In other places, I HAVE found motorcycles to be the best solution. Better than scooters, and simply able to cover ground so much more quickly than bicycles – or, for that matter, really any other vehicle. It’s an exciting thought that electric motorcycles will soon be widely commercially available…

P.S. Here’s the secret to ninja bicycle riding: learn to ride without using your hands. It’s really not that hard, just put your bike in the highest gear and slowly let go while riding. With your hands free, you can more freely use your body mass to ‘pump’ the way you would when jogging. You can really get some momentum going doing this…

I’ve ridden the whole Chicago waterfront bike trail, from downtown to the north edge of the city and back, the whole way without touching the handlebars once – including the turnaround!

I was passsing guys on $1000+ road bikes, on some old ‘comfort bike’ of some kind.

I should note it works better on hybrid or mountain bikes, rather than road bikes, at least for me.

Hahaha! Learning to ride with no hands makes riding a bike a lot more fun…same goes with motorcycles too ;)

Really quite a way to get to work. Unlike in the usual instance, the commute itself made the job even more of a joy ;)

electric skateboards!

Seriously, look on ebay or amazon, there’s all kinds of bad ass boards there. The other good thing is that the motor provides what skateboards need most on some roads, which is a braking system ;)

Oh! The stress & expense!

I do most of my own bicycle maintenance (every girl should know how to wash grease off her hands) and just no procured a trailer for hauling. I’m about to load it up with hats and musical instruments for Sunday Parkways; I’ve even helped friends move (yes, I live in Portland).

One major aspect of driving that other modes don’t have a problem with is the social. When I see a friend while driving, I can honk or yell, but it feels rude and it’s difficult to convey much. On the bus, riding my bike or walking, it’s so easy to stop when you see someone or, if you’re both going the same way, talk and travel at the same time.

When I ride, I feel happier. I also feel healthier & cover more territory than otherwise. I might travel further, faster in a car (driving to Vancouver takes about 8 hours max, biking can take up to six days) but the results are far less satisfying.

That does make sense, though; I’ve NEVER been able to understand the resurgance of fixed-gear bikes. I just see more options when riding as better. Honestly, though, simple shifters add, what, three moving parts to a bicycle?

And yes, motorcycles do pollute and some assholes modify them to be as noisy as legally possible. I think I see the appeal of bicycling more about the experience of riding than the environmental aspect of it (at least, that’s why I ride a bicycle when I do). Motorcycles that get 80MPG and are as quiet as a car aren’t hard to come by.

Public transportation and bikes are a great combination. Here where I live the city of Jacksonville, FL had dropped the required pass to use the bike racks on the busses and the usage has gone up. I have noticed at least a bike a bus at certain times of the day.

I have now my 16″ Dahon Curve SL which was $600.00 is for travel. The 24″ wheeled folder cost me some cash when I traveled and got snagged on the baggage measurement requirements, but I did budget for that contingent. So I was able to go to other cities and enjoy sight seeing on my own bike. In other cities many have bike racks as well. I have found that traveling on public transportation in other cities is also a great way to see a city. We have a town center that I bus to and then ride when we are close by. I will always have parking and could get to many of the stores quickly and with a minimum of problems. I have also found that taking a folder to a convention is awesome especially if the convention has several hotels or that your hotel is some distance from a convention center. I make sure my bikes have enough steampunk flair to be used as a prop and could take into a convention center.

I will say that biking is not for everyone. Nor am I out to convert people. I like my situation as I have been doing it for so long and have created a niche for myself in my environment. Are there things I would like not to happen while cycling, sure. Weather that is 79 everyday. Tail winds, rain only during working hours. (People ask what do you do when it rains? I get wet. I have on hand extra socks, towels and shirts.) Terrible drivers and even I dare say, cyclists who do not adhere to the rules of the road.

They are working out some of the issues, they have some trouble re-populating the stations sometimes, and most users think there aren’t enough stations, they need to be denser on the ground. One of the things they are figuring out is that bike-share programs *are* a form of public transportation.

I found a USA Today article that says it’s happening or is planned in Chicago, Denver, Des Moines, and Miami Beach, and that New York, Boston, and San Francisco have plans for systems like this.

