javal

The city of Berlin, Germany, makes it a lot easier for bikers to travel cross town by underground if needed. Certain wagons are especially for bike carrying.

I-Like-To-Bike

Where is the bike?

lesiz

London has plans to do just the opposite: Bike lanes overhead. See the video here, super-cool.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar..._TECH_20120918

jettore

Hmm, I'll have to remember this one. "Oh sorry, I wasn't taking your photo. Just trying to get a shot of your bike so I can post it on the internet".

zeppinger

The year I left Seoul they had just started to implement a plan where the last car on each subway train would have a whole side devoted to bike racks.

Roody

This would be great. I would like it more if they did cover it. Also, they should make the bikeways downhill so you could coast or ride faster--like a long ramp. Then it would be worth a pound a ride ($1.61).

javal

she didnt mind...

Artkansas 

There's a site for that.

https://www.ratemyvelo.com/

Rootman

Nice frame

gerv 

The problem with bikes above and below ground is that these systems tend to enable car driving on the best real estate. They tend to make car driving very convenient since bicycles and I assume soon, pedestrians, won't be present on street level.

The best urban plans attempt to discourage car traffic and squeeze bicycles into what infrastructure currently exists. Get enough bicycles and enough infrastructure and it will be a real discouragement to car drivers.

Perhaps they'll park their cars and ride bicycles to work.

Roody

This is a very good point. We shouldn't just surrender our rights to use the streets. Bikes and peds can be effective traffic calming devices. Living streets, complete streets and woonerfs, for example.

gerv 

right... we need to slow down that notion that streets are the property of cars. It's unfortunate that the notion is so embedded in almost everything we do.

jettore

Wow, who knew? Here's my favorite .............. bike.
https://www.ratemyvelo.com/bicycle/of...k/2012-24.html

javal

I agree fully on that, but since (in this Berlin case) bikes evolve above and below ground its more a convenient service for riders not to have to chose above ground. In poor weather for instance. Or when your stamina is out...

gerv 

I actually enjoy riding in crappy weather.

I'm all for cyclists getting around in poor weather, but seems to me like you could replace an underground subway system with a few rain coats.

My concern is that we still leave the car infrastructure in place in our cities. It's clear to me that cycling and pedestrian traffic needs to push cars out of the picture, rather than try to accommodate. This goal, of course, goes well beyond the landscape of our cities. Reducing car traffic is part of our future as we deal with climate change and human domination of our planet-wide systems like air and water.

javal

This will probably make cycling un-attractive for loads of people. And if future climate and bike riding is correlated, we should make bike riding convenient for those who see themselves as motorists. And theres no rain coats for lost stamina, either...

Roody

Lost stamina shouldn't be a problem if you ride a reasonable bike at a reasonable speed, and if you are reasonably fit rather than crippled by a sedentary car-bound lifestyle.

javal

Theres hoards of people with non-psysical lifestyles. The US in particular? Un-healthy lifestyles in the western world are also an epidemic threat to future society, as is pollution. But essentially, convinient solutions for urban bike riders could promote a growing group to chose bikes instead of motortransport. And it makes sense.

gerv 

Ok... but to give you an example that I've experienced. It's turned cool here recently. 7C (40F ish) and windy. If you were just looking out the window at it, you might be tempted to say it's a rotten day and I'll take the car (or do nothing.)

But once you dress correctly and get out in it, it's really a blast to ride in such weather.

Don't knock it till you give it a try.

bjjoondo 

LOL, well Gerv, your a better man than I, I HATE, riding in snow on ice or below 30 F degrees, (can do 20 F, IF it's sunny)! Still I just don't think no matter "how many" bicycles are on the road, that cars will get pushed out as you say. In fact, "push come to shove", if there are "too many" of us bicycle riders, at least in the USA, my bets is that we will be "BANNED" from riding on roads and "forced" onto the sidewalks and trails, jmho, ymmv.

javal

As in the the case in Berlin, the biker/commuter has an option if/when the weather gets better/worse to jump the underground. But 7 C is hardly bad. Over here people ride several degrees minus.

gerv 

Sounds pretty much like my situation. I grab the bus when it gets really cold. 7C is a really nice day for me