5 ms·

In the US, It's practically impossible to move away from car-centric design. It's extremely difficult to add width to existing streets in city centers. But one

In the US, It's practically impossible to move away from car-centric design. It's extremely difficult to add width to existing streets in city centers. But one thing we can do is get more lanes from the street width we already have, by moving a significant portion of commuter traffic to tiny cars like this. Incentivizing cars like these seems like the only large-scale mitigation for congestion.

Karrot_Kream 3y ago
The American regulatory environment only knows how to work with larger vehicles. You can follow Arcimoto's journey on having to classify their vehicles as motorcycles to see an example. Another victim of American car centrism.
BirdieNZ 3y ago
Get just a little smaller, and dedicate a (grade-separated) lane to them, and you have bicycles in a bike lane.
- conductr 3y ago
  I think bikes are a tough sell to most Americans for one uncontrollable variable called weather. Then you have effort and sweat and then you’ve eliminated most of the others as well.
  - dairylee 3y ago
    Other countries also have weather and they seem to cope ok with it. Obviously there are some extremes which can make it unpleasant but for the most part the weather isn't as big a deal as it's made out to be when it comes to cycling. E-bikes mostly solve the effort and sweat aspect. But that introduces a larger entry cost. I'd say distance is the biggest factor preventing it taking off in the US (Outside of Cities). A mixture of cycling + transit could solve the longer distances.
    - leoedin 3y ago
      Honestly, as someone who's commuted 10s of thousands of miles by bike, I disagree. Weather (well, rain and snow) is absolutely a big deal when cycling. Cycling in cold is OK, cycling in freezing rain is absolutely horrible. You can get around this somewhat with waterproof gear, but then you have to spend 20 minutes getting changed at either end. Even in "rainy" London, it's only a small fraction of days that are like that. But you need a solution for those days, too. Cycling is an excellent mode of transport in cities, but it's not perfect. Some sort of covered bike or micro-car would solve some of those problems.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - prmoustache 3y ago
        Every time someone mention this, I look at which days in a year I really had to use protective gear and I can count with the fingers of my hand. Most rainy days it doesn't even rain all day and you often end up lucky during your transit time with a few small drops. And the solution is easy: a bike with full length fenders, a poncho, some gloves, possibly some change in an hermetic bag. Also rain in summer is not an issue, sometimes it is even pleasant and refreshing. And you probably also forget that in most motorists case, they don't all have the change to have an indoor parking both at home and at the office / place they do errands. Most need to walk from home to parking space then from parking space to office/shop...and get soaked in the process.
        DANmode 3y ago
        California?
  - Gordonjcp 3y ago
    Weather doesn't seem to be a problem in the Netherlands, although down south at 52°N they get slightly milder weather than here in Scotland, where pretty much every city is rolling out huge improvements in cycling infrastructure. You're not made of sugar. You won't melt in the rain.
    - conductr 3y ago
      > You're not made of sugar. You won't melt in the rain. Majority of Americans will disagree is what I'm saying. We're used to climate controlled boxes, this allows people do get dressed up for things and wear a bunch of make-up/hair product, etc. Not everyone, but a majority. Culturally, when I travel it's a thing that I notice a lot. Other places that use bikes and have that cultural norm, they also tend to normalize the other dress code parts that go along with it. In US, it would be a tough sell because we have nearly no basis for this concept. Even people that go to a gym tend to shower and change clothes (including grooming) prior to doing anything else social/work related.
  - rbanffy 3y ago
    Bike lanes are popular here in Ireland and, boy, let’s talk about weather… Now, seriously, we don’t get much snow (to the point 10cm halts a city) but we do more than a fair share of cold rain and gusty wind.
- alanbernstein 3y ago
  I'm a dedicated cyclist. But the switch from mini-car to bike is the switch away from car-centric design, which many people simply won't do.
op00to 3y ago
Instead of tiny cars, what about really big cars. That can hold many people. And maybe travel along a set route. On a schedule of sorts.
- mavhc 3y ago
  Travelling along a set route on a schedule would be annoying, why not dynamically create the route and time based on the current requests of potential passengers? If 100 people want to go from A to B, send a bus, if 5, a car, if 1000, a train
  - op00to 3y ago
    I've been on one of those elevators. They never work well.
    - mavhc 3y ago
      Because it's software written by hardware people, Uber works fine

Karrot_Kream 3y ago

The American regulatory environment only knows how to work with larger vehicles. You can follow Arcimoto's journey on having to classify their vehicles as motorcycles to see an example. Another victim of American car centrism.

