Though progress is often slow, city planners and politicians are gradually waking up to the fact that when cities offer safe and affordable alternatives to cars, we start to travel differently.
More and more young people are choosing bicycles, buses and trains over owning a car out of the sheer cost. In Berlin, it’s public transport, not cars, which is the coolest way of getting around.
In Copenhagen, a city that has a long held reputation for being bike-friendly, a whopping 62% of people choose to cycle their commute.
In the French city of Lyon, the number of cars entering the city has fallen by 20% compared to just a decade ago. As the city’s network of bike hire stations continues to grow, town planners are hoping for a further 20% decline.
In London, where cycle super-highways are becoming popular, the share of journeys made by car has fallen by a quarter since 1990.
Car free days are rising in popularity in many of the world’s largest cities, giving people a taste of what it’s like to live with less noise, traffic and pollution. Bogota was one of the first cities to introduce a car free day, and it’s now become so popular that it’s been extended to a full week.
Bogotá’s Ciclovía is fantastic! I was there in the mid-nineties and they closed a major artery, the Carretera Séptima, on Sundays. Here some pictures.
He’s being a dick about it… but he does have a point. Some people really do need a door-to-door solution. Cars are simply the most feasible means to that end. Even the bus stops outside of the hospital grounds and the entrance can be a few hundred meters away. And that can be like a marathon for some of the sick, frail and elderly.
That doesn’t mean that everyone should own a car. A ride-share system or self-driving taxi service could provide for people in need. But banning cars and roads entirely is just not going to work, especially not in the USA, without any public transport to speak of. I wish we could and it is a nice dream, but not a feasible one.
Terrible design.
Perhaps, but that’s the way it is. Hospitals are so big they often have multiple entrances too.
They can rather easily put a rack of wheelchairs next to the bus stop. I know because that’s what they did in California. I routinely push elderly men and women to their destination when I arrive for my appointments, because they are trying to get there by themselves, and the bike racks that I’m using are like 10-15 feet from the wheelchair racks.
That could help and they should do this wherever they can. But it may not be an option for many city hospitals.
I also know some hospitals that have shuttle buses between the metro station and the hospital.
But the thing is, those kind of solutions don’t scale well. They work when a few people are taking public transport in an otherwise car-centric place. But if cars were to be banned and everyone would have to take the train or bus, it would be chaos. And there wouldn’t be enough volunteers to help even a fraction of the patients.
Well, a bike is a door-to-door solution, isn’t it?
I am not saying one size fits all. Some people do need an ambulance, or a van. But it should not be considered the norm.
As you can see, I do not favour banning all cars. But restricting unnecessary ones. And making cycleways so safe and convenient that they are preferred by healthy people,
I wouldn’t mind a lack of a door-to-door solution if there was a safe, reliable, means of traveling the first/last mile. Something sheltered from the elements, that could be safely driven in places that actually experience seasons. Probably something communal (think like the bikes or the scooters that you can pick up and rent anywhere), but more like a small golf cart or a covered ATV/trike.
Not everyone can bike everywhere. And many people that (physically) could, are dissuaded from it, because of road conditions, distance, climate, or having to share said road with blind idiots in cars.
Hell, I have a sweat gland condition…if I stand still in the sun for 10 minutes on an 80 degree day then take of my shirt, it’ll make a “thump” when it hits the ground. Going out for a casual stoll in the summertime, itself, is embarrassing. No way in hell am I going to be walking in the office after biking even a mile to the bus stop (but my nearest bus stop is actually 5 miles).
I went in one day, and the A/C on the train was broken. I spent my first half of the day working from a crashcart in the cold aisle of the datacenter…not because I needed to be there, but because I needed to be isolated from people and frozen to the bone.
This, exactly, is the point we have to change. For example by building safe cycleways and reducing speed limits in all shared streets to 30km/h (20 mph).
P.S.
Regarding seasons, elements, Winter and so on: Did you hear of Oulu, Finland? It is close to the polar circle, and people cycle there in Winter.
And… Did you hear of the Netherlands? People cycle there a lot. And it is normally a rainy and windy country.
If you think people who can’t walk a few hundred meters can bike to the hospital I’ve got news for you…
Second, as a fellow cyclist you also don’t want those people on the road. They are a danger to themselves and others.
For the most part, I think we agree. But dismissing other people’s needs for a car just because you don’t need one is not going to help either.
Jesus Christ, people who are too ill to walk should take a taxi or call an ambulance. I am not saying they should use a bike. But they should certainly not drive a car.
The same for people who are very frail, cannot see well, may have dementia, or severe circulatory problems. They should not drive a car.. Period.
If you are from the US, the idea might be alien to you, but we have public health insurance here, and if you need to go to hospital in an ambulance, this is covered by insurance. If you need a cab, you can get a coupon from your doctor. That might sound alien for you, but it is just a decent, halfways humane system.
And exactly for the people which are ill and frail, we need better public transport with good coverage. There are far too many accidents from the elderly, from people which are objectively unable to drive safely. This has to change.
And as soon we have satisfying public transport for these people, a whole lot more excuses fall apart why one needs to own a car.
I am not saying that nobody should have a car, or that today it isn’t the least worst option for many people. But owning and needing to use a car should be the exception - not the norm. It is not sustainable. We cannot live on like that. Look at the weather - wildfires, drought, floods. Do you think we can continue like that for 20 more years?
Yeah you did. I said some people need a door-to-door solution and explained further who those people are. If you then call the bike a door-to-door solution we’re still talking about those people.
And disabled or sick people can sit in a car and drive it, or sit in the passenger seat. You don’t have to assume their mental status.
Whoever said anything about that? Not being able to walk and dementia don’t have very much to do with one another, except for occurring at an older age.
Yes, I already mentioned the ride-sharing or robo-taxi solutions.
Uhh. No. Where did you get that idea? I already said we mostly agree. I simply disagreed with your point about elderly people not needing to be driven in cars.
It seems you’re doing the exact same thing you accused the other guy of. Trolling, bad faith arguing, moving the goalposts, ascribing ideas to me that I never had (a.k.a. straw man). Knock it off man.