New York City vs Cyclists
 

nuts.

:applause:

Hahahahaha. The guy had a good point. And a good point. And a good point.

As I biker, I agree and understand his point fully but to play devil's advocate, there are MANY bikers who feel they can do whatever they want whenever they want, endangering not only them but everyone around them. Bikers have a status of half-pedestrian half-automobile so it is impossible to create a set of rules that actually works so common sense must apply in order to be safe on the roads. Unfortunately, common sense is often subjective, so there will never be full consenus of what should be done in different situations.

Getting back to his point though, unless you have no other choice (construction is the obvious exception), stay out of the goddamn bike lanes.

You want the bicycles to stay out of the bike lanes?

No, cars and other vehicles that shouldn't be there. Bikers get hit every so often, usually nothing serious, from a car swerving into the bike lane.

I thought that was gonna be this:



Crazy.

What? That you can't steer around a big orange barrel? What is the point of a video showing a guy running into things on purpose?

The idea is, if he steers around the barrel, he goes outside the bike lane, and then gets ticketed by the police. But I bet the truth is he was actually stopped by the cop because he was riding on the sidewalk barely dodging pedestrians, or something, and he only came up with his "point" after the fact. If you cleared all of the bike lanes, this guy still wouldn't be riding in them.

I disagree with that last bit. He wants to go as fast as possible. If the bike lanes are empty and safe, he's going to choose them over dodging pedestrians on the sidewalk or cars in the street because he can go faster.

But in the bike lanes, doesn't he in theory have to follow the traffic lights? It would be bike lane for awhile, then up on the sidewalk so he could follow the pedestrian walking lights while his lane is supposed to be stopped, then maybe over into the opposing direction traffic lane so he can weave cleanly around the stopped cars, then back into the bike lane...


Ah, I'm probably judging him too harshly. He gives off a vicious attention-whore vibe, it just rubs me the wrong way.

You're probably not judging him too harshly.

I'm just playing devil's advocate in the imaginary scenario of the bike lane being free. We all know bikes in the busy city maneuver in and around traffic with little regard for the law. Honest bike riders would be squashed in a second. To ride in the city, you have to be a different breed.

Around here there's been a boom in the "pedi-cab" businesses downtown. The big ones can carry 4 people. But New York City probably won't ever be able to really embrace the bicycle like that, with the way their winters get...

Are the pedi-cabs a viable means of transport or a novelty that is likely to disappear? Just asking as I've seen them elsewhere and the only people who used them were the tourists.

I see them every once in a while in Minneapolis. It seems most people that ride in them here have the "Hey, a pedi-cab! That's awesome! Lets go ride in it" mindset. I'm guessing they will always have enough customers to stay afloat for that reason but I don't see the business really expanding. It's not exactly a practical form of transportation around here.

I thought it was just a regular cab where you also got a pedicure.

Yeah, I want some sweaty guy huffing around pulling my fat ass down the street.

They're in an odd position. They're like a bike-sharing system, where the endpoints of your trip aren't restricted to bike-sharing sites, which is cool. But they're wider than bikes, so they probably can't really use bike lanes, which puts them right back into regular traffic. You could say they're saving gas, but that cab you're not using is still driving around empty looking for someone else, and I doubt the pedi-cabs will reach a volume that will decrease the gasi-cab fleet size.

I thought pedi-cabs were just for children.

Around here they're definitely used by locals, but really only to go from one bar to the next, or from the bar to wherever you parked. Our downtown area is fairly spread out, yet at the same time parking is for shit. The pedicabs don't leave the bar district unless you live in one of the downtown condos a few blocks away.

Around here, bar district traffic is at a feeble crawl on weekend nights anyway, and the bike lanes are full of parked cars. We don't have a viable cab system in the city at all; if you want one you have to call the cab company and wait 30 minutes for them to come. So our pedicabs are only replacing people on foot. It definitely isn't a model that would work for all cities, but it's doing pretty well here.

pedicabs here ply the waterfront.

tourists or those folks going to a ballgame and want to make slightly better time than the foot traffic are the main trade. those guys and gals earn their money I'll tell you. the bikes might be geared low, but tha's a lot of pedals for that trip, hauling all that ass. Lots of foot traffic from the ferry on gameday.

So do I, but I don't drive on the sidewalk.

NYC is big enough, just give them a few whole streets and ban cars.

There was a little thing on NPR his morning about the pedicabs here in DC. Apparently the US Park Police are actively targeting them right now. There are supposedly some rules (not explained in the story) about where they can stop and pick up passengers and where they can operate. The Park Police wait for the pedicabs to pick up tourists on the Mall, and then they pull them over and write expensive tickets for them and tell the tourists they don't have to pay the fare.

It's the taxi lobbyists leaning on the politicians, who lean on the Park Cops.

xoB - That is so fucked up :mad:

Fucked up? That's the American way! Why do you hate America? :lol2:

If I were the tourist, I'd probably pay anyway. I'm sure there are more people who would be all like "oh sweet FREE RIDE" but I think I would be like "dude, that was effed up...here's the fare anyway, it's only fair."

Cycle rickshaws are prevalent in London too.
Probably a 50/50 hiring rate - half tourists looking for a street level tour, half Londoners (esp ladies) not wanting to walk to the next bar/ restaurant// hotspot of an evening.

I have taken one myself. Guess which category I fell into? (almost literally).
I was very much enjoying the pumping calves and butt.

As long as cyclists are NOT on the pavement (sidewalk) I think they should be accommodated. Where they act like dicks, at least it's their own lives they are putting on the line. Where there is a cyclist fatality, there are rarely any other fatalities.

But then I will probably always come down on their side because Dads cycled everywhere for many years as I was growing up. And he had a number of serious accidents solely down to driver error/ inattention. And in those days there was nothing you could do about it. His worst incident was with a parked car - a woman on double yellows (absolutely NO parking) opened her door right into him. Knocked him clean off and he was inches away from being hit by another car. Both car drivers then blamed him.