i say swears online posted:

do bike people have acronym rivalries like Ford/Chevy

Pittsburgh Fentanyl Cloud posted:

Protected bicycle and pedestrian areas going great here



the city won't use solid bollards because they might harm drivers. Not joking, that's their stated reason.

mystes posted:

touring complete

nomad2020 posted:

I’ll bite, why can’t we make small trucks with a 4 cylinder anymore? A new Camry 4 cylinder would put what was in that S-10 to shame.

evil_bunnY posted:

You can buy a maverick, but they sell magnitudes fewer of those than the full size brodozing death machines.

Leroy Diplowski posted:

Run an Eccentric BB or if you don't already have a frame you're in love with ppl seem to like the all city nature boy. I had essentially this build (but not steel) for years on a specialized singlecross and it was probably the funnest bike I have ever owned. (May the bastards who stole it from my garage meet Jesus)

Right now I have my 26" maruishi touring bike completely disassembled and the winter project is to build a dynamo front wheel and an alfine igh rear with the micro shift thumbie so I can shift while wearing heavy gloves in the winter. And refresh every wear item on the bike. It's gonna be dropping like $1000 on a bike I paid $400 for but that's still less than a car payment. I've had this as my dream build for years so feels sweet to finally be working on it.

nomad2020 posted:

What I'm getting at is that a camry is just slightly larger than the 1984 pickup. I can't see a pickup body tanking the MPG that far.

i say swears online posted:

are dynamo hubs toggle-able, like can I only turn it on for downhills? i've never tried one but i've used a friend's electric vehicle and the auto-charging which increases rolling resistance is super disconcerting

if i ever do another crazy tour i was considering solar panels instead of a dynamo but don't know much about them

FirstnameLastname posted:

there's not much that can be done about since bc pickup beds have a pretty fixed shape and take up like half the volume of the vehicle - the biggest fix for the layout would be shifting the cargo to the front & putting the driver compartment in the back for a more efficient use of surface area, but lol at how bad people would be at driving something like that

cat botherer posted:

The resistance from a modern dynamo hub is unnoticeable. You're only powering efficient LED lights, as opposed to recharging batteries to run an actual motor. Many dynamo lights can be switched off, in which case the hub has like 1W more resistance than a regular hub. On, and a 3W hub maybe causes 5 or 6 watts of resistance. That's compared to maybe 150-250 watts that you might be putting into the pedals. It even is more insignificant in terms of speed, given that air resistance rises with the cube of velocity.

Like you wouldn't want it in a race or anything, but it's totally irrelevant when commuting. You might as well leave the lights on all the time. Dynamo lights remove the anxiety of light batteries dying, and they're so goddamn bright.

i say swears online posted:

FirstnameLastname posted:

the amount of resistance created by something like that would be a fraction of the resistance you'd get from jumping up one gear on 27 speed

you'd notice the weight & drag from solar panels more

FirstnameLastname posted:

there's not much that can be done about since bc pickup beds have a pretty fixed shape and take up like half the volume of the vehicle - the biggest fix for the layout would be shifting the cargo to the front & putting the driver compartment in the back for a more efficient use of surface area, but lol at how bad people would be at driving something like that

FirstnameLastname posted:

there's not much that can be done about since bc pickup beds have a pretty fixed shape and take up like half the volume of the vehicle - the biggest fix for the layout would be shifting the cargo to the front & putting the driver compartment in the back for a more efficient use of surface area, but lol at how bad people would be at driving something like that

FirstnameLastname posted:

most freeway fuel consumption is fighting aero drag

pickup bodies are inherently aerodynamically terrible

80s ford maverick coefficient of drag is 0.52, for reference a prius's Cd is 0.22, 09 Subaru Legacy wagon is 0.32, new Camry is 0.28, so it would be about doubled under otherwise identical conditions (same engine, gear ratio, tire size etc)

there's not much that can be done about since bc pickup beds have a pretty fixed shape and take up like half the volume of the vehicle - the biggest fix for the layout would be shifting the cargo to the front & putting the driver compartment in the back for a more efficient use of surface area, but lol at how bad people would be at driving something like that

quote:

more Americans than ever are consigning themselves to a car-defined existence by choosing to live in the suburbs. [...] For many, the main attractions of suburbia are lower housing costs and greater safety. Yet recent research sheds light on how cars are a crucial part of the equation, making America’s suburbs both impressively efficient and equitable.

