i find it fascinating how Americans secretly love walkable towns.
Where do they vacation? Disneylands, Makinac island, NY, Chicago, or go to iconic walkable cities overseas like London, Paris…
but the idea of enjoying something line that throughout their entire life seems propostrotous. they gotta have their 2 ton trucks.
The US was designed for cars specifically, unlike European cities that have been around since 1150 or 1288 or 1467 or whatever. So, we see how well it works there but it’s not quite the same here.
The adduction to massive trucks isn’t just for traitor lunatics. It’s just like a rural farmer in the Nederlands with their tractor. It’s how things are set up.
most cities in the US predates cars. but countless towns and small cities that were walkable were practically entirely demolished to turn them into parking lots. whole neighborhoods were demolished to make highways (guess the colour).
some before/after pictures are depressing as fuck.
like three US was entirely peppered with (what we would now call) European style towns.
The average American doesn’t vacation. In the past ten years, the only travel I’ve done was to attend two funerals and one wedding. Vacations are for the rich, and nice areas are only for the rich. We secretly love walkable towns like we secretly love Buckingham Palace, we like to dream that one day, we’ll be able to afford it too.
The only reason my town is affordable is because it’s shitty, and improving it would price me out of living here, so I don’t want to improve it.
I would like to point out that the likes of walmart and amazon have, like the mosquitos they are, sucked dry the money that used to circulate around smaller towns, and that might otherwise be used for a swim center or something.
I say this because step number one to fixing these places is bringing the money back.
Step two might be price locking rent and/or just taking land out of the hands of landlords and housing firms.
I’d rather go on vacation to the middle of nowhere where I can’t see any other people.
Large SUV and giant truck drivers still bemoaning the tiny spaces used by cyclists
I really like those stealth bike racks where they put a car shape on the road facing side so that the cars don’t get upset that they lost a potential parking spot.
They’ll never see through this clever ruse;. Most cars have pretty poor eyesight; the only way they’ll figure it out is if they honk at it, and it doesn’t respond convincingly.
the only way they’ll figure it out is if they honk at it, and it doesn’t respond convincingly.
Just needs a sound-activated arm showing the middle finger to pop out of the fake window.
Like a decoy to a duck, the problems only start when the car attempts to mate with it
No 1 rule of the concrete jungle, when they’re in heat do not honk back even if it’d be *really * funny. And if they’re randy enough to be seeping fluid out of the exhaust pipe , . . . I pray for you.
I would legitimately love a study on whether this makes drivers more or less likely to be angry, because anything other than complete neutrality would be hilarious.
Haha, yeah. If you like, I can design a really cheap study with a small enough sample size that the chances of 50% are lower than either 0 or 100.
That’s how science works right, exploit the logistic distribution for the LOLs (and funding from an interest group). Aw shit-bags, this is not sciencemems,
Shit you caught me, Big Bike paid me off to laugh at carbrains.
But an SUV carries at least 8 people and their luggage along with 3 to 6 thousand pounds of SUV…maybe if we made it electric and removed 2 to 5 thousand pounds, that could be interesting? A tandem electric bike, 2 tires, 8 people, huge efficiency! You just need to all be going to the same place.
I’ve always wondered if a minimalist monorail could ever happen. Imagine the freedom of a bike but you could ride say 20 people all together from one city to another carrying your bikes along. In Seattle you definitely want the outer covering of a gondola, but there are cities where you don’t really need a shell.
I’ll settle for a network of inter-city paved uninterrupted car-free “bike highways” between all cities with > 100,000 people. Just a single asphalt lane with no breaks and no cars flying around.
Pretty sure that’s basic-tier shit in many European countries, but it’d be such a huge deal here.
With a nice grade to flat…yes please!
an SUV carries at least 8 people
Damn, they ban single-occupancy SUVs where you live? That’s great! And not even single-occupancy…sounds like you can’t even drive them unless you have all the seats full.
I’ve never seen one with more than 8 seats. Where do the rest of the passengers go?
Sounds pretty efficient. 7 bikes generally can only transport 7 people!
I’m pretty sure you don’t understand what “at least” means.
Normal use 1 person. Max use maybe at least 8?
“You use at least to say that a number or amount is the smallest that is possible or likely and that the actual number or amount may be greater.”
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/at-least
Any car can carry at least 1 person.
One can only hope that SUV was transporting 7 people.
Throughout its lifespan, yes, it might.
That’s ridiculous. They absolutely pick up their parents from the airport every Thanksgiving!
I really wish there was a better way to secure bicycles. Most of the time I choose to take the car or motorcycle is because I got a nice bicycle after my old cheapo got stolen from what I thought was a safe location.
I’m not even talking about lack of bicycle racks in many parking lots, but the fact that a $50 angle grinder goes through just about any chain/u-lock in about 30 seconds.
