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Car Hater posted:Paintball is the [redacted] of the projectile class of weapons. Yes, I am insane, thank you oh, I see, carry on
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Feb 8, 2022 19:54
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I've cycled around Munich, Frankfurt, Copenhagen, Salzburg, Sydney and Auckland. Munich was kinda meh to ride around, lots of roads but there were also plenty of off-road cyclepaths on the footpaths and it's pretty flat. The company I worked for had an enormous bicycle garage for staff and it was very well used even in the autumn months when I was there. Also had a good underground metro train system. Frankfurt was also quite busy with lots of roads and cars but again there were some good arterial off-road cycleways that were fine to ride on. I did have an old german guy intentionally block me when I was riding along the footpath at one point and admonish me that I had to be riding on the road, despite there being nobody else on the footpath and it being easily wide enough for the two of us. I did ride on the road briefly with a local and didn't feel like I was going to die, but it's not something I'd recommend for a child or somebody not so confident riding in traffic. Copenhagen was obviously pretty awesome to ride around in as bicycles are insanely common and their cycling infrastructure is great. It's super weird to walk down the street and see hundreds of bicycles parked along the side of the road. Definitely still plenty of cars on the road, but they're all so used to bicycles being everywhere that you get the feeling they won't intentionally try to murder you (just accidently). Salzburg I actually really love as a city, small enough to be nice, lots of history and interesting old structures etc. Good arterial cycleways and the places I rode around at least felt pretty safe (but to be fair I was mostly in touristy areas). Sydney and Auckland are obviously pretty lovely compared to the above european cities, but Auckland is probably worse than Sydney. Both have some level of off-road cycleways in the CBD and some along motorways going out through the suburbs, but the suburbs themselves are completely devoid of cycling infrastructure and there are plenty of busy roads that you'd be killed if you tried to ride. Auckland gets the award for being more shithouse due to the only bridge joining the north and south sides of the main harbor in the middle of the city not having even one cycling or walking lane, it's car-only. So if you want to cross the harbor by foot or bike you either have to take a ferry (costs money, doesn't operate in bad weather, limited bicycle spots) or go like 10 or 20km further around. There have been numerous proposals to extend the bridge to include a walking/cycling lane, including one absurd public-private partnership that would have seen the bicycles and pedestrians charged a toll to cross while the cars can drive over for free... Every proposal so far falls apart well before anything actually gets built because nobody in charge actually gives a poo poo. I think the most recent proposal is for a completely new bridge just for people and bicycles, which will inevitably be too expensive and not get built.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:00
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Yeah, I heard Auckland sucks, but at least there is a more recent attempt to improve its public transportation in a way you wouldn’t see in the states. Moscow can be decent for cycling (from April to October) if you know how to work it. However, biking in winter and on boulevards is pretty much impossible and you can’t take bikes on the metro. The public transportation system is fantastic but I really wouldn’t call it a biking city. That said, most huge cities are always going to br a mixed bag, I guess Paris is giving an attempt. Granted, biking versus living without a car are different things. I don’t know if they are that many great biking cities, but you don’t need a car in a lot of cities.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:17
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I found Toronto to be decently cyclable, mostly when it wasn't blisteringly hot, with a pretty good bikeshare network. So many of the streetcars there have to share traffic, and so many of the streets are defacto one-lane due to the absurd amount of onstreet parking, that cycling was more often than not the faster option. Vancouver is unfortunately much sprawlier and has a more limited (and worse) bikeshare system, so I haven't had the dubious pleasure of trying to cycle here, but the skytrain...the skytrain has my heart...
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Feb 8, 2022 20:30
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Ardennes posted:At least in Portland, I think it has been more talk than progress. I mean you can get around in some places in Portland, it just the drivers had gotten far far worse with the pandemic. As far as the title of best, progress on meaningful bike projects has been pretty lackluster for awhile now, and I think Portland's time as "the bike city" has been over for a few years. The city simply refuses to take anything meaningful away from cars. We did get some bus only lanes on a few routes that improved their ability to get out of downtown, but that's not much. There was talk of a very bold plan for the rebuild of the Burnside bridge but that got shitcanned to keep the car lanes. At the very least, there is going to be a concrete wall between the cars and bikes/peds now. I guess that's really the theme, minor improvements in places but nothing ambitious to greatly improve the quality of walking/biking anywhere.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:32
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Was walking across the street on a clearly marked crosswalk with the pedestrian light on and had a car nearly hit me and 4 other people while making a right-turn on red. The driver then proceeded to speed around us and flip us off. But it's ok dedicated and separated bike/pedestrian lanes (what little exists) are the real problem and sign of privilege in the US not rear end in a top hat drivers no sir.
