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If they’re going to make people ride bikes and scooters in traffic, then it should at LEAST be legal to do the Snow Crash thing where you use a hook-shot-style harpoon to catch free rides from cars.
I’m so happy this is becoming more mainstream. Huge props to people like NotJustBikes for such effective propagandizing.
It was something I never could put words to until NJB showed up. I had already moved to NYC to get away from the burbs and driving.
And then I took the orange pill.
Yep. The combination of moving to New York City and reading “death and life of great American cities” really pushed me into being anti car culture. That and looking back at growing up in the suburbs where I couldn’t do anything without a car. Age like 10-17 sucked. I was so jealous of the kids that lived in the city and could go out and do things.
Why do we insist on putting the bike, car and pedestrian main pathways on the same corridor?
Split them up.
Space and cost
Ok absolute mood
I’ve never been to Amsterdam, but I am always skeptical whenever someone claims to me that any city isn’t a shithole.
Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, New York City, New Haven, Paris, Toronto… hard pass. Being that close to that many other people is fucking gross.
Antisocial people existing doesn’t mean that cities should be planned to cater mainly to them…
So don’t live in a city. But for those of us who do, and enjoy doing so, our cities shouldn’t be built to cater to you, they should be built around catering to those of us who enjoy living in them.
Edi: Blah, replied to wrong comment.
How much “space” does one person, or even a family need? When you were in those cities, where did you stay? There is a big difference between visiting a downtown core and living in a near-to-downtown neighborhood. Still not everyone’s cup of tea, sure, but if we all lived in an acre property we would collectively go bankrupt from infrastructure costs alone.
Sometimes I feel like I’m in a cult. Other times I feel like everyone else is in a cult. Is that bad?
I think that might be what it means to have an opinion tbh…
We are one, and you’re welcome to take the train in and out
The Netherlands is flat. Lots of US cities are not bike friendly due to hills.
Good news! There’s a new technology called an ‘e-bike’, which makes this problem (and wind, and sweat, and physical condition) completely irrelevant.
Physical condition is still relevant. If nothing else, being lighter extends your battery range. I have a couple of E-bikes. My 230lb/104.3kg ass can only manage to extend the range of the bikes to about 30 miles per charge, without pedaling. My friend’s daughter who is more like 105lbs/47.6kg, gets almost 50 miles per charge, without pedaling.
St. Petesburg is flat, but it doesn’t have a lot of bikes. Moscow is hilly(and called city on 7 hills) and has more bikes. Sooooo, extrapolating US should be better for bikes than Netherlands.
Changing urbanism culture doesn’t mean that everywhere needs to be exactly like the Netherlands, if a place is too hilly there are still better solutions than car-centrism.
Fuck bikes.
Counterpoint: Read panels 6 and 10 again. (The ones beginning “We’ve ceded” and “People approach” if I’ve messed up my counting somehow).
It really doesn’t matter to me, I hate big cities, and am currently in the process of selling my home to leave one.
And that’s totally fine. You do you. But
- Why do those who like cities have to live in a car-centric hellscape
- More people on bikes makes cities more bareble even for people who for some reason like driving because more bikes = less traffic jams and less noise
- Why does biking automatically mean big city. Small cities are in theory even better for that since they tend to be more compact. Stuff is less spread out even if the relative density is lower.
Good, go live in the woods and don’t show your face again. Isolationist weirdos like you are neither welcomed nor needed in society.
I’m not leaving society, just moving to a better one.
Love to see Snow Crash references