• DrunkenPirate@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    6 days ago

    I‘ve read a study somewhere that compared car and bike commutes. I turned out that people were much happier riding bike and have real life interactions with people at the streets than sitting alone in an iron box and drive a car.

    Despite this, having the same times as you, I enjoy riding bike more because the commute time is always the same. Nobody can stop you on a bike. No traffic jams, no accidents that blocks a road, no rush hour stress.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      6 days ago

      I enjoy riding bike more because the commute time is always the same. Nobody can stop you on a bike. No traffic jams, no accidents that blocks a road, no rush hour stress.

      At a previous job, I used to commute on the Atlanta Beltline Eastside Trail. Because Atlanta is so starved for bike and pedestrian infrastructure, it was actually popular enough that it managed to slow me down with foot traffic sometimes. (And that was on weekday afternoons; it’s even busier on the weekend.)

      Still infinitely better than driving, of course.

        • grue@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          6 days ago

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-yz0KhZJHI

          Not my video and I don’t know what day of the week it was filmed, but it’s pretty representative of ‘medium’ weekday afternoon traffic (even though the video title calls it “heavy”). Like I said in my previous comment, weekends are worse.

          (I don’t endorse trying to ride as aggressively as they’re doing in the video, BTW.)

          • DrunkenPirate@feddit.org
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            5 days ago

            Nice one. Love to see it.

            However, as European it feels sort of standard traffic mx. In our city centers are many pedestrians and bikers.

            If you want to get the real feeling, try a bike highway in the Netherlands. Never did it myself. It’s still on my bucket list https://youtu.be/ynwMN3Z9Og8?is=oK8XCSuHsf6hgP1n They even have bike traffic jams sometimes ;-D

            • grue@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              5 days ago

              I’m literally one of the mods of !fuckcars, which is to say, I am painfully aware of how much better Europe in general, and the Netherlands in particular, is at this stuff.

              The difference with Atlanta is that path is kinda the only one like that we have in the entire metro area. We have other trails in a network that’s gradually becoming more connected, but that’s the only part of it that’s more-or-less fully built out with pedestrian-oriented surrounding architecture, which makes it far more popular than any of the others.

              Other trails look more like:

              Beltline Southside Trail

              Stone Mountain Trail

              Silver Comet Trail

              Don’t get me wrong: they’re nice, in their own way. But they don’t have nearly the appeal or ridership of the only trail with proper urbanism.

              • DrunkenPirate@feddit.org
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                1
                ·
                5 days ago

                I see. And even understand this conflict. For me the best way is to accept pedestrians and slow down the speed. The other way, insist or enforce „your rights“, will lead to agression. We have this situation already in some dense city areas, where cars, bikes, and pedestrians kind of fight for the small space. It’s just stressful for eceryone.

                Do you know this one? It’s a disused railroad track in a hilly industrial city Wuppertal/ Germany with some bridges and tunnels. A community effort turned it into a bike & pedestrians trail along the city. A nice ride with many nice views. https://youtu.be/G5rTdihmagk?is=_0YkMt4Fek7_NLlE