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.

Comments

Of course

[Anonymous Coward]

They don't respect traffick lights and stop signs.

Re:Of course

[llamalad]

I'm of two minds on this.

First, some comedian said a while back: "When I'm driving, I hate pedestrians. And when I'm walking, I hate drivers. But no matter what I'm doing, I hate cyclists."

On the other hand, I've been commuting almost entirely on an electric bike for the last year and a half. Knowing what I've hated about cyclists for decades, I scrupulously stop at stop signs and red lights and use hand signals.

On the rare occasions when I take my car, it's always 25-45 minutes depending on traffic. On my bike I can cover the same four miles in 15-24 minutes, at times zooming right by 2-3 blocks worth of stopped cars.

In general, these days I avoid taking my car anywhere. Electric bike is usually faster and always way more fun.

Re:Of course

[b0s0z0ku]

As they should be ...

Cyclists have better all-around vision than cars. They should be allowed to slow at a stop sign or red signal, check for cross traffic/pedestrians, then go. There are plenty of times when this is safe, as long as one actually checks.

Lane splitting -- cycles are narrower than cars. It's safer to keep moving than to risk being squashed between cars. Anyway, people need to figure out what they want cyclists to do. They bitch when they're part of traffic and ride in the lane, and keep bitching if they ride on the side/shoulder, affording the opportunity to filter/split past traffic.

Re:Of course

[pecosdave]

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.

Re:Of course

[serviscope_minor]

First, some comedian said a while back: "When I'm driving, I hate pedestrians. And when I'm walking, I hate drivers. But no matter what I'm doing, I hate cyclists."

I'm a cyclise and I hate cyclists. Seriously everybody hates those guys. Actually come to think of it when I drive other drivers piss me off. And FFS why do people need to walk 4 abreast at 2 miles an hour on the pavement??

Hm maybe I'm just angry.

Joking aside, while it's possible to kill someone with a collision on a bike (it does happen), it's much harder to do in a car. Drivers are in control of a couple of metal stuff and 75kW of power, compared to a 80kg cyclist with maybe a kW for very short bursts. Drivers have a lot more responsibility than bikes and so their behaviour needs to be much much better.

The other thing that strikes me about driving is how self-defeting the driver lobby is here. They're always boo cyclists MOAR CARS. I live in London where the traffic is marginal at best and room for new roads does not exist. If you really want to drive the best strategy is to advocate for more bikes and pedestrians since that's the only way to reduce the traffic jams.

In some situations yes this is true

[Charcharodon]

I have a commute 6 miles and it takes me 30-45 minutes by bicycle each way, depending on my motivation and the weather. It always takes me 30-45 minutes regardless of traffic.

By car it takes me 15-20 if traffic is light and 30min to 1 hour and 15 minutes for the same commute depending on the number of retards that can't drive are on the road. This is in Tampa Florida so it is a highly season thing. It is opposite of what you think is true. The locals are by far the worse drivers I have ever come across in the US. Even worse than Los Angeles. They can flip a car in a single vehicle accident on a straight road on a dry sunny day. Don't ask me how but they do it all the freaking time. The snow birds and the tourists that flock down here for vacation just add to the stupid that is already inherent in the system, but are hardly the cause of it.

I've converted over to commuting by bicycle because of the outdated stand your ground laws don't consider a person with their head up their ass (phone) randomly changing lanes in a 3000lbs piece of mechanized steel at 60mph in a 35 to be a lethal threat and justification enough to be countered with the use of lethal force.

Even with the dodge-em I have to play with the cars, commuting by bike consistently takes less time, has a more predictable ETA and is by far more gentle on my sanity than commuting by car. Self driving cars can't get here quick enough in my opinion.

Re:No they aren’t.

[Locando]

In a reasonable world, we would change the laws to allow people on bikes to yield at stop signs and go at red lights after a full stop, as they already do anyway, so as to not artificially slow them down while making their behavior more predictable for pedestrians and motorists. But instead we moralize and say that if I can't legally plow through four-way stops in my car, no one can! Even though four-way stops were engineered deliberately to slow down cars in residential neighborhoods for the benefit of other road users.

Signed, an enthusiastic driver who also enjoys riding a bike, who follows the road laws exactly when in a car and bends them while on a bike, because I'm concerned about actual safety and not just arbitrarily following rules.

Re: Jealous motorists

[i.r.id10t]

Having been knocked unconscious and suffering a concussion from being hit by a bicyclist while I was walking I fully understand why they aren't supposed to use pedestrian walkways.