4 ms·

I used to live in Santa Monica and work in El Segundo. My commute by bike was 55 minutes and joyous, mostly. By car it was 50 minutes and horrible. The funny th

I used to live in Santa Monica and work in El Segundo. My commute by bike was 55 minutes and joyous, mostly. By car it was 50 minutes and horrible. The funny thing is that the only reason I took the car for a few months was because of injuries from getting hit by a car while biking. It’s not like cars have exactly been working well for LA. They’re slower than biking for a lot of trips. With a bike and the bus or train I often beat traffic during rush hour. Fortunately, LA has wide roads with many lanes and can repurpose them for other uses, if they want to. If you’re ever in the city for critical mass or CicLAvia I can’t recommend it enough. Best way to see the city.

AtlasBarfed 2y ago
E-Bikes and escooters are even more convenient. Sustained speed, easy acceleration, wind and hills have almost no impact, not as sweaty. The only way la pulls this off is with a gigantic conversion of streets to zero cars and e-bikes only. The other aspect that speeds up bike Transit in cities is that you can park far closer, typically and far more quickly than with a car. The sad fact is that in a city if you bike it isn't "if" you get hit by a car it's when. The only way to practically reduce that likelihood are totally separate dedicated pathways for bikes. I wonder if elevated lanes for biking is feasible, since you simply don't have to hold as much weight. Do we really need concrete and steel? Can we do it with Kevlar? In Minneapolis there are two major rail to bike path conversions and they boost the bike ability of the city by an order of magnitude over bike lanes adjacent to car lanes. The paths by the Mississippi River are equally effective. Cities simply don't have the willpower for such projects if rail or other park systems don't provide most of the work. I'm hopeful that the sodium ion battery revolution might result in near zero cost Urban personal transportation within large city limits, car Transit limited to fixed entry points. At some point I predict that a small e-scooter for a single person with a 50 mile range will cost under $50. That will probably require sodium sulfur technologies and maybe some solid state technologies. That scooter will be collapsible and easily carried to an inside point to be recharged.
- altruios 2y ago
  a 20 mile commute in cold 5:30am weather sounds not that great on an e-bike...
  - AtlasBarfed 2y ago
    It's like skiing. I was enthusiastically biking 5 miles to work in ski pants and parka and gloves down to about 5 degrees. I hated driving to work. It was actually colder, because the car is cold, doesn't heat up much, and it's cold walking from car to work. 20 miles would be a bit rough in the extremes... On a regular bike. But an e-bike? E-Bikes basically triple or more your functional range. But on a bike I was bundled up to a greater degree, and is bike right to the door of my work. I'd be a bit toasty even with the minor amount of exercise.
  - CalRobert 2y ago
    Fortunately we’re talking about LA here in the case of the Olympics. Incidentally Oulu, Finland is cold and has great winter cycling
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
operationcwal 2y ago
[flagged]
firesteelrain 2y ago
How many miles was that 55 minute ride?
- CalRobert 2y ago
  Twelve

AtlasBarfed 2y ago

E-Bikes and escooters are even more convenient. Sustained speed, easy acceleration, wind and hills have almost no impact, not as sweaty. The only way la pulls this off is with a gigantic conversion of streets to zero cars and e-bikes only. The other aspect that speeds up bike Transit in cities is that you can park far closer, typically and far more quickly than with a car. The sad fact is that in a city if you bike it isn't "if" you get hit by a car it's when. The only way to practically reduce that likelihood are totally separate dedicated pathways for bikes. I wonder if elevated lanes for biking is feasible, since you simply don't have to hold as much weight. Do we really need concrete and steel? Can we do it with Kevlar? In Minneapolis there are two major rail to bike path conversions and they boost the bike ability of the city by an order of magnitude over bike lanes adjacent to car lanes. The paths by the Mississippi River are equally effective. Cities simply don't have the willpower for such projects if rail or other park systems don't provide most of the work. I'm hopeful that the sodium ion battery revolution might result in near zero cost Urban personal transportation within large city limits, car Transit limited to fixed entry points. At some point I predict that a small e-scooter for a single person with a 50 mile range will cost under $50. That will probably require sodium sulfur technologies and maybe some solid state technologies. That scooter will be collapsible and easily carried to an inside point to be recharged.

altruios 2y ago
a 20 mile commute in cold 5:30am weather sounds not that great on an e-bike...
- AtlasBarfed 2y ago
  It's like skiing. I was enthusiastically biking 5 miles to work in ski pants and parka and gloves down to about 5 degrees. I hated driving to work. It was actually colder, because the car is cold, doesn't heat up much, and it's cold walking from car to work. 20 miles would be a bit rough in the extremes... On a regular bike. But an e-bike? E-Bikes basically triple or more your functional range. But on a bike I was bundled up to a greater degree, and is bike right to the door of my work. I'd be a bit toasty even with the minor amount of exercise.
- CalRobert 2y ago
  Fortunately we’re talking about LA here in the case of the Olympics. Incidentally Oulu, Finland is cold and has great winter cycling

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

operationcwal 2y ago

[flagged]

firesteelrain 2y ago

How many miles was that 55 minute ride?

CalRobert 2y ago
Twelve