What happens when a city bans cars from its streets?

Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by enoch_r on Wednesday October 16, 2019 @09:15PM (#21278027)

1. It seems to me that all the photos are of roughly "maximum congestion" of each vehicle type. So the cars are pictured as if they're stopped at a light or in heavy traffic, while if they we traveling at 50mph I'd hope for much, much more following distance. So yes, the bikes would have somewhat more distance between them if they were moving, but that seems fair to me, as the cars would too.

2. I don't want cars to pass me within a few feet. That doesn't mean I feel unsafe when riding within that same distance of other cyclists. The relative speed is much lower, the mass is much lower, etc. Similarly, I will happily ride much closer to an immobile object (e.g. a curb) than I would like someone to pass me at 40mph. So I think the space taken up by a moving bicycle is larger than the bike itself, sure, but absolutely no way is it anywhere close to the size of a car plus following distance plus safety buffer.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Silhouette on Thursday October 17, 2019 @04:42PM (#21286184)

So yes, the bikes would have somewhat more distance between them if they were moving, but that seems fair to me, as the cars would too.

Right. But proportionately, that distance becomes much greater than the size of the vehicles themselves very quickly as speed increases, which makes the comparison based on vehicle size that we see in the photo almost entirely irrelevant in practice.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by enoch_r on Friday October 18, 2019 @12:20AM (#21288651)

Your claim:

> a bike plus adequate space around it is only a bit smaller than a car with adequate space around it.

Here is an example photo from a recent organized bike ride in my city:

https://images.app.goo.gl/S1Nh8d7zqfSEzqmH7

Here is another:

https://images.app.goo.gl/6hh7NAMtEFPZZyKA9

It's quite hard for me to square these images (not to mention my own experiences riding bikes) with your assertion.

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Re:What happens when a city bans cars from its streets? by Silhouette on Friday October 18, 2019 @05:42AM (#21289907)

But everyday cycling around a city doesn't look anything like an organised mass bike ride. Not everyone is an experienced cyclist. There isn't a predetermined route and there are no marshals to direct the riders around it. Different riders will be going in all sorts of different directions. The roads probably won't be cleared of other traffic. Junctions and other traffic controls will be operating normally.

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