How about a bicycle section here on SSC?

[thun]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

It is not (...)

E. g. in Milan a car has an average speed of 14 to 22 km/h (depending on the source you look at). In a city with a total flat geography, you don't have to be very sporty to reach similar average speeds on a bicycle. You don't even need a decent infrastructure (which Milan doesn't have), just passing along the queues at traffic lights is enough. The city doesn't even offer lots of shortcuts for bikers (through parks, etc.) or obstacles like narrow, curvy roads in the historical centre for cars, so bikers probably will use the same route as the car in most cases.
By the way, in Italy over 50% of car rides are less than 5 km long (and that figures includes all traffic in rural areas as well), a distance you can easily do by bike, too. If you take the time one needs for parking a car into account as well, you'll even end up at least almost as fast as a car on bike in cities where traffic is way less heavier.

[link_road_17/7]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

Biking, biologically, will make the rider sweat. Part of the success of biking culture in The Netherlands is related to the fact that people here (with absolutely no intention on me to offend the hospitable and nice Dutch) dress extremely bad fashion-wise, particularly the ladies, to make them comfort and so. I myself, a straight guy who don't care much about fashion, can notice that.

If people here, particularly women, used to dress like the Italian ones, it would be unbearable to ride to supermarket, office or so. The Dutch dress codes would be taken as "lousy" or "rundown" in Italy, and every office would have to have a dressing room, fully equipped so everyone could take a shower and put makeup before workday begins - then, it would be faster to take a bus or drive.

Haven't you heard of the Slow Bicycle Movement? Given direct, quality infrastructure, such as in NL, you need not 'race' or 'sweat' to achieve a reasonable journey time.

As for the women, I'd rather have a fittie with no clothes on, than some frump with designer tat covering up.

Luckily for me, in the time it takes from walking to my office to the car park space, I can actually cycle home.

[vudu_ekb]

Overview of bicycle facilities in Paris

image hosted on flickr

Shared bus lane on Rue de Rivoli.

image hosted on flickr

Along T3 tramline.

image hosted on flickr

Bicycle path on Boulevard de Rochechouart.

image hosted on flickr

Bike path on Boulevard de Clichy.

image hosted on flickr

2-way bicycle path.

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Bike path on Boulevard de Magenta.

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Bicycle counterflow lane on Rue Louis Blanc.

image hosted on flickr

Bike path on Av. Jean Jaures.

See all the photos here

[link_road_17/7]

Originally Posted by vudu_ekb

Overview of bicycle facilities in Paris

Would those be better in the MISC | Bicycle Pathways thread?

Come on Mods, when are we getting a Cycling Forum?

[vudu_ekb]

Thanks for the link! The structure of forums is so compex that I didn't notice that thread. Cycling forum would be very nice, I agree!

[Anton Dmitriev]

Originally Posted by Victory08

main disadvantage is slowness of its speed which is not compatible with the modern tempo of life.

It depends... If you're on a bicycle you won't get stuck in a traffic jam.

[DiggerD21]

Also finding a place to park your bicycle is often easier than finding parking space for your car.

[1+1=3]

This video went viral, nearly 1 million views solely on youtube


interesting explanation of the author
http://hembrow.blogspot.com/2011/07/...oes-viral.html

[1+1=3]

Dutch

[Suburbanist]

What a ridiculous video, full of self-righteousness of those who think they are doing a favor by biking. I wish all kinds of professional failures for such planners.

Never mind, Utrecht central area is pretty useless within the historical quarters, and commercial and office complexes are now located in new areas.

This is the problem of getting communist-inspired planners into city design. They think they have a right to dictate how people should move.

[Suburbanist]

Originally Posted by Anton Dmitriev

It depends... If you're on a bicycle you won't get stuck in a traffic jam.

But in a bike one human being, unless an extraordinary athlete, could never cope with a daily 60km commute (one-way) without being exhausted before work even started. And that is fairly common for people who have cars.

[julesstoop]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

What a ridiculous video, full of self-righteousness of those who think they are doing a favor by biking. I wish all kinds of professional failures for such planners.

Never mind, Utrecht central area is pretty useless within the historical quarters, and commercial and office complexes are now located in new areas.

This is the problem of getting communist-inspired planners into city design. They think they have a right to dictate how people should move.

You're stuck in some other era, it seems. Many European cities have started to follow this example, at least part of it. Not just small towns. Why? Because in our relatively dense cities, biking is a viable and healthy means of transportation for maybe up to eight out of ten trips from the inner suburbs to the city centers. Which - in case you missed out on this one - continue to be a large attraction to people for leasure, great food, pleasure, culture and shopping. We often tend to forget people are living there as well. By successfully reducing the use of cars, we make their lives a whole lot healthier (particles, NOx, etc..)

I live in such a town. I have a decent income and I don't ever need a car (I don't even have a drivers licence) Instead I get about just nicely with my bike and public transportation. If I take my town, Leiden, as an example, I guestimate that about 80% of the inhabitants of the municipality and maybe 60% of those living in the larger conurbation, should rarely need a car for anything else besides commuting (considering they all live within one to a few kilometers from a spot with shops and other interesting stuff).

