Go for ankle straps over vests. It’s far more important for the reflective materials to be moving than the amount of body coverage you have.
GCN recently covered this topic with interviews of optometry and psychology professors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33GpfTWdk8U
You’re probably at the edge of the bus line. There’s a usually very empty bus every 30 minutes just a block away from me. I took that bus a few times and realized that my neighborhood is the turn around for it. Most of the folk on it have gotten off by the time it loops through.
This situation of empty busses at houses makes sense too. Why would a bus be full at the edge of town? It needs passengers first and they won’t accumulate until the bus is near populated spots like downtown. And why would a city pay for empty busses when they could route them in better areas?
I too live in a state that’s eliminating stagnating regulation, which in turn is causing my town and neighboring towns to catch up with extreme housing demands. I imagine we both will experience an awkward phase as some lots get updated buildings next to lots that haven’t seen construction in 60+ years.
I view my recent experience as long needed development. There’s no way a developer would plunge that much money into a building if they didn’t believe they could sell the apartments/condos. I’d watch to see how fast they sell out, if they haven’t already. Consider investing in nearby development if the complex sells quick. Maybe also consider moving further down the train line if you’re looking for a less dense neighborhood.
Totally! And SF is a place that’s been deploying more bicycle infrastructure and instructing their police to not enforce rolling stops, since at least from 2015! Our car brained governor is stopping such progress, so the battle continues. At least SF residents are holding their ground and voting to keep places like the great highway and JFK drive car-free.
To be fair, the article is trash. There’s details in other publications, like Reuters:
"Waymo said its vehicle was at a complete stop at a four-way intersection when a large truck crossed the intersection in its direction. At its turn to proceed, the Waymo car moved forward.
However, the cyclist, who was obscured by the truck which the cyclist was following, took a left turn into the Waymo vehicle’s path. When the cyclist was fully visible, the Waymo’s vehicle braked heavily, but wasn’t able to avoid the collision, the company said."
Drafting through an intersection is not very safe (I really should stop doing it myself) because of this exact visibility problem. Heck, it seems our cyclist friend cut left because they couldn’t see the waymo car either.
Watch out when crossing busy intersections, folk! Cars are bulky and opaque. Yield when encountering busy intersections.
In this incident there was a passenger in the car. They were not injured.
The rolling taxis problem is still a thing though. I know there’s lots for these self-driving cars to hang out in, but even that means a return trip back to base is without passengers.
That’s a fair position to take, and thank you for debating. Have an upvote!
I don’t think park-and-ride should be made artificially cheap or free because that causes demand to drive to the town edges. Regional transit is needed and is already competing with subsidized highways. We don’t need more subsidies that induce even more regional car demand!
Besides, even with charging for the lost costs, park-and-ride is going to be cheaper over inner-city parking. Let me clarify my point of the cost of a garage: the cost of building a garage includes materials, maintenance, enforcement, and land value. City edge land is cheap to the point that park-and-ride probably won’t be built as a garage but as a lot. Engineered buildings are expensive and usually only make sense when the land value is very high. I suspect it’s only a million or two to build a paved, ~200 spot park-and-ride, which would place daily spot pricing on the order of $1.50 to $2.50 a day. That’s pretty cheap compared to privately owned garaged parking in major cities (> $25 a day).
My pricing beef orbits around how often city garages are heavily subsidized. I’ll make a real-life example from a nearby city of 64,000 people. They built a garage adjacent to their downtown for $12 million. Amortizing that over 15 years and the number of spaces puts the minimum revenue per spot at $8.98 per day. What is the city’s going rate for parking? $40 per month for a permit and $1.25 an hour with 9 hours of enforcement. Only the hourly rate at 100% occupancy, which this lot is not generating, meets just the construction costs, let alone figuring out discount rate and property taxes.
And speaking of taxes, I expect publicly built parking lots and garages to also pay for their taxable rate, even if it’s just an accounting trick by the city to price their lots. Running local property taxes as a land value tax would go a long way towards properly pricing the value of public garages. LVT would also discourage parking in the city center, where land is expensive, in favor of parking on the city edge, where land is cheap. Just another trick which drives down park-and-ride pricing and discourages city-center parking.
There are good parking garages and bad parking garages. What makes a good parking garage? I’d say good garages must be:
Bad garages are ones that break the good rules. They are:
It’s also possible for a good garage to become a bad one. Say a small town installs a parking lot on the edge of town, but then the town grows. That lot should be removed due to the increased land value it occupies. The new medium sized town can consider adding a parking lot or garage again, but certainly not in their popular, profitable, and active downtown.
