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PaperclipPerfector  7mo ago (text post)   36073 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of June 9, 2025

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Dutch cities in the 70s.

And currently car centric Oslo is transitioning to be a cycling city:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zmp09Fd07oc

And of course Paris:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=woFlJx7Rv78

Yt comment:

I remember when I was cycling to work in Paris 8 years ago, I was all alone on my bus lane. now everyone is cycling! Simply amazing

It is a bit counterintuitive, but every bike ride is one less car ride, and this means a great cycling city has less congested traffic for cars. And fewer cars also cause less dedicated bicycle infrastructure. Typically no bike lanes are needed in low car streets.

It is a bit counterintuitive, but every bike ride is one less car ride, and this means a great cycling city has less congested traffic for cars.

In my experience, a cyclist on the road causes more delay for cars than another car would. Even though the bike is smaller than a car, it effectively blocks the same amount of space: the safety distance behind is the same, and that dominates the physical length. Being thinner is balanced by 2x+ the sideways distance for passing, plus for passing it usually doesnt matter how much of you sticks in the next lane, just if at all. And then they still are slower and often less predictable.

This depends on the existing mode share in your city. If you start with a high enough public transport share (true for journeys into or within Manhattan but nowhere else in the US, also true for the cores of European cities including London and Paris) then improved cycling infrastructure is taking people off busses and trains, not cars.

But the basic point that replacing a car lane with a lane which moves more people than the car lane (whether on bikes, busses, trams, or anything else) will tend to speed car traffic up.

improved cycling infrastructure is taking people off busses and trains, not cars

I would disagree with this. Bicycles are far closer to an individual mode of transportation than a subway, much less a bus. This is why delivery drivers are using them instead of shuttles and hub-spoke models. For a door-to-door journey an individual vehicle is the best option.

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