quote:

Start with convenience. It is well-known that American cities are configured for vehicles, a process that began in the 1920s with the Model T. Car-centric urban designs became dominant throughout the country, involving wide roads, ample access to expressways and parking galore. To varying degrees, other countries have copied that model. Yet America has come closest to perfecting it.

quote:

In a paper released in August, supported by the World Bank ... a group of economists ... examined road speeds in 152 countries. Unsurprisingly, wealthy countries outpace poor ones. And within the rich world, America is streets ahead: its traffic is about 27% faster than that of other members of the oecd club of mostly rich countries. Of the 20 fastest cities in the world, 19 are in America.

...

It is not that American roads are better in and of themselves. Rather, speed is a testament to America’s love affair with both suburbia and smaller towns that feel suburban. Compared with those in other OECD countries, American cities are 24% less populous, cover 72% more area and have 67% more large roads. All this enables drivers to zip around.

...

Driving speed shrinks distance. One fashionable concept among urban planners these days is the “15-minute city”, the goal of building neighbourhoods that let people get to work, school and recreation within 15 minutes by foot or bike. Many Americans may simply fail to see the need for this innovation, for they already live in 15-minute cities, so long, that is, as they get around by car. Most of the essentials—groceries, school, restaurants, parks, doctors and more—are a quick drive away for suburbanites.

quote:

The car’s ubiquity has another rarely appreciated benefit.

...

A recent study by Lucas Conwell of Yale University and colleagues examined urban regions in America and Europe. They calculated “accessibility zones”, defined as the area from which city centres can be readily reached. Although European cities have better public transport, American cities are on the whole more accessible. Consider the size of accessibility zones 15-30 minutes from city centres. If using public transport, the average is 34 square kilometres in America versus 63 square kilometres in Europe. If using private cars, the difference is much starker: 1,160 square kilometres in America versus 430 square kilometres in Europe.

...

it is precisely such accessibility that has put larger homes and quieter streets within reach for a remarkably wide cross-section of the country. In his analysis of the census from 2020, William Frey of the Brookings Institution, a think-tank, showed that suburbia has become far more diverse over the years. In 1990 roughly 20% of suburbanites were non-white. That rose to 30% in 2000 and 45% in 2020.

quote:

Not that cars are a panacea. Owning or renting one costs plenty of money, and is an especially big burden for the working poor. It is therefore common to hear laments in American cities about the sorry state of mass transit. Yet this general perception, though widespread, is not entirely accurate. Even if primarily built for private cars, roads are a shared resource and can be viewed as the “tracks” for buses.

...

In their study Mr Conwell and his colleagues conclude that bus-based transportation in America is surprisingly effective: public-transit options between distant suburbia and city centres are roughly comparable in America and Europe. Although America could do more to improve its bus services within its urban cores, the crucial point is that cities designed for cars can also support mass transit.

Platystemon posted:

Putting the cab over the engine shortens the length of the vehicle, but it limits how small the frontal area can be, which is a bad tradeoff for fuel economy.

Nitrousoxide posted:

I see you haven't heard about cab-over-engine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kei_truck

gradenko_2000 posted:

The Economist: A Plea to Car Haters: Stop Hating Cars
How vehicle-dependence makes the country fairer and more efficient




credit to forums poster Microplastics

gradenko_2000 posted:

The Economist: A Plea to Car Haters: Stop Hating Cars
How vehicle-dependence makes the country fairer and more efficient

Pepe Silvia Browne posted:

i fuckin love opinion articles that are just "if you ignore all the bad stuff, pretty sweet deal!"

Clark Nova posted:

cars are pretty fuckin sweet if you view the entire purpose of society as running cars as a way to burn as much oil as possible

Pepe Silvia Browne posted:

i fuckin love opinion articles that are just "if you ignore all the bad stuff, pretty sweet deal!"

BonHair posted:

This is coming from the country that thinks capitalism is the best, on much the same grounds.

Clark Nova posted:

cars are pretty fuckin sweet if you view the entire purpose of society as running cars as a way to burn as much oil as possible

quote:

Friends and I did some tactical guerrilla urbanism and built a ramp we could use to go under the interstate. Years later…the city did it proper! Took WAY too long but seeing it come together was immensely satisfying.