TV star has idea for Hammersmith bridge - and calls anti-cycling council ‘tw*ts’
  • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
    64·
    2 days ago

    Never forget Top Gear’s episode racing through the center of London. Results as follows:

    1. Bicycle
    2. Boat
    3. Tube (public transit)
    4. Car

    It wasn’t even really close.

  • j_elgato@leminal.spaceEnglish
    15·
    1 day ago

    You all heard Captain Slow.

    Hand over them keys.

    Actually, that would be amazing. Unfortunately, living in a major North American city, I don’t have enough wealth to be without a car.

    • Lumbardo@reddthat.comEnglish
      11·
      1 day ago

      Man I really wish we weren’t so entrenched in this car-centric city planning philosophy. Public transit just doesn’t get it done around here compared to abroad.

      • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
        5·
        19 hours ago

        Cars need lots of space. Streets and roads need to be wide, and parking lots are needed when cars are not in use.

        These factors push everything far apart. If you think of North American shopping plazas in suburban areas, they are generally large empty spaces with parking lots between stores.

        If you want to cross the street or road to the Walmart or HomeDepot in the plazza accross the one you are in, you generally need to drive or walk 20 min or more, and you need to walk to a main intersection with pedestrians signals, good luck trying to cross 4-6 lanes of suburban traffic with shopping bags.

        Let alone, local transit stops are located outside the plaza’s at a major intersection generally with a 15min walk to the store entrance.

        The urban planning is extremely inefficient and poor.

      • j_elgato@leminal.spaceEnglish
        4·
        23 hours ago

        Works fine as long as you don’t mind being late. Limiting your travel times. Tripling the length of your commute. And braving a mobile-psychiatric dayroom environment in order to go anywhere…

  • Termight@lemmy.mlEnglish
    111·
    2 days ago

    James May added: “The thing that really bothers me is road sectarianism. Quite a few people in cars seem to be somehow offended by people riding bicycles because they’ve paid all this money for a car and think therefore they should be rewarded for it, but often they’re just not using the car very intelligently.” 👍

    James May

    • Random Dent@lemmy.mlEnglish
      42·
      2 days ago

      I have to admit I’m a bit guilty of this, but from both sides. I bike more than I drive, and when I’m driving all cyclists are a menace and are in the way, but when I bike all drivers are reckless idiots who are trying to kill me.

      • lilpatchy2eyes@slrpnk.net
        6·
        1 day ago

        I still think about the time I passed a bicyclist on the road, reached a red light, and saw him pass between all the cars that had just passed him to stop in front of me again. We all had to pass him again.

      • Thebigguy@lemmy.mlEnglish
        13·
        2 days ago

        The rule of the road is that any one going slower or faster than you is a menace, this applies to everyone with pedestrians being at the bottom of the food chain.

      • easily3667@lemmus.orgEnglish
        119·
        2 days ago

        To be fair most cyclists in major cities have a death wish. I don’t have another way to describe wearing all black in winter with no lights driving against traffic in a car lane (where there is also a dedicated, separated bike lane), and ignoring all stop signs and traffic signals. It’s a death wish.

        Yes it’s mostly doordash et al, but just because doordash doesn’t care about it’s workers doesn’t mean the workers don’t have to.

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          7·
          2 days ago

          in my region the doordash type motorcyclists are the ones with a deathwish, they weave fast through traffic like they are immortal (and traffic laws don’t exist). needless to say they die a lot. the byciclists are rightfully afraid of our chaotic traffic, except when they install a motor on their bikes, for some reason.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          there is no dedicated separate bike lane in the country im from.

          sometimes they indicate them with paint on the pavement, but they’re always right on the edge and usually used for parking, and if you try to bike in those you’re going to have to merge into traffic quickly at some point.

    • TipsyMcGee@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      19·
      1 day ago

      with sufficient transit

      That’s an unnecessary qualifier. Cities without sufficient transit should also be car free – and get sufficient transit.

        • LovesTha🥧@floss.social
          11·
          14 hours ago

          @WaterFoul @TipsyMcGee I think you over estimate how much needs to be rebuilt. Just replacing shopping strips with low rise homes with ground floor retail and allowing for housing in fill around them gets you there. Building an excellent bus interchange in the giant carpark is easy too.

        • HalfSalesman@lemm.eeEnglish
          12·
          16 hours ago

          I don’t have any kids and I believe when I’m dead I wont be conscious of anything so I really struggle to care unless its something that can be done faster.

          That said, I kind of actually do think its physically doable within my lifetime, it would just require some technological advancement in automated construction and energy production.

            • HalfSalesman@lemm.eeEnglish
              11·
              15 hours ago

              I think you are jumping the gun. I’m a soft anti-natalist (because people do not choose to be born), don’t believe in free will, and I kind of resent being born myself and the expectations that come with it. I’ve not loved life much and one of the main reasons I’ve not killed myself is that I am terrified of dying now that I’m alive.

              By my own ethical analysis, I don’t owe the world anything on an intrinsic level. I did not choose to be here and I’ve not forced anyone else into the world. Like sure, I’ll help in a pretty conventional emotional/empathy sort of way for people around me in the present. And can empathize with kids in terms of feeling bad about how screwed they are though what with the state of the climate. Not my fault though.

