Bicycling as a Way of Life

[marmar]

Bike-friendly Amsterdam



from OnTheCommons.org:



Bicycling as a Way of Life
On a fact-finding mission to the Netherlands, a delegation of California public officials marvel at the promise of bicycles for 21st Century transportation

By Jay Walljasper


One of the most dramatic seizures of the commons over the past century happened right in our streets. Public roads that once belonged to everyone— kids, old people, the poor— are now are the exclusive property of motorists. This is true even in countries where the majority of the population do not own cars. In a lot of places, crossing the street on foot qualifies as high-risk behavior.

This is an unrecognized tragedy for people who suffer new constraints in mobility, such as in India where pedestrian fatalities are skyrocketing. But it’s a tragedy for us all as pollution, noise, sprawl and global warming worsen under the escalating levels of traffic, while our sense of neighborliness withers as we retreat from one another behind the windshield.

Fortunately in a number of places around the world from Berlin to Bogota to Boulder, the streets are slowly being reclaimed from the tyranny of traffic. Pedestrians and bicyclists reassert their ownership of the road, not only as a natural right but also an effective way to repair the environment and bring a sense of pleasure back to our lives.

The Netherlands is the world leader of this movement, especially in its soaring rates of bicycling, so I was excited to join a team of latter-day explorers this month on a quest to discover what American communities can learn from the Dutch about transforming our streets into public spaces once again. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://onthecommons.org/bicycling-way-life

[a la izquierda]

1. As a cyclist, my only recommendation...

for those looking to start a life of cycling instead of driving is this: follow the rules of the road. When you're on the bike, your rules are the same as those of drivers. When you don't follow those rules, you put other cyclists at risk.

[rfranklin]

3. Unfortunately, many car drivers do not respect bicycles....

which have the same right to the road as any other vehicle. These drivers feel that a bicycle or pedestrian is an annoying impediment to their forward progress and does not deserve to live he/she gets in their way.

[marmar]

4. True....I've ridden in cars with people enraged by the mere presence of bikers.

nt

[a la izquierda]

7. oh i know.

you have no idea (or maybe you do) how much stuff has been thrown at me when i train, or how many times i've been menaced (i'm a 5'1" female) while riding alone...or when big men think i'm alone. haha, that's always funny, when big tough guys give me shit, and then figure out that when they run into me again at that stop sign, i've just informed all my guy friends that i was harassed.
it's totally insane. but i've got to tell you, it pisses me off to no end to see idiot bike riders breaking the rules of the road. and i see it daily since i am a grad student, and college campuses seem to have a plethora of students who feel they are immune to driving and cycling laws. that is one reason drivers hate cyclists.

[hfojvt]

17. I almost never have stuff thrown at me

and I also do not stop for stop signs on empty streets. Dirvers hate cyclists because they want to zip down the road as fast as possible and cyclists slow them down.

[a la izquierda]

27. yeah, well, try living in oklahoma

or anywhere else with redneck morons.

[LostinVA]

9. Or pedestrians

I'm both, and usually only use my car once a week. Drivers are insane. They don't even look when they turn into a crosswalk.

[JackintheGreen]

2. I spent time in Holland this summer

and do lots of research in India. Both are very bike-able, though only one of them is bike "friendly." I did not touch a bike while in Delft, but I cycled *everywhere* in India, dozens of km/day, something I do not do at home in PA. I was all excited to get back to suburban Phillay and refurb my old Schwinn and get to biking for my daily routine and felt like I was gonna die after less than ten minutes. The bike was older, but the gearing better, but I just couldn't bike my neighborhood. And this after months of biking in the effing tropics.

I'd love to bike, but it's just so discouraging to me. Blerg.

[yella_dawg]

25. It's the air.

I think. I normally do 25+ miles a day, off road. The last year or so, it has become harder and harder, most days, to ride at all. Some days I can crank it on. Most days, my lungs are hanging down the front of my shirt in five miles. CO? CO2? Who knows?

[Karenina]

5. The most bike friendly town in Germany

http://www.geo.sunysb.edu/bicycle-muenster/index.html

In my town one sign of spring is the return of the DB bikes. Swipe your card, unlock it, go where you want, leave it.

