Slashdot Mirror
London Deploys Cycle Superhighways Despite "Old Men In Limos"
dkatana writes: London's mayor Boris Johnson had to fight its way through stiff resistance to the new Cycle Superhighways to see his vision of a cycling capital become reality.
Detractors included the Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), which threatened legal action, but ultimately backed away when it became apparent that a judicial review of TfL's plans would simply delay rather than stop the new routes. Property firm Canary Wharf Group had also been vocal, producing an anonymous briefing (which it later acknowledged) that called the planned route "extremely damaging for London." An unnamed borough was threatened with powers to seize control of their roads if cycle superhighways were blocked.
Now the two new segregated bike paths will crisscross the city and open up speedy, safe cycling that will ease pollution and traffic for everyone, non-cyclists, too, Boris Johnson says.
Detractors included the Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA), which threatened legal action, but ultimately backed away when it became apparent that a judicial review of TfL's plans would simply delay rather than stop the new routes. Property firm Canary Wharf Group had also been vocal, producing an anonymous briefing (which it later acknowledged) that called the planned route "extremely damaging for London." An unnamed borough was threatened with powers to seize control of their roads if cycle superhighways were blocked.
Now the two new segregated bike paths will crisscross the city and open up speedy, safe cycling that will ease pollution and traffic for everyone, non-cyclists, too, Boris Johnson says.
I drive on heavily congested roads for about 12 miles. My car says I average 22 mph....
If there was a bicycle highway that was uninterrupted for this distance, I could save stress by riding a bike rather than a car, with little cost in time.
They appear to have be creating these segregated lanes by halving the size of existing streets.
London is crowded. There is not a whole lot of room to build infrastructure. You can't move the buildings back 3 meters to make room for a bike lane, you have to make the existing street narrower.
If you halve the size of a busy street, you will absolutely increase congestion.
They're probably thinking that segregated lanes will mean fewer traffic lanes that cabs can use, therefore congestion. Space is limited and those new lanes will have to go somewhere. I live on the other side of the Atlantic, but when bike lanes are added in my area, it usually comes at the expense of at least one "regular" traffic lane, sometimes one in each direction. I'm all for cycle lanes though, this is just my guess on what they're thinking.
As someone from the UK who's recently moved to the US, I can safely say, cyclists in the UK are a lot better (not perfect, but much better) at keeping to the rules. Cyclists in the US really genuinely seem to think that absolutely no rules apply to them at all.
München is planning exactly this, a citywide network of elevated cycle freeways:
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/m...
Just because you ride a bike, doesn't mean you can ride in the road and ignore traffic lights, ignore stop signs, cut the lane in between cars and have the gull to grab onto a car and use it as a speed booster.
Indeed it doesn't. And I don't know about where you are, but in the UK most of those things are likely to get the cyclist a hefty fine if caught. Sure, some cyclists try it on anyway, but how many motorists can say they've never exceeded a speed limit?
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
I was also confused, but from some Googling it looks like it's a phrase that's frequently been used in this particular fight, by supporters of the cycle-route plan, to ridicule opponents of the plan. Possibly okay to assume your reader would recognize the phrase if this were a London newspaper, but on Slashdot less likely.
The phrase "old men in limos" with acronym "OMILs" appears to have been coined by Chris Boardman, an Olympic cyclist, as a riposte to the term MAMIL, or "middle-aged man in lycra".
It was later picked up by Boris Johnson's administration, e.g. here's an article from June in which London's cycling commissioner says,
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Yeah, most offices these days have showers. I think all new ones are required to.
The UK isn't particularly hot though, so you'll likely sweat only on the three days a year of what passes for summer. Rain can be dealt with by simply wearing waterproof clothing, like people do in the Netherlands and Denmark, both drizzly countries that have long since figured out how to set up bike infrastructure.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
http://www.thelocal.de/2015072...
He's pretty much got it right.
I don't think they are lies, rather typical over-the-top rhetoric that you frequently see in British politics. Check out this movie for an example. Note how many people are laughing, and how much fun everyone seems to be having.
Compare that to CSPAN. We really got ripped off in our congressional system, at least as far as entertainment value goes.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
I did read through the whole tread and I am astounded that so many readers spell doom and gloom for a city that introduces proper bike infrastructure. Distorted reality, eh...
