A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling More Popular

Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by bane on Monday June 23, 2014 @07:29AM (#7931296)

My experience may not be universal, but I bet it's statistically normal, or even slightly better for cycling than most places. Yet it's still a terrible alternative. The mystery of why more people don't cycle is pretty simple, it's not really viable in most of the world.

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by SideburnsOfDoom on Monday June 23, 2014 @07:54AM (#7931395)

I don't know what "statistically normal" means, but I'd estimate that 20-50% of my colleagues are in the same position as me and so would benefit from better cycle infrastructure.

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by bane on Monday June 23, 2014 @08:04AM (#7931428)

Let's fight both of our "anecdata" with actual data.

http://www.reference.com/motif/sports/average-commute-in-mil...

The average commute in miles for Americans is 16 miles and 26 minutes for one way. That's 32 miles and 52 minutes for a round trip every day.

Let's assume we decide we want to get the "Average" American biking to work instead. We have to figure out how we can convince people who spend an hour on the road everyday to spend 8 hours on the road biking instead, or give up their houses and pay more for smaller accommodations closer to their work to shorten the distance.

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by empthought on Monday June 23, 2014 @08:42AM (#7931566)

>That's 32 miles and 52 minutes for a round trip every day.

>spend 8 hours on the road biking instead

4mph is a slow running speed...

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by bane on Monday June 23, 2014 @09:20AM (#7931753)

You have to add up both directions.

The average speed of a bike commuter is under 10 mph. 32 miles thus takes more than 3.2 hours, * 2 = 6.4 hours per day biking the same distance as the average American commuter currently drives in 1/3 the time. Toss in a couple hills and you could easily hit 8 hours total biking time.

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by empthought on Monday June 23, 2014 @11:16AM (#7932386)

The both-directions is already added into "32 miles" -- the one-way commute is 16 miles, not 32 miles.

People who commute 32 miles one way should get a new job, a new place to live, or work from home.

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by alphapapa on Monday June 23, 2014 @05:05PM (#7934665)

> People who commute 32 miles one way should get a new job, a new place to live, or work from home.

If finding the perfect job were that easy, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Do you even live on this planet?

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Re:A New Bike Lane That Could Save Lives and Make Cycling Mo... by empthought on Monday June 23, 2014 @08:27PM (#7935581)

> Do you even live on this planet?

Sure, and I don't drive farther than it is to outer space every day, like people putting in 60+ miles to commute to an office because reasons.

(Can't have the kids go to school with the black folk is my guess.)

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