[Swamp Rat]

6. LIEBLING!!

:hi: Alles gut? :hug:

New Orleans has new bicycle lanes. :bounce:



This is by my mom's house on St. Claude in Treme:

[LostinVA]

10. That is terrific!

[Karenina]

11. Naaa, Duuuu!!!!

:hug::loveya::hug:

Das ganze Leben ist ein Zoo...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Drngc89PDg

[Taitertots]

8. Lets start building our cities like Amsterdam

Bicycles are not going to work as long as our commutes are further than from Station Amsterdam Centraal to Amsterdam Sloterdijk with no trains or bus lines.

[taterguy]

12. Build our cities below sea level?

Doesn't work so well.

As for distance, some Americans would drive to work if it was half a block away.

Changing infrastructure does nothing unless you change hearts and minds.

[Taitertots]

15. Hearts and minds won't change until the infrastructure changes

As long as our cities are nothing like Amsterdam we will continue to live nothing like people in Amsterdam.

As for distance, some Americans already don't drive and have much farther than half a block to go.

[taterguy]

16. Sorry, my anecdotal evidence conclusively proves that you're wrong

No bike facilities in my town.

I lived comfortably with no car for 10 years.

How did I do it?

I simply didn't bother replacing my car when it died.

I decided that the advantages of driving didn't justify the expense.

Lanes and other facilities would have been nice but they're not required.

People just need to think instead of resorting to automobiles as the default transportation option.

DISCLAIMER: My ancestors come from Holland.

[Taitertots]

21. What does it prove wrong?

Hearts and Minds are not changing because the infrastructure doesn't support it.


"I lived comfortably with no car for 10 years.

How did I do it?"
Do you have children?
Do you have family that you need to care for?
Are you able bodied?
Do you live in an area with suitable weather and terrain?
Do you live near work, university, stores...


The infrastructure doesn't support living comfortably for the vast majority of people. Is it any wonder people drive cars?

[taterguy]

26. Do they make infrastructure that alters terrain and weather?

Do they make infrastructure that makes it more feasible for people who aren't able bodied to ride bikes?

The reasons you listed for not riding bikes have nothing to do with infrastructure.

[Taitertots]

28. They make trains for areas with high grade or unfavorable weather

Why do you think it is so easy for people to live without cars in areas like Amsterdam?

They use street cars in urban areas and bus routes too. Unless you don't consider trains and streetcar networks infrastructure.

What do you think the people in Amsterdam do when it isn't warm and sunny? When they have to take family related trips?

[taterguy]

30. The subject of this particular thread is cycling

When it's not warm and sunny in Amsterdam cyclists put on rain gear and wear warm clothes.

Or at least that's what I do when it's not warm and sunny where I live.

:shrug:

[WinkyDink]

24. How did you do it? By living alone and not needing bags of groceries, is my guess.

[WinkyDink]

23. While you're at it, let's raise retirement age to 70!

[Fumesucker]

13. Amsterdam is pancake flat and it doesn't get very hot by the standards of much of the USA..

Amsterdam is further North than Newfoundland, my own home is at about the same latitude as Tunisia or Northern Libya, it's just too damn hot to ride a bike if you have any other alternative for four or five months of the year.

It's also quite hilly here, bicycling up steep hills at 90 plus degrees and 90% humidity will whip you very quickly and leave you utterly drenched in sweat.

[taterguy]

14. So there are 7-8 months out of the year when when there's good weather for cycling

Nevertheless, how many people take advantage of that?

[Fumesucker]

31. Basically none that aren't suicidal..

Steep hills combined with narrow roads and no shoulders means there is often a thirty or so foot dropoff as soon as you get off the pavement.

I used to ride a bicycle a lot, I won't do it here, I ride a motorcycle which can easily more than keep up with traffic and that's dangerous enough for me. Crawling up a long hill in low gear at four mph with cars whizzing by at fifty plus a foot from your left elbow is unnerving for practically everyone.

Drivers simply are not used to seeing bicycles on the road here and are not watching out for bikes (or pedestrians or motorcycles for that matter) at all.

We have a very nice bike trail that was converted from old railroad tracks, it gets a lot of recreational use but doesn't go anywhere people need to go for work or shopping so there is essentially zero non recreational use of it.

[hfojvt]

18. it depends on how far you are going

we are sorta hot and hilly here too, but it is never a huge problem for me. At least not to get to work, about 1.2 kilometers or to the grocery store, maybe 2K. Of course, you have to hang up your shirt when you get back because it will be soaked. But the warm and dry winters make it possible to bike year round too. There are only maybe 3 weeks when it is too icy to bike.