Regarding commuting: many of us could do fine with public bikes and transportation. I can't see how you could be against this. It's healthier for people and for the environment. Those willing to live more rural or exurban are free to own a car and drive to a mall (ample shops, less culture). Or park their cars at some PT-transfer hub when they want to visit a city for something more interesting. I'm not against your lifestyle, please be so courteous as to not start name calling mine.

[Suburbanist]

I don't have a problem with your lifestyle, just with social engineering trying to oblige me to conform to your desires by:

(1) restricting the developed of less dense places in farmland. You need to be very rich to afford converting a farm into a residential property in this country
(2) restricting malls near highways
(3) imposing unacceptable fees for parking (Amsterdam is more expensive to park the car then Berlin, Madrid or Paris, which is borderline offensive - I don't like paying € 22 for 4 hours parking there like I did 2 weeks ago when taking my mother to visit the Anne Frankhuis, for instance).

I'm all in favor of building cycling paths separated from roads, etc. As long as people like you don't try to force things to be closer only to make cycling feasible.

And I could easily put more than 300 places you just can't get by reasonably with public transportation. It is your call not to have a driver's license, but it is something that seriously affect, for most people (probably not your case), the employability and the choice of places one can live regardless of place of work. Even if a country like The Netherlands. Try - for instance - living in Katwijk and working in - say - some place between Den Haag and Hoek van Holland and commute with transit.

Bikes will usually take longer for a commute than cars. Especially if you don't like to live near your workplace to keep your life separate (I'd hate to have my children meeting my workmates in the weekend, for instance).

[julesstoop]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

As long as people like you don't try to force things....

Sorry, but this is way out of line imho. Can you have a debate without feeling the need to insult me?

Edit:
Let me edit this: somewhat out of line, in my perception
I have great coworkers, by the way, and I'd love to have most of them closer by. I wouldn't want my kids to grow up in my self righteously invented bubble, either.

[postech]

просрали велосипедный спорт, когда можно было занять первые места в мире

[Alemanniafan]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

I don't have a problem with your lifestyle, just with social engineering trying to oblige me to conform to your desires by:

(1) restricting the developed of less dense places in farmland. You need to be very rich to afford converting a farm into a residential property in this country
(2) restricting malls near highways
(3) imposing unacceptable fees for parking (Amsterdam is more expensive to park the car then Berlin, Madrid or Paris, which is borderline offensive - I don't like paying € 22 for 4 hours parking there like I did 2 weeks ago when taking my mother to visit the Anne Frankhuis, for instance).

I'm all in favor of building cycling paths separated from roads, etc. As long as people like you don't try to force things to be closer only to make cycling feasible.

And I could easily put more than 300 places you just can't get by reasonably with public transportation. It is your call not to have a driver's license, but it is something that seriously affect, for most people (probably not your case), the employability and the choice of places one can live regardless of place of work. Even if a country like The Netherlands. Try - for instance - living in Katwijk and working in - say - some place between Den Haag and Hoek van Holland and commute with transit.

Bikes will usually take longer for a commute than cars. Especially if you don't like to live near your workplace to keep your life separate (I'd hate to have my children meeting my workmates in the weekend, for instance).

You're obviously forgetting that most european cities simply don't have enough parking space for cars. And are completely clogged up with cars. I live right in the center of Aachen for example, not a very big city, but even here in my street I often need to search for a parkinglot near my appartement for half an hour. So I started parking my car further out and only use it about once or twice a week. Anything else is just plain unpractical for me, since the house where I live doesn't have it's own private pakinglots.
improving bicycle infrastructure is a plain necessity in many cities to help reduce the problem a tiny little bit. Expanding parking spaces and enlarging streets is often simply impossible or utterly expensive and not affordable for the communities which are often drowning in debts allready.

[KingNick]

Suburbanist

If there's someone forcing stuff on other people, its car drivers. You're poluting the enviroment, block a shitload of public space, congest every major city and therefore make them less livable, kill other traffic participants on a regular basis, rather comute 120 km just to make sure your kids don't meet your co-workers (I don't even wanna know what businees you are in), but yeah, the big problem here is when you have to share the road with a bike.

Get the fuck out!

[NordikNerd]

image hosted on flickr

630
Bicycle sharing outside Gare du Nord. I don't know how it works, but you shouldn't use the bicycle for a long time or park it too far away from where you took it because that's expensive ? according to the Lonely Planet guide.

[Frank IBC]

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

...communist-inspired planners...

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

...social engineering...

Something tells me that you'd feel much more at home in Red-State USA than in the Netherlands.

Originally Posted by Suburbanist

I'd hate to have my children meeting my workmates in the weekend

Originally Posted by KingNick

I don't even wanna know what busine[s]s you are in

[italystf]

@ Suburbanist: do you work in a brothel or coffee shop?