I have news for you. Let's take the obvious case - the Netherlands. Do you believe the countries exists? Yes? OK, so how come it has not collapsed to the bottom of the economic ladder if businesses cannot deliver their goods, customers cannot go to shops and employees cannot reach their work [all those are claims I found in the tread]? Reality check : FAIL!
I live in A'dam and work in Delft [bike-train-bike]. I have regular visits for business, medical and personal reasons to Maastricht, Leiden, Njimegen, Eindhoven, Hilversum and Leeuwarden. Check google maps to see what this means. Never owned a car. Never needed a car except when I shop furniture or tons of materials and tools for home renovation [but that can be delivered by the retailer, I can rent a car for a day or ask a friend with a car to help]. Trains and bikes can get you everywhere in this country and I do mean everywhere. You can go between cities [separated bike lanes that go usually through nice scenery double the road network].
What do I win and what society wins:
No costs for a car
1.5 hrs per working day reading books/magazines and meeting people in the train. Nice, clean trains that are used by all segments of society [so you don't have reasons for the old idiotic Clarkson retort that public transport is used only by junkies who will puke on you]. In fact traveling in the morning to the work you meet all the students that go to Leiden and Delft [university centers]. Did I mention the females are more in the NL than the males and the gays are more than the lesbians [there is a shortage of men here]? Hell, for the last nuclear summit in NL where Obama landed with the plane, shook hands with the king and then immediately disappeared in a helicopter [escorted by 2 others and hordes of bikes and cars] - btw, most dutch thought that was ridiculously paranoid, unnecessary and plain rude - the prime minister of Belgium took the train [high-speed line Amsterdam - Brussels - Paris].
No need for cardio in the gym so I can focus on power training. When I stopped going to the gym for 6 months after I started again the only exercise I could more of compare to before the break was legs [so it helps the power training too]. Because the infrastructure allows me to ride the bike as an exercise as well - very fast with rapid acceleration and braking.
General health benefits for all cyclists [to mention again those mythical [for /. ers] creatures, called women - any idea how riding a bicycle shapes women's legs. No? Thought so...]. Contemplate what this means on a country scale - MASSIVE saving due to healthier population [lower health cots, higher productivity ect.]
Environmental benefits [no need to elaborate I hope]
Convenience. Going out in Amsterdam with a car is idiotic [OK, if you go to the opera with 10 000 euros worth of clothing and a hair-do for 500 you might need a car but I am talking about the 99% here]. It takes me 10-15 min on the bike to go to the hearth of downtown, no need to pay huge costs for parking [if you find available place that is], you can drink [or smoke] and can go back home at any moment in the night independent from any transport.
Issues:
Cyclist can be nasty and sometimes dangerous on the road - just like everyone else. No surprises here. To claim that somehow there are more asses among them than the rest of the population is moronic at best [I saw that "argument" here as well]
What else? Oh, yes - when you arrive at work you stink of sweat [I see this retort often here]. Actually no. Really, really NO. With good hygiene [and diet!!] your smell is barely noticeable and with enough exercise you can bike with decent speed without breaking a sweat. Besides, at work we have this amazing thing, it's called "running hot water" and "a shower". Check it out!
Less space for ca
Small addendum - the bike lanes can [and are] used by senior citizens in those nice little cars that can only go 40km/hr or so. Old folks needs motorized transport sometimes. Would you prefer them to ride regular car and endanger themselves and the others [you know they are more dangerous than the young drivers]?
Oh, and the lanes are used by small motor bikes [again if you have some health issue that prevents you from cycling]. The pizza delivery guys use them too [those people are in fact the most dangerous participators of the traffic and their behavior should be sanctioned] Electrical motor assisted bikes are on the raise too...those are better since they don't make noise.
Otherwise it's the entire office that will smell like a locker room.
No, it actually doesn't work like that. The keen cyclists like to tear around fast and get hot and smelly. I like doing so. Once you have enough people cycling, you get the more normal people. They put about as much effort as walking, only being on a bike it's about 2.5x the speed. Much like normal pedestrians, they arrive at their destinations basically pretty fresh.
They also tend to ride nice upright bikes which emphasise comfort over speed.
SJW n. One who posts facts.