I know this because I had to cut off my own U-lock after assholes tried to drill through the lock on mine and ruined it. Also, nobody even looked twice at a guy using an incredibly loud grinder generating a ton of sparks in the middle of a retail parking lot.
Locks will only ever be a minor deterrent imo. The problem is that police in most places don’t even try to go after bicycle thefts and the would be criminals know that.
If governments took bicycle theft as seriously as they did horse theft in the 19th century, then few criminals would even attempt to steal a bicycle if it had some basic protection like a cheap lock + a camera pointed at the bicycle rack.
What even happens to nice bikes that are stolen? They certainly don’t show up on the second-hand market for cheap.
In my region, it seems that expensive stolen bikes mostly go to eastern Europe, Ukraine and Romania in particular.
Romanians can afford expensive bikes?
Not all of them, but some of them certainly can. It’s like everywhere. The fact that some people don’t make a lot of money doesn’t stop others from making heaps.
Bike cages are great, but the haters would rather spend on a 100-car parking lot than a 100-bike cage.
The solution is bike lockers. It’s an important piece of public infrastructure that often gets overlooked.
I think this is Japan I’m thinking of, but they have these amazing underground automated parking spaces for bicycles. You load your bike into this elevator-type thing and get back a ticket, and the elevator takes the bike underground and deposits it in a sort of cubbyhole. Completely safe and takes up no space above-ground except for the little kiosk. Not a fucking chance in hell that a US city would ever invest in something like that.
Do they often have those in places other than subway/train transit hubs? I’ve never seen them anywhere else here (US southwest). And honestly I didn’t even know they were a thing before I moved here, public infrastructure in the US is so fucked.
They are usually near major train and bus hubs. There’s plenty around Vancouver and I’ve seen them in a couple places around LA, too. That said, outside of major progressive cities, they are practically non-existent, especially in the US.
I’ve never even heard of anything like this. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen a bike rack that is under cover. And we always have these bike racks that are made to look like bikes, which is cute but not very useful.
On a personal level, get theft insurance on your bike. Costs me like 150 €/y for a 2000 € ebike, although some insurance companies do not cover street parking in some cities.
On a societal level, there are things law enforcement could do to make fencing less lucrative. Giving a shit about theft reports for one. For two, my city pays to get everyone’s frame engraved with their national registration number, which will get my bike back to me if the cops find it and it makes the bike a bit less valuable because most people aren’t looking to buy a clearly stolen bike.
I used to live in center city Philadelphia. One day I was walking down the street and I noticed a big guy on the other side with big loose shorts on walk up to a bicycle that was chained up to a signpost. In one smooth motion he whipped a big pair of bolt cutters out of his shorts, snipped through the chain, hopped on the bike and rode off down a side street. Like, I didn’t even have time to think about doing anything or even yelling. Plus it’s Philly - he might have ripped my fucking eyeballs out (Phillystines have a thing about the phrase “I’ll rip yer fucken eyeballs out” although you see surprisingly few eyeball-less people walking around here).
There are angle grinder resistant u-locks which can last up to 5 min and waste several disks. They aren’t cheap though and the thieves also could just cut through the rack.
https://thebestbikelock.com/security/angle-grinder-proof-bike-lock/
You’re just incentivizing bike thieves to carry plasma cutters around.
Is there such a thing as a portable plasma cutter? Because the ones I’ve seen all require a big 2 foot cube with wheels on it in addition to a power outlet nearby.
'Twas but a joke.
Bike thieves move fast, and a lot of time they are in cars, it’s not always some random guy on the street. I saw a brand new Lexus pull up to a bike at a red light in a fancy neighborhood, guy was actively in the road and parked blocking the lane, and stole the bike in literally 40seconds and was gone. No license plates. I called it in but I doubt they did anything about it. And I’ll never risk my life for a bike lol.
I keep around a few beater bikes. If one gets stolen then oh well I’m out $75, which is less than 1 tank of gas.
Where do you live that $75 is a tank of gas?
In Europe, our cars don’t need huge tanks, because they don’t burn 25 litres to move to the next block.
I thinks that’s about right for the UK, but at least one of my bikes is considerably cheaper.
Begs the question, why th efuck does anyone drive anywhere in this cuntry? A lot of severe mobility disabilities I think.
I know the UK is expensive, but $75 a tank is close to $10 more than my dad pays to fill his big ass truck from near empty
My f150 is 80 from bone dry at $3.50.
Yeah, I’ll have to find a new wife if I try to put a few beater bikes in the garage. It’ll get expensive fast.
Get rid of the car and you’ll have plenty of room in the garage.
We have a kid in a wheelchair. Car is not optional.
Not gonna lie, I wouldn’t know how to manage seeing a guy use a grinder on some bikes.
