Amy_Ponder t1_iu0p9k2 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 6:10 PM

Reply to comment by [deleted] in New protected parking on Cambridge St? by wegry

The solution is for more people to bike, walk, and/or take public transit, so we have less cars on the road and wider bike lanes aren't an issue. (Also makes it a more pleasant experience for when you do decide to drive, since there'll be way less cars on the streets and therefore you won't get stuck in traffic anywhere near as often.)

ClarkFable t1_iu2v0bb wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:30 AM

Biking in the dead of winter isn’t practical for most people, regardless of the infrastructure. Look at Montreal.

Coomb t1_iu15oam wrote on October 27, 2022 at 7:57 PM

>(Also makes it a more pleasant experience for when you do decide to drive, since there'll be way less cars on the streets and therefore you won't get stuck in traffic anywhere near as often.)

Not going to happen. The corollary to induced demand (add new road space and people will switch modes from something else to driving until the total travel time is about the same as before you added road space) is that the same thing happens in reverse. If some people switch modes away from cars for whatever reason and that brings travel times down again, other people will switch back to cars. Make driving more pleasant -- > more people drive until everybody's just as miserable as they were before. This is the natural behavior of people minimizing commuting cost in a comprehensive sense.

Amy_Ponder t1_iu1nyw6 wrote on October 27, 2022 at 9:58 PM

That's why you've also got to make alternate methods of transportation-- walking, biking, and public transit-- as attractive as public transit, so people will still chose to forgo driving even when there isn't much traffic on the road for other reasons. Maybe it's cheaper, or faster, or you don't have to worry about finding parking at your destination, or you simply don't have to deal with the mental stress of driving itself, or some combination of all those factors.

It is possible to do-- as risk of sounding like one of those obnoxious Euroboos who've convinced themselves everything is perfect over there, many European cities really have figured out how to almost completely get cars out of their downtown areas without having to explicitly ban them. No reason we can't do the same over here.

ClarkFable t1_iu2vegh wrote on October 28, 2022 at 3:34 AM

There isn’t a major city in Europe that has the same winter lows, winter precipitation, and wind as Cambridge and has a higher bike commute percentage. It’s just not practical year round.

Amy_Ponder t1_iu43m7a wrote on October 28, 2022 at 12:27 PM

I bike year-round in Boston. Wear a ski helmet with goggles, ski gloves, and wool socks, and winter biking is just as pleasant as biking any other season.

Only scary part is it getting dark so early, which means you're biking in the dark more often, which means your odds of getting hit by a car go up. And better bike infrastructure and less cars on the street would vastly improve that situation.