Yeah, each mode has its own benefits. Some are more sustainable (both economically and ecologically) than others. Cars, and SUVs especially, are one of those that are unlikely to persist much longer at the level of usage that they are at now. Motorcycles are a good step down from that. Public transit is as well. Walking and cycling are probably the best, though.

You say the cyclists want to turn left from a bike lane on the right. I’m not sure I follow the description, but if that’s difficult to do, it may be a poorly planned bike lane — it’s not very useful to have a bike lane from which you can’t turn onto other streets you need to access. If a cyclist has to dismount and walk their bike across the street to turn left, that’s poor design, just as if a driver had to get out of their car to press a button to change the red light to green. (I may be misunderstanding — the bike lanes in your photo look like they offer right- and left-turn lanes.)

It looks like your government is saying the network is only half-finished, and therefore not very usable yet:

“Critics … need to realise that we need to build it in stages. It’s a bit like building a bridge and getting halfway through and wondering why no one is using it yet,” [Lord Mayor Clover Moore] said.

Mr Gay said “Judging by the amount of frustration from both motorists and cyclists, planning was certainly not done properly by the former Labor government.” [link]

(Apropos of nothing, I find it delightful that your mayor is named Clover.)

I see that there is concern over pedestrians in the bike lanes. From a forum at http://www.bicycles.net.au:

Still, many cyclists were using them, and, worryingly, so too were many pedestrains. Now my view on this is that if dedicated bike lanes are being used as a matter of course by pedestrians they are not fit for purpose, pose a danger to everyone and so I for one will be sticking to the road.

I had to ride at below walking pace (NOT in peak hour) due to the number of pedestrians who were walking on the path or stepping out and not looking (or looking at the car out on the road. Every time i rang my bell they turned around and gave me big dirties. [link]

There are also cyclists who are philosophically opposed to separate bike lanes. Their argument is that moving to a bike lane on those roads that offer them will promote the idea that bikes don’t belong on roads, which means they’ll have more trouble when they need to bike on roads without the special bike lanes.

I am not one of those cyclists — I am drooling over your bike lanes, and would use them all day every day if I could. (I also yell at cyclists who run red lights, because they make my life harder by increasing car-bike antagonism.) But I see the argument they’re making — sometimes you need to assert threatened rights to keep from losing them altogether. If bikes are legally entitled to be on most roads (as in the US), and many drivers don’t know or care that this is the case, the creation of separate bike lanes might give the impression that bikes are only permitted where the bike lanes run.

I wouldn’t have any idea as I do not cycle into/through the city because Sydney drivers are incredibly inconsistent and I need my metal safety blanket.

Well, I guess the obvious question is: how good can those car-proof bike lanes be if you don’t feel comfortable biking in them?

I’m currently living in mid-town Toronto (St. Clair/Yonge), and I have to say it’s not too bad, cost-wise. I use my bike to get to my job on Queen Street and it takes 20 minutes – if I take transit it’s about 30-45 minutes. Going home, uphill, it’s about a 30 minute ride. And it’s a fairly safe ride; lots of other cyclists around, lots of speed bumps, lots of empty alleyways, well-lit streets. I’ve only been hit once in four years! Some crazy driver tried to push me off the road after he waved me through an intersection. I didn’t get a good look at him, but I suspect it was Mayor Doug Ford. ;-)

Anyways, it’s been cheaper for me than living outside Toronto and buying a car (plus insurance, gas, and maintenance costs) or paying for transit passes (and dealing with the stresses of the TTC). When I need a car, I rent one.

The only shitty thing about bikes is they are easily stolen. Best strategy is to make your $7000 bike (we all have them, right?) look like it was dragged out of a swamp. Thieves don’t like crappy-looking bikes, even if they ride perfectly.

Maybe that was your point, but you opened your comment with “You don’t get to know a city on a bike.” Maybe you should’ve said “I never got to know a city on a bike”…but then you repeat it:

…you don’t get to know a city by biking or walking or anything-ing through it. Cities are made of people (not streets or sidewalks or cafes) and you don’t know people until you meet them

I have two replies to that: 1) I don’t know how it works in Canada, but here in Boston people would prefer you not knock on their doors without a damn good reason. Your plan for getting to know a city is not open to most people. That said, I’ve met more people on my bike than I would in a car. (I do meet people on pubtrans, occasionally, but most people on buses and the T are all folded in on themselves with an iPod or a newspaper.) On a bike, I can stop and tell someone his garden is beautiful, or chat with the crowd that forms as I’m trying to photograph a one-eyed snapping turtle. 2) There are multiple ways to know a city. There is value in getting to know the physical structure of a city. Personal interaction is also valuable, of course, but the original article was talking about becoming a thoughtful urbanist — someone who is mindful about the ways the structure of cities affects the way we live in them — and for that, biking is one of the best ways to learn.