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Feb 8, 2022 20:52
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Spazmo posted:San Francisco is also pretty dogshit for cycling, along the usual lines: the city talks a big game about vision zero, occasionally does expensive projects to build new bike infra, but it's still car hell, it's still dangerous enough to commute or run errands on a bicycle that many prospective new riders are scared to do it (and it's very hard to tell them they're wrong), the streets are crawling with overpowered F-150s and 1,000 HP muscle cars that value their right to turn right on red over your life. I think the overall walk/transit/bike story here might be a hair better than a place like Seattle, but I think that's because the city is geographically confined by the peninsula so it can't sprawl as much as Seattle or LA do, which means the distances involved are naturally more amenable to cycling or walking. It's not because Bay Area political leaders are any better than Seattle (definitely not, I think we're in the running for worst government in America) Paris is apparently going all in on bike/pedestrian friendly streets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sI-1YNAmWlk
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Feb 8, 2022 20:56
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Solaris 2.0 posted:Paris is apparently going all in on bike/pedestrian friendly streets. That is probably more discouraging than encouraging for the US though; we fundamentally don't have the right attitude about it, so it will literally never happen even though it could be accomplished extremely quickly.
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Feb 8, 2022 21:01
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Ardennes posted:Yeah, I heard Auckland sucks, but at least there is a more recent attempt to improve its public transportation in a way you wouldn’t see in the states. Maybe true, but I still weep at the lovely lib-brain half arsed public transport plans for the city. It's crazy to me that for the most populous city in the country there's now zero public transport to/from the airport (used to be an expensive private bus service but that's now gone thanks to covid). There have been plans thrown around by the current government about putting in more public transport but typical of our myopic 3 year election cycle brain politicians they're looking at 'light rail' (trams) pretending to be trains, instead of adding to our existing heavy rail system. This really is a pet peeve of mine having briefly worked in the rail industry. The length of the 'light rail' track they're looking to add is going to be about a 45 minute trip from end to end and be fully underground in new custom-built tunnels and new stations etc. 9 stations in 24 km length, three of which are connections to the existing heavy rail network. What they're describing is basically a metro train system, except 'light rail' was never designed to do that job. Light rail (trams) are designed to operate above-ground, mostly in shared spaces with cars and pedestrians and as such aren't designed to go very fast. They're also not designed for long journeys, people are supposed to be getting on and off frequently as stops are also supposed to be frequent, meaning they have a minimum of seated space and are supposed to be majority standing. Obviously the new light-rail vehicles would be completely different in gauge, signaling, platform design etc. to the existing heavy rail system and so neither vehicle could use the network of the other and people would have to change between the two part-way through their journey in a lot of cases. So why would the government select a vehicle being used in a situation well outside what they were traditionally designed to for, and which is completely incompatible with the existing heavy rail infrastructure while still requiring a completely new tunnel and whole bunch of new stations to be built at great expense? Well if you read the government's report justifying the selection you'll see that their initial down-selection process it was determined that heavy rail, light rail and light metro were the best options, but the main reasons I can see cited for not selecting heavy rail were: - It would be more expensive to build - It was assumed that freight trains would also be able to use the new heavy rail lines because they're able to use the existing lines, and that would cause additional disruption to services and noise to areas nearby to the lines (wtf, can't you just not allow freight onto the new lines?) So yeah, pretty much the reason I've heard in every case where light rail was chosen in a situation that would be better served by heavy rail in Australia and NZ at least. Governments want a cheap option that they can build quickly and deliver before the next election and heavy rail would cost too much and take too long. So instead they go with an option that doesn't connect to the existing network, can't use existing rolling stock, requires people to change between two different networks part-way through their journey and which is ill-suited to the travel times and distances because they're making it do something it was never intended to do.