Yeah, it’s a hit or miss kind of thing. Some folk have zero issues with them. Also the nice thing with derailleurs is their cheap access to the huge gear range and count of cassettes.
Still, one of NJB’s talking points in his love letter to the omafiets is the lack of a derailleur. I’m taking that as a hard requirement of finding a US equivalent bike.
I ran across the Elecra but the issue I have is they run derailleurs. Derailleurs are just not as reliable as a fixed or internally geared bike. They’re easily bent, causing shifting headaches, and their exposure makes them susceptible to dirt and ice.
All my bikes have them, hence my often used and favorite tool is a derailleur hanger alignment tool.
Let us window gaze then!
PUBLIC offers some nice internally geared city bikes and beach cruisers. Their 8i series is their top end. It’s steel, has a 8-speed internal geared hub, fenders included, and with handles set for upright riding. Their optional rack looks like it pairs well with the frame. 8i series drive train gearing is something on the order of 28 to 86 gear inches. The cheaper 7i series is approximately 33 to 82 gear inches. Both are quite reasonable for city gearing with the 8i being easier for going up hills and an extra gear for better cadence matching.
Trek makes a beautiful city bike: the District 4 Equipped and has a step through version. Dynamo hub for always on lighting and the rack is included. Capable gearing at approximately 30 to 92 gear inches. IMHO, the best part is a Gates CDX carbon belt drive. Belt drives are even lower maintenance than a traditional bike chain. Never lube a chain again, battle with rust or road gunk, or become sad mid-ride with sand, mud, or ice fouling.
Speaking of belt drives, Priority specializes in them and has a big selection of commuting and recreational bikes. They even have a folding bike, which can be nice if you’re stuck needing to drive or take a bus for one leg of a trip.
Handsome makes frames and will build a bike to your spec. For example, you can spec their mixte bike (“She Devil”) with a Shimano Alfine 8-speed. Sellers like these are a great option, but I recommend finding a LBS willing to take a shipment and do final assembly work on it. Shipping completed bikes is expensive and you’ll still need tune-ups now and then.
I’m sure there’s more out there, but that’s enough shopping for me today. Who else has thoughts? Or perhaps other neat finds?
The closest production bike available in the US similar to omafiets would be the beach cruiser. They’re available as a single-speed with/without coaster brakes, or internally geared, have wide handle bars, step-through or stylish but still easy mounting frame, and often have color-matched basket and rack options.
Careful with what you wish for. Omafiets and cruisers work where there aren’t significant hills. Heavy single speeds really suck when you’re faces with even a moderate 4% grade. Practical urban bikes in the US really need some gearing.
Start smaller and cheaper! A rack and inexpensive/DIY paniers will absolutely hold two bags of groceries. Try riding an occasional forgot-the-milk / fresh veggies / beer run. It’s liberating.
I bought an inexpensive cargo bike, and enjoy it greatly, but I’ve gotten a fair amount of mileage out of my older bike after putting on a simple rack.
Ah, that’s totally fair. I thought you had a tight storage situation. Roll on. :)
Have you considered a folding bike, like a Brompton? They tend to be easier to carry up stairs or in an elevator. And they’re space efficient to store.
Another deeply disturbing tale. RIP Ben.
I’ve had many coworkers roll into the office with their carbon bikes because it makes quick work of a long commute and it’s so easy to carry a lightweight machine up the office stairs. They’d wear a backpack if they needed to carry a laptop. No cars involved; not even a bus.
There’s no need to gatekeep which kind of bike someone chooses to use when the objective is to not drive a car. They can ride a carbon bike if they want too.
Those are value judgements. How does a carbon bike get stolen if it’s never locked in a public place? Why would a carbon bike be loaded with anything more than a bottle of water and a small saddle bag?
These considerations are important for commuting, touring, and other fun activities, but are perhaps less important for the bike racer.
The advice is good (steel and aluminum are much underappreciated) yet this op-ed is weird and mean spirited. Yeah, carbon fiber bikes are expensive and quirky. They’re a specialty bike for racers squeaking out tens of seconds to a minute or two of time. No one is seriously advising new riders to get a 10 grand bike. Why the gatekeeping? Let racers spend their money on their favorite, healthy, and engaging hobby.
I’m hopeful. This measure forces visibility of progress and allows any regular citizen to sue the city if they try to weasel out. I can’t imagine a city politician taking a position of “we’re going to fight this ridiculous lawsuit about not installing a wider sidewalk for as long as it takes.” That’s a real bad look, especially given this measure passed 65% for, 35% against. It would be political suicide.