I get that you don’t want anybody telling you you’re wrong for not biking, and that you feel you’ve been put on the defensive. But you’re trying to tell cyclists how they do and do not ride their bikes, from the perspective of someone who does a very particular kind of biking. That seems equally bad.

I love how biking advocates all assume…

1. Everyone is under 60
2. Everyone lives in places that don’t get winters
3. No one is handicapped or has a physical issue that interferes with biking
4. Everyone has a job that is within biking range and can just pack up and move closer to work. Where I live I could never afford that.
5. Everyone has a job where they can show up in the morning all sweaty or can even lock their bike up

1. Riding a bike does not have to be physically challenging. Most people are more than capable of riding a bike well past the age of 60. Furthermore, doing exercise helps fight off the effects of aging. Being sedentary is the worst thing to do when you’re old.

2. You can ride a bike in winter. I live in Boston and do it. Lots of people here do it. Just wear winter clothing.

3. I don’t think anyone is making this assumption. If you have a physical handicap that prevents you from biking, you can’t bike.

4. There are low-income communities almost everywhere. Of course rural areas make biking to work impractical because of the distance involved. Don’t forget the money you save. It is significant. You don’t have to buy gas, you don’t have to pay for parking, you don’t have to pay for car insurance, and regular maintenance is WAY less expensive.

5. Ride at a slower, more relaxed pace and you won’t break a sweat. I arrive at work as fresh as when I left home. You can lock up a bike almost anywhere. How removed from civilization are you? If you’re really desperate you can lock your bike to itself or bring it inside.

After reading your self centered post, I get the sense that IRL people are more annoyed by you, than vice versa, but I’ll still give you a free bit of advice for this problem that most commuters have managed to figure out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod

Short-term bike hire is awesome, though. I’m trying to get my non-riding friends interested.

Because if we chose to live in a way that invites bike use, we’d all be on bikes.

Riding around the last town I lived in taught me to appreciate it in ways I never thought I would. Riding around the town I live in now reminds me how much ass it sucks… but it’s even worse in a car.

‘Why do you advocate the needs of middle class hobbyists over a robust public transport system that would better serve the general public, including the working poor, as opposed to designing systems that’d suit those able to afford 7000 dollar bikes?’

Then I remember it’s the internet.

Mesa, AZ, the city just east of Phoenix, is one of those cities. We have wide, 5-lane major streets every mile. They’re straight, they’re flat, and most of them (at least in my East Mesa neighborhood) don’t have bike lanes.

As a not-so-athletic person with a new bike (about 4 weeks old), I’m terrified of the major streets around my house. I’m now pretty comfortable with the side streets in my neighborhood, but I’m not sure how long it’s going to take before I’m ready to commute on my bike.

I knew it wouldn’t be easy to switch from a car commute to a combined bus/bike commute, but I didn’t realize the hardest part would be finding the courage to ride my route. I hope that the heightened awareness that Cory talks about in his post does make me appreciate my community more. But right now it’s a major source of anxiety and discouragement.

I don’t get a sense of freedom from my car in a city. More often I find it to be an anchor.

Oops, got to go, the meter is running out.
No, if we walk over there we have to walk all the way back to the car.
We can’t go to x, no parking.

However the transit system in San Francisco is poor enough that I drive fairly often. I was on a bus today marveling at how I went six straight blocks where every block had a stop. And these were short blocks.

Hehe! Boy do I hear you. When we became parents, it was unbelievable how many times we had to explain that we STILL would not be getting a car and that we’d be just fine…

Hats off to you for pulling off the car-free lifestyle from the suburbs! :)

(P.S. You should come to the BB Ottawa meetup! :D)

Damn, it’s to late to go there!

Shit, it’s raining!

How the hell am I going to carry this?