I wanted a folding bike for this purpose but it would only be good for going to work and back. I can’t just walk around a mall or something carrying a folding bike :/
I have a folding bike and that thing is fucking heavy. I can’t imagine actually trying to carry it any great distance.
Just make sure his grinder/ knife/bullet hits you in the foam+plastic bike helmet. you’ll be golden.
While it doesn’t really help with the stolen part, it helps with the recovery: put a tracker on it.
Without cops, you’re fighting a bunch of junkies to get your bike back. Cops looked at me like I was an idiot when I tried to file a report for my stolen bike.
But what would you recommend? I have a bunch of PebbleBee trackers on my stuff, but I can’t think of any way to hide any of those on the bike.
Accept it and buy insurance. Make sure it includes public parking. Yes, this sucks.
Molotov
It all depends on the country where you report it. Germany is at least in my experience serious about it.
I would recommend something like peeblebee, but modified in a way that It recharges from the bike generator. Depending what kind of front lamp you’ve got, it might be possible to hide in there with some tinkering.
Not to mention how much dead space is needed in front and behind the parking spot for that SUV.
And in all likelihood, that is a single occupancy vehicle, so the amount of space needed is even more obscene.
Who Framed Roger Rabbit is really funny for a dystopian nightmare documentary…
To be fair, you can fit 7 people in an suv. Picture would have been more effective if there were more bikes than how many people that can fit in an SUV. I agree with the message though.
It’s not representative because the average ridership is below 2. It’s not about how many people can fit, it’s about how many people are using it. The car realistically seated at most 2 people. Each bicycle seated exactly 1 person, so 7 people in the same space.
Can the SUV go in 7 different directions?
You can fit 7 people in an SUV if they’re all going to the same place. You could say “isn’t that what a bus is?” but a bus has way more space, is happy to frequently stop, is much more fuel efficient per pserson, and is part of a larger network.
And there is space for at least two more bikes as the leftmost bar is empty.
That assumes every seat is filled.
Aside from what everyone else said, not every spot is taken up in that bike rack, and the SUV is still larger than that bike rack.
Depends on the SUV as well. My RAV-4 is considered an SUV, but uncomfortably fits only 5 unless you also want 2 people to squash themselves into the trunk, and it’s big brother, the Highlander, isn’t much better. My dad just replaced his Yukon (also known as a Suburban or Escalade depending on the brand and time it was made), and that could fit 8 people relatively comfortably, but it’s also a bigger car than the one pictured - bigger even than the 4-door Tachoma he replaced it with.
That SUV holds 7 people.
That SUV holds 7 people.
How often?
No idea. How often is the rack full with 7 bikes?
I’d wager the bike rack generally has more bikes than that SUV has passengers
The average SUV out there doesn’t hold 7 people at all times
The two here most in frame do.
Where are you 7 people? In the truck?
No they don’t. Are all vroomers liars or just stupid? I really wonder
Can it go in 7 different directions at once?
Can a bike carry my weekly shop?
It can’t carry a fridge either, which is often the go-to for people wanting to make the point that because you can’t use it 100% of the time, you should never use it at all. Or something. I never really understood why this observation changes anything.
I’m certainly not saying that, but if you want to make stupid comparisons about bikes being able to go different directions why not throw in all the stupid comparisons. There’s plenty of occasions where a bike is fine, there’s also plenty of occasions where it’s a dumb choice.
Like when you try to carry your week worth of fat?
Vroomerz are gross lmao nobody cares about your lifestory. I too could find excuses to be lazy and poison the air
You sound positively deranged.
Airpolluta
Let me explain. 7 different people can use 7 different bikes to go to 7 different places. The car is less efficient because it can only transport its occupants to one location. Yes, the car can carry 7 people, but how many times does that happen? Certainly less often than your “weekly shop” random observation which has nothing to do with anything.
Yes?
Of course it depends how fat you are lmao
Tell me you are single living alone without saying it 🤣
I live with a reasonably sized wife that doesn’t require me to pollute my way around to bring her her weekly dose of fat.
It’s not funny mate. You know sitting in card all day makes for a weak pelvic floor. Don’t come whining when your wife will leave for a non premature cyclist with concrete butt
deleted by creator
What has my weight got to do with anything lol? You sound like you’ve got issues.
Troll account created today.
You can’t carry a week worth of food because it would feed a large family in Africa
What is that even supposed to mean? Why are we lumping everyone in Africa into the same bucket?
It means polluters will always find excuses to pollute. “I live in the countryside” “I need to buy food” “taking the bus is slightly inconvenient I can’t have that” “I hate other people”
Guess what nobody cares about your life story, idiot
Yes, a bicycle is smaller than a car. Keep observing.
bad bot
In related news, an SUV carries upwards of TWO bags of groceries. At a minimum.
I believe you, but I’d still like to see it first.
