trips are worth keeping in mind. Also, bikes need more maneuvering space than pedestrians. Not as much as rollerbladers, though. (Don't get me started...)

by dzorz 18y ago

silentbicycle 18y ago

As a rule of thumb, people travel 4-5x as fast on a bike as on foot. (Hills, ice, etc. complicate this, of course.) Bikes are probably best suited to trips of about 1/4 - 10 miles, alone, with less than fifty pounds of cargo. (That covers more trips than many people realize.) Riding a bike three blocks is probably not worth the trouble, and riding fifty miles is (while quite possible) going to take a few hours.

khafra 18y ago

Nah, he's saying that trips are usually made in the company of one or more persons, and that those persons are on foot. Thus the total trip time is composed of unlocking, travelling at a walking pace, then re-locking. This is true, in my experience, but isn't a very good argument against making bicycles available to everyone for free. (alternatively, if you're rolling in dough, try something like the Xtracycle which can carry passengers and cargo)

anamax 18y ago
> This is true, in my experience, but isn't a very good argument against making bicycles available to everyone for free. The majority of college students who walk between classes have bikes, so why would the availability of free bikes change their behavior?

anamax 18y ago

> You say you can't be 30s faster on a bike than someone travelling at walking speed, even for short distances? If you're more than 2-3x faster than pedestrians, you're a danger unless you're separated from them, and bicyclists are rarely separated enough on a college campus. 1mph is 264ft/minute. Reasonable walking speed is about 3mph, or over 750ft/minute. A safe bicyclist will cover that distance in about 20 sec, saving at most 10 sec. Meanwhile, the walkers had a conversation. And, since students have 10 minutes between classes, the time saving of faster transport doesn't buy them anything even if they're going 1,500ft.. That's why students who own bikes don't use them all that much. They're only useful to/from campus and for long-hauls.

silentbicycle 18y ago
Agreed, though the to/from campus trips are worth keeping in mind. Also, bikes need more maneuvering space than pedestrians. Not as much as rollerbladers, though. (Don't get me started...)