BirdieNZ 3y ago

Get just a little smaller, and dedicate a (grade-separated) lane to them, and you have bicycles in a bike lane.

conductr 3y ago
I think bikes are a tough sell to most Americans for one uncontrollable variable called weather. Then you have effort and sweat and then you’ve eliminated most of the others as well.
- dairylee 3y ago
  Other countries also have weather and they seem to cope ok with it. Obviously there are some extremes which can make it unpleasant but for the most part the weather isn't as big a deal as it's made out to be when it comes to cycling. E-bikes mostly solve the effort and sweat aspect. But that introduces a larger entry cost. I'd say distance is the biggest factor preventing it taking off in the US (Outside of Cities). A mixture of cycling + transit could solve the longer distances.
  - leoedin 3y ago
    Honestly, as someone who's commuted 10s of thousands of miles by bike, I disagree. Weather (well, rain and snow) is absolutely a big deal when cycling. Cycling in cold is OK, cycling in freezing rain is absolutely horrible. You can get around this somewhat with waterproof gear, but then you have to spend 20 minutes getting changed at either end. Even in "rainy" London, it's only a small fraction of days that are like that. But you need a solution for those days, too. Cycling is an excellent mode of transport in cities, but it's not perfect. Some sort of covered bike or micro-car would solve some of those problems.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - prmoustache 3y ago
      Every time someone mention this, I look at which days in a year I really had to use protective gear and I can count with the fingers of my hand. Most rainy days it doesn't even rain all day and you often end up lucky during your transit time with a few small drops. And the solution is easy: a bike with full length fenders, a poncho, some gloves, possibly some change in an hermetic bag. Also rain in summer is not an issue, sometimes it is even pleasant and refreshing. And you probably also forget that in most motorists case, they don't all have the change to have an indoor parking both at home and at the office / place they do errands. Most need to walk from home to parking space then from parking space to office/shop...and get soaked in the process.
      - DANmode 3y ago
        California?
- Gordonjcp 3y ago
  Weather doesn't seem to be a problem in the Netherlands, although down south at 52°N they get slightly milder weather than here in Scotland, where pretty much every city is rolling out huge improvements in cycling infrastructure. You're not made of sugar. You won't melt in the rain.
  - conductr 3y ago
    > You're not made of sugar. You won't melt in the rain. Majority of Americans will disagree is what I'm saying. We're used to climate controlled boxes, this allows people do get dressed up for things and wear a bunch of make-up/hair product, etc. Not everyone, but a majority. Culturally, when I travel it's a thing that I notice a lot. Other places that use bikes and have that cultural norm, they also tend to normalize the other dress code parts that go along with it. In US, it would be a tough sell because we have nearly no basis for this concept. Even people that go to a gym tend to shower and change clothes (including grooming) prior to doing anything else social/work related.
- rbanffy 3y ago
  Bike lanes are popular here in Ireland and, boy, let’s talk about weather… Now, seriously, we don’t get much snow (to the point 10cm halts a city) but we do more than a fair share of cold rain and gusty wind.
alanbernstein 3y ago
I'm a dedicated cyclist. But the switch from mini-car to bike is the switch away from car-centric design, which many people simply won't do.

op00to 3y ago

Instead of tiny cars, what about really big cars. That can hold many people. And maybe travel along a set route. On a schedule of sorts.

mavhc 3y ago
Travelling along a set route on a schedule would be annoying, why not dynamically create the route and time based on the current requests of potential passengers? If 100 people want to go from A to B, send a bus, if 5, a car, if 1000, a train
- op00to 3y ago
  I've been on one of those elevators. They never work well.
  - mavhc 3y ago
    Because it's software written by hardware people, Uber works fine