Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coronavirus

Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by IAmEveryone on Saturday April 25, 2020 @08:28PM (#22983003)

This (specifically car/bike traffic) may be the first real-life example of a Giffen Good I've come across: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giffen_good

You'd think that people avoiding public transport would result in increased car traffic. But in a scenario where the roads were already at or near capacity, that's impossible. Not only would a number equivalent to those switching from public transport have to use bikes. Because bikes also need (some, but less) space on the roads, car traffic actually needs to decrease.

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by SECProto on Saturday April 25, 2020 @09:05PM (#22983264)

I'm having a lot of trouble trying to conceptualize how "car/bike traffic" could be a giffen good. "A product that people consume more of as the price rises". Raising/creating tolls for cars decreases usage. Raising bus prices also discourages use. Could you help clarify what you meant?

As for road space usage, generally bike lanes are added by adjusting street parking, narrowing lanes, etc. Eg I worked on a recent project where two 4m lanes were turned into a 3m middle lane and 3.5m curb lane and a 0.5m buffer and a 1.0m bike lane. I can't think of many situations where bike lanes were added by removing capacity from roads that had usage approaching capacity.

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by tobylane on Saturday April 25, 2020 @09:31PM (#22983443)

London’s Embankment from Westminster to Blackfriars (and the rest of CS3 on other roads) added a bike lane by removing car capacity despite it being full every rush hour. The road as a whole has higher throughput now.

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-cycle-lane-superhighway-em...

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by madeofpalk on Saturday April 25, 2020 @10:04PM (#22983640)

Oh, I recently rode through there the other day for the first time as I went from East London to Hyde Park! It was really nice to have a dedicated cycle way like that.

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by naskwo on Sunday April 26, 2020 @12:35AM (#22984461)

A safe bike route from SW to NE, e.g. Fulham to Shoreditch, would be lovely.

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by tobylane on Sunday April 26, 2020 @01:40AM (#22984803)

Kensington and Chelsea don't like segregated bike lanes. One upcoming bike lane of CS3 quality is from the borough border (Olympia) towards Heathrow.

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Re:Europe’s cities are making less room for cars after coron... by SECProto on Saturday April 25, 2020 @10:07PM (#22983663)

That's great! Generally takes a lot of political capital to do something like that, so good work London.

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