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Feb 8, 2022 21:04
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lobster shirt posted:its basically impossible to have a good cycling city in the US because american drivers are insane and the mere sight of a cyclist causes a substantial number of drivers to become homicidal Before COVID, I didn't have ready examples of how ordinary things can turn ordinary people into unhinged lunatics. Bring up the concept of someone on a bike and people will cry for blood. I don't know what to do about that.
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Feb 8, 2022 21:10
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Wolfy posted:PBOT has been working on residential calming over on east side greenways as well. It's definitely not as extensive and much more recent than any of the areas closer in. I agree with you that it's a completely garbage and under developed bike network, that is ultimately confusing to use. I would say the big issue in East Portland is also simply a lack of sidewalks period and there is progress here and there, it still is far from what it needs to be to save lives. I think a part of it is expectation, back 10 years ago there was a feeling there was going to be major changes the way things worked but it never panned out. It is true there are a few projects here and there but they are often fragmentary. One example is bike lane from 12 to the Hawthorne bridge, it is nice theory but 12th as a whole is a mess and a danger to pedestrians but even if it you are going from Ladd’s to DT, it sucks and that is about how good it gets. Also, the beg buttons and their frequency really ticks me off, pedestrians shouldn’t be considered an afterthought especially on residential streets (bizarre). Blackhawk posted:Maybe true, but I still weep at the lovely lib-brain half arsed public transport plans for the city. It's crazy to me that for the most populous city in the country there's now zero public transport to/from the airport (used to be an expensive private bus service but that's now gone thanks to covid). There have been plans thrown around by the current government about putting in more public transport but typical of our myopic 3 year election cycle brain politicians they're looking at 'light rail' (trams) pretending to be trains, instead of adding to our existing heavy rail system. I agree completely, but if anything, the US is far worse about Light rail (maybe they got the idea from the US), since it is a way of doing a project the public wants…but really half assing it. In Auckland it is also weird because they are going to the lengths of tunneling for a system that is going to have limited capability and high travel times since the system also acts as a standard street car and they have been making an effort to improve heavy rail. I will say one thing that Aus/Nz is doing what the US refuses to do is electrify commuter rail lines, add connecting lines, and turn them essentially into heavy rail rapid transit. LA could if if wanted to Metrolink but it would never happen. Basically, you are being held by the more “American-like” parts of your investment strategy. Ardennes has issued a correction as of 22:07 on Feb 8, 2022 |
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Feb 8, 2022 21:50
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bedpan posted:Before COVID, I didn't have ready examples of how ordinary things can turn ordinary people into unhinged lunatics. Bring up the concept of someone on a bike and people will cry for blood. I don't know what to do about that. we simply must make all cars illegal
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Feb 8, 2022 22:07
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lobster shirt posted:we simply must make all cars illegal I would be okay with what Berlin plans to do for a start.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:08
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Had a real dumb driver try and pull ahead(past a stop sign) of another driver on an entry to a one way street (to share a give way sign with another driver) I just don't understand car brain Jestery has issued a correction as of 22:30 on Feb 8, 2022 |
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Feb 8, 2022 22:21
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Spazmo posted:San Francisco is also pretty dogshit for cycling, along the usual lines: the city talks a big game about vision zero, occasionally does expensive projects to build new bike infra, but it's still car hell, it's still dangerous enough to commute or run errands on a bicycle that many prospective new riders are scared to do it (and it's very hard to tell them they're wrong), the streets are crawling with overpowered F-150s and 1,000 HP muscle cars that value their right to turn right on red over your life. I think the overall walk/transit/bike story here might be a hair better than a place like Seattle, but I think that's because the city is geographically confined by the peninsula so it can't sprawl as much as Seattle or LA do, which means the distances involved are naturally more amenable to cycling or walking. It's not because Bay Area political leaders are any better than Seattle (definitely not, I think we're in the running for worst government in America) yeah sf mostly sucks to bike. too many cars and not many actual bike streets, and even ones that are still ostensibly have cars trying to retrace down streets they are meant to slow down cars in favor of bikes. everyone is angry and gotta go fast. it didn’t used to be this bad, I blame all the doughy white east coast transplants. as far as eu cities goes, Paris was decent 10 years ago and had bike share everywhere. it’s probably only gotten better. but parisians suck poo poo and city is a pissier version of sf. Berlin was actually great. bike lanes and paths everywhere; and transit ran 24/7 and convenient. also everyone was really friendly and things were cheap and very tidy Brussels had decent transit but felt too far brained. I liked the city but wouldn’t be my first choice. Italian cities are lol for biking, no lanes just tons of motorcycles/scooters/bikes/cars mixing all in one smushed lane and cars kinda doing w/e they want like just parking in the meridian of a street between planted trees. felt very anarchical London is also a big lol when I was there. I guess it’s be comparable to cycling in NYC. forget about all the other cities though smaller ones like Oxford or Cirencester felt decent
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Feb 8, 2022 22:34
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Shamelessly stolen from a thread in AI, some nice examples of EV infrastructure creeping into and taking over pedestrian space to solve the 'don't have a garage issue'Olympic Mathlete posted:The problem with a lot of these is at least here in the UK the planners are super loving lazy and install them on already street furnitured out narrow pavements. It's honestly one of the worst things about EVs in cities.