I think it is easier in smaller towns or cities that have shorter distances and not so much traffic and high-speed roads.

[swilton]

19. + 1,000

Makes perfect sense - greater health for humans (physically and mentally) and the environment.

[Lyric]

20. I fully support bicycling as a way of life for those who can physically do it.

I personally do not cycle--I walk. I don't own a car, and I am fortunate enough to live within a few miles of both a shopping center and my university's campus, so we either walk or (in bad weather) hop on a bus. But I fully support bicycling as a green alternative to driving, so long as the cyclists follow the rules of the road and are courteous.

However, I would like to see greater police attention given to cyclists who break laws and endanger people. As someone who is a daily pedestrian, I encounter assholes in (or on) moving vehicles on a regular basis. Both car drivers and cyclists can be selfish and reckless, but while I've seen many car drivers get pulled over for such behavior, cyclists in this area seem to function below the police radar. We have "good" cyclists who ride on the street and follow the rules, but we have just as many assholes who constantly endanger the other people around them--including our kids.

For example: we live on a main street. Our kids wait for the school bus on the sidewalk right in front of our house, and get OFF the school bus across the street from our house. We've only had one or two car drivers break the law and zoom past when the bus was stopped, but the bicyclists who live on the street above ours do this every effing time. I'm getting sick of it. Those are elementary school kids standing there, and these jerks come zooming down the street, cut through the lawn of the church across the street, then dart over the to SIDEWALK where the kids are standing and continue down the hill. Our kids have nearly gotten hit several times by these selfish idiots, and I'm absolutely sick of it. The kids HAVE to be on the sidewalk; if they aren't there, the bus can't see them, and won't stop. We were specifically told by the BOE transportation director to make sure the kids were standing ON the sidewalk where the bus can see them. The sidewalk is for pedestrians, NOT cyclists who are perfectly capable of riding IN the street like the moving vehicles they are, but choose not to in order to avoid having to wait for the bus to pull away.

Cyclists constantly cut through private property around here. The pastor of the UU church next door is very upset at the path they've been wearing through the lawn, especially considering that the "shortcut" through the church's lawn doesn't actually save any distance--it just allows the cyclists to bypass the intersection that all other moving vehicles have to stop for. The church spent a lot of money resodding the lawn and building a 6-inch-bordered walking path through it from the congregation parking area (to discourage use by the cyclists), but now they're just tearing up the grass because they're far too "special" to stay on the street and wait like the rest of traffic.

As pedestrians, we walk to school every day that it isn't pouring rain or snowing. It's about a half-mile, all downhill, so it wouldn't be a hardship for the downhill cyclists to simply ride on the street. However, many of them insist on riding up on the sidewalk. More than once, Rhythm and I have nearly been run down by some asshole student on a bicycle, who then proceeds to turn around and yell crude insults at US (like "Move your fat asses, people!) for being in his way! It's almost always men, too, although this is probably more because men are more likely to ride bicycles around here than about gender.

On the rare occasions that we ride the bus, it's common for the bus drivers to slow down to a near crawl when they get close to the big intersection at the bottom of the hill, because apparently things like intersections and red lights "don't count" for jerks on bicycles. They zoom right around traffic and cross the intersection, nearly killing both themselves and people who are unlucky enough to be walking on the sidewalk on the other side of the intersection.

I think cycling is great. It's good for the environment and good for exercise and health. But I really want to see more police attention given to the cyclists who ignore traffic rules and consistently endanger both themselves and other people. If someone in a car passed a stopped school bus, damaged private property in an attempt to take a "shortcut", nearly ran down pedestrians on a regular basis, and ignored red lights and intersection rules, they'd rightfully get pulled over and ticketed, if not barred from driving completely. Why should cyclists get away with behavior like that?

[WinkyDink]

22. Let's not overlook Amsterdam's trolley system, for the non-bike-riders.

Or Europe's superior public transportation, over-all.

And I'm just going to bell the cat: The United States is NOT SAFE for female bicyclists open to the elements and other humans.

[CreekDog]

29. Working and living in the SF area, the hills make this pretty much impossible for me

I see improved public transit as more critical than bicycles, though cycling should be supported where it can be.