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Cyclists Are Faster Than Cars And Motorbikes in Cities and Towns, Study Says (forbes.com)
Smartphone data from riders and drivers schlepping meals for restaurant-to-home courier service Deliveroo shows that bicycles are faster than cars and motorized two-wheelers. From a news writeup, which sources its data from Deliveroo, a UK-headquartered food delivery company with more than 30,000 riders and drivers in 13 countries: That bicyclists are faster in cities will come as no surprise to bicycle advocates who have staged so-called "commuter races" for many years. However, these races -- organized to highlight the swiftness of urban cycling -- are usually staged in locations and at hours skewed towards bicycle riders. The Deliveroo stats are significant because they have been extracted from millions of actual journeys. And it's all thanks to Frank.
Frank is the name Deliveroo gives its routing algorithm (the name was chosen for the Danny DeVito character in the TV series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.") Delivering millions of simultaneous orders from thousands of restaurants to hungry consumers within 30 minutes using roving self-employed couriers equipped with smartphones is a complex vehicle routing problem: consumers want piping hot food; restaurants want meals picked up when cooked; riders -- paid per drop -- want multiple deliveries per hour, and Deliveroo needs to make money. The algorithm team employs data scientists with PhDs in computer vision, computer science, operations research, cognitive neuroscience, econometrics, machine learning, and physics.
Frank is the name Deliveroo gives its routing algorithm (the name was chosen for the Danny DeVito character in the TV series "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.") Delivering millions of simultaneous orders from thousands of restaurants to hungry consumers within 30 minutes using roving self-employed couriers equipped with smartphones is a complex vehicle routing problem: consumers want piping hot food; restaurants want meals picked up when cooked; riders -- paid per drop -- want multiple deliveries per hour, and Deliveroo needs to make money. The algorithm team employs data scientists with PhDs in computer vision, computer science, operations research, cognitive neuroscience, econometrics, machine learning, and physics.
I'm of mixed feelings about this.
It depends on where the stop signs are.
If I'm out in real traffic, I honor traffic signals just like motor vehicles. I actually annoy some people in motor vehicles at stoplights because when the light turns green I can clean an intersection before the car out front puts away their mobile phone and steps on the gas. In fact one of my biggest annoyances as a cyclist is when people are overly courteous to me. I'm planning my next move based on people driving normally, slowing down and being overly cautious of me screws up my planning - cars not using their turn signals is one of my biggest annoyances, because I'm going to adjust my speed according to what the motor vehicles around me are signaling before crossing that next intersection where I and the traffic I'm riding along with have the right-or-way.
As for residential areas. Many stop signs in residential areas are there not to regulate the intersection as much as they are to keep motor vehicles slowed down to safe speeds. If I'm in a residential area and I can see there's no traffic at that next stop sign, damned straight I'm blowing right through it like it's not even there. It takes me a lot more distance for me to achieve cruising speed than it does a motor vehicle - stop signs are a bigger deal to me. If there's traffic I'm going to treat it like I'm in a motor vehicle, but damned straight I'm blowing through it in a quiet residential area.
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