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Feb 8, 2022 22:49
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Blackhawk posted:Shamelessly stolen from a thread in AI, some nice examples of EV infrastructure creeping into and taking over pedestrian space to solve the 'don't have a garage issue' god we are just going to gently caress up every opportunity to improve things aren't we
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Feb 8, 2022 23:00
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I may have to start unplugging cars if they ever start putting those chargers in here.
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Feb 8, 2022 23:02
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is Minneapolis decent for cycling? or do I need to marry someone that can get me to the Netherlands
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Feb 8, 2022 23:26
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I may have to start unplugging cars if they ever start putting those chargers in here. walking round the streets at night with a supermarket trolley of lead acid batteries stealing electricity from the street spaghetti
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Feb 9, 2022 00:00
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Fitzy Fitz posted:I may have to start unplugging cars if they ever start putting those chargers in here. I think there are locks on EV chargers to prevent this very thing, so you’ll have to just aim a swift kick at them instead
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Feb 9, 2022 00:49
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Sphyre posted:I think there are locks on EV chargers to prevent this very thing, so you’ll have to just aim a swift kick at them instead Easier and more plausible deniability to just "bump into" it with your full weight while walking down the street
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Feb 9, 2022 00:51
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high voltage insulated bolt cutters. it'll fry the tool after a couple uses though if the thing is energized on second thought don't try this Dolphin has issued a correction as of 01:02 on Feb 9, 2022 |
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Feb 9, 2022 00:57
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Dolphin posted:high voltage insulated bolt cutters. it'll fry the tool after a couple uses though if the thing is energized lol
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Feb 9, 2022 01:53
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bi crimes posted:is Minneapolis decent for cycling? or do I need to marry someone that can get me to the Netherlands it's one of the best, if not the best in the US, though that's not saying a ton. there's a lot of new bike infrastructure proposed in the next 20 years, especially due to the Minneapolis 2040 plan. one big goal is for all bike lanes to have a physical barrier between it and cars.
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Feb 9, 2022 02:51
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Minneapolis and St. Paul made the amazing decision back in the late 19th Century to retain all lakefront land as municipal. Today, that means there is an amazing set of trails around the parks (plus along much of the river bluffs). This doesn't really scale for commuting in the majority of cases, but the Cities have been moving (at a snail's pace) toward making it safer to get around by bike. Like everywhere, plans for transit and bike lanes face a ludicrous amount of wailing and gnashing of teeth that delay projects and balloon costs, but there's an active urbanist/cycling community working to drive the cities forward.
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Feb 9, 2022 03:14
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Dolphin posted:high voltage insulated bolt cutters. it'll fry the tool after a couple uses though if the thing is energized I think car battery charging is limited to 800v at the highest and that's only for the Porsche Taycan iirc proper insulated electrical tools are rated safe for 1000v but that's supposed to be in conjunction with other PPE so if you're going to be cutting charging cords you should probably wear insulated gloves and a face shield in case an arc fault sprays you with molten copper
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Feb 9, 2022 05:10
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look I hate cars too but please don’t electrocute yourselves
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Feb 9, 2022 05:23
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Wolfy posted:look I hate cars too but please don’t electrocute yourselves
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Feb 9, 2022 05:25
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Ardennes posted:I never seen the spirit of a city die so quickly as Portland from 2015 to the present. but yeah portland has been amazingly shitted up real loving fast. i used to like it there in the 90s and wanted to live there at the time, but now, yikes. the actual only places ive been to that have been great for cycling are college towns, and usually ones that aren't adjacent to typical backed-up-stop-n-go trafficed freeway where psychos try to ratrace blowing through schools and lights to shave 3 seconds off getting back to their tracthouse
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Feb 9, 2022 07:49
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bi crimes posted:is there any large city in the US that is not horrible for cycling in? There aren't any us cities where cycling is legitimately good people itt will call me dumb as hell for saying this but when it comes to cycling as legitimate transportation — the ability to ride a bike from point A to point B in order to actually do things or reach destinations, rather than just riding along a waterfront bike path to have fun — new york is probably #1 in the US. The bike lanes are bad, and the bike infrastructure falls apart when you get deeper into any of the outer boroughs; but when it comes to thoroughness of the bike network, bike lanes on major roads and bridges, the density of bike share stations, and the AVERAGE speed of traffic, it's better than any other US city I've biked in there are places like boulder colorado that are ostensibly good for biking... everyone has a bike and there are beautiful roads with ridiculous mountain views, but otherwise the city laid out like a suburb and it's extremely difficult to accomplish day-to-day tasks on a bike Polo-Rican has issued a correction as of 17:12 on Feb 9, 2022 |
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Feb 9, 2022 16:06
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Xaris posted:yeah sf mostly sucks to bike. too many cars and not many actual bike streets, and even ones that are still ostensibly have cars trying to retrace down streets they are meant to slow down cars in favor of bikes. everyone is angry and gotta go fast. it didn’t used to be this bad, I blame all the doughy white east coast transplants. I have similar experiences when *visiting* places like Berlin or Paris (Berlin U-bahn and S-bahn are wonderful), but I'm curious what the day to day of living there is like. Berlin would be up there for me as well -- I have always had a blast when visiting Germany and Berlin especially -- but the place also has winter.
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Feb 9, 2022 18:32
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https://twitter.com/CyclingPhilly/status/1491049845171560449?t=MgmhWe0JxRakDW4UBNLRGg&s=19
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Feb 9, 2022 18:32
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https://twitter.com/teslaownersSV/status/1490909031204286467?s=20&t=uMsbuKtjvhUSC02RdbgSEw The techbro plan is to 0 out public / mass transit funding and instead shove all the cars into underground one-way single-lane tunnels. Brilliant. . . . . or I guess price it at like $500 per trip so only those making 1 million+ plus can use their exclusive tunnels. Which the Simpsons (as always) have already covered: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyJDoazw3fg
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Feb 9, 2022 19:52
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Solaris 2.0 posted:https://twitter.com/teslaownersSV/status/1490909031204286467?s=20&t=uMsbuKtjvhUSC02RdbgSEw "Oh, and don't bother calling 911 anymore. Here's the real number" and then handing over a card that says 912 made me laugh out loud. OG Simpsons was the absolute best.
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Feb 9, 2022 19:56
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Polo-Rican posted:There aren't any us cities where cycling is legitimately good https://twitter.com/StreetopiaUWS/status/1491409345103659013 counterpoint
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Feb 9, 2022 20:05
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Looks like some kind of grinder, for bikes.
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Feb 9, 2022 20:18
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Good job that drivers are always on the lookout for bikes right after they come off freeways also are pedestrians meant to be walking in the little pollution bowl in the middle? doesn't look very pleasant
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Feb 9, 2022 20:31
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rotflmfao a roundabout with a loving BIKE LANE on the outside? NYC's department of transport is straight up homicidal, there's no other explanation, they want to kill people.
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Feb 9, 2022 21:59
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Ardennes posted:I think it would be great if kids could take their bike alone (or simply be able to use one) but honestly the US is simply too nuts to do so. Did you not ride your bike as a kid? Kids usually rode on the sidewalks where I grew up it'd be different in the city though of course
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Feb 9, 2022 22:07
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