              If I had brought a new human being into existence I’d probably be in a perpetual state of anxiety over the responsibility of giving them a good life since I’m the one that fucked up and brought them here. Luckily for me that’s not happened and probably wont with my plans to get a vasectomy once I have the cash and a full vacation day or two for recovery.

              But yeah, fuck you. I guess we’re just mortal enemies or some shit? Get your stick out of your ass. You aren’t morally superior.

                • HalfSalesman@lemm.eeEnglish
                  1·
                  15 hours ago

                  Dude, I can see your post history. You shouldn’t be talking. All you do is whinge and moan.

                  Also you’re basically a reactionary walking along the border of just calling me a degenerate. So just do it.

    • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      5·
      1 day ago

      If you banned private vehicle use in cities without sufficient transit, overnight such transit would, as if by magic, suddenly appear. Private bus services are a thing.

    • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      214·
      1 day ago

      if you drive a car, you’re guilty of reckless endangerment, if not manslaughter. you are trying to kill me. nothing is unjustified in self defense, and if you’re moving, it’s not pre-emptive.

        • melpomenesclevage@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          5 hours ago

          no. those are “we should maybe be 5% less evil and 5% less stupid about being evil to each other sometimes”, which they actually see in large numbers and sometimes conjures lynch mobs from thin air. by the time I’m saying this, I don’t think anyone’s listening anymore.

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
    140·
    2 days ago

    Could not be more correct. Public spaces and transit, cities need to be for the people that live there. Not for suburban commuters

    • rippersnapper@lemm.ee
      221·
      2 days ago

      I just wish cycle theft wasn’t as prevalent as it is. If journalists can track down the shipping of stolen cycles, cops should be able to stop it.

      • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
        10·
        2 days ago

        Agreed theft is always a issue, there are ways to try and mitigate it. Proper storage, dedicated parking, lighting, cameras or security. Not all all 100% full proof though, not going to lie. Cars even get broken into when all these above listed items are in place.

        Side note, I know in Europe it’s common to have a secondary “beater bike” in the city, you ride your bike to the train in your local town, then grab your beater in the city train station.

  • B-TR3E@feddit.org
    61·
    2 days ago

    Obviously TV stars are the right people to ask about city planning. Because city planners and architects have given up the concept of automotive cities as recently as 1970 and nobody has been giving a fuck since then. On of the fathers of the original idea, Le Corbusier, declared the automotive city as failed because of the sheer number of cars . The automobile revolution had, in his opinion turned into an automobile explosion and no reasonable concept could handle the volume of traffic that were far beyond the estimations the original idea was based on. Nevertheless reasonable political reactions on the total failure of dealing with permanently increasing inner city infvidual traffic are still an exception. Because Hans Wurst and Joe Moron must have their car an arm’s length away from their sofas or they’ll either die from exhaustion walking to the convenience store or from acute lack of beer and potato chips…

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    2·
    1 day ago

    I regularly transit between Heathrow and downtown. It’s about 13 miles or so. Regularly 45 minutes to an hour and a quarter, and as much as an hour and three quarters if there was some event letting out at the time. For such short distances I don’t think I’ve seen any US city compare. Sure, some have bad hours or short segments of regular congestion, and I’ve driven from one side of the country to another, but London takes the cake for shitty driving most any hour of the day for such a short transit.

  • kameecoding@lemmy.world
    1117·
    2 days ago

    Bit too absolutist imo, people with mobility issues exist, i’d say most cars don’t belong in cities, and it would be solved by good design, traffic restrictions etc.

    when I was a kid almost all kids took the bus and walked to school, now I live opposite of an elementary school in a “socialist block” in middle europe and in the morning there is a huge line of cars dropping off kids, the school literally has a roundabout in front of it’s entrance to make it easier, it’s awful design, not to mention there is literally a bus stop on the other side of the school.

    There is 0 reason for kids to be driven to school.

    • Katana314@lemmy.worldEnglish
      91·
      2 days ago

      Mobility issues are the first dog whistle of car pros, and the first point to be dissected entirely.

      Handicapped people have tools they use to navigate an office floor, and they use those same tools to cross from their apartment to the corner store. Building pedestrian-friendly cities and encouraging low-speed transport like bikes and trams helps them too.

      Many handicap users also can’t drive cars, meaning public transit options suited to their common routes are a godsend. Advocates of bikes often encourage having that whole setup, so people can pick between walking, biking, or trains as needed.

    • pineapple@lemmy.mlEnglish
      275·
      2 days ago

      With you first point i disagree. I think public transport is often just fine or even preferable for people with mobility issues. If they are wheelchair bound then they cannot drive. And public transport has come a long way in terms of supporting disabled people such as most trains trams buses from were I come from now support wheelchair access.

      Although I would be interested if there are any examples were taking public transport is infeasible or unhelpful to specific situations.

      • domdanial@reddthat.comEnglish
        6·
        2 days ago

        Wheelchair bound people absolutely can drive, there are a lot of retrofit vehicles that support a wheelchair and have alternative controls.

        Maybe not ideal, but in some parts of the US not having a car is a real problem.

        • cmhe@lemmy.world
          122·
          2 days ago

          Why would wheelchair bound people have to pay so much more to get car they can use, when they can pay the same price as everyone else for a ticket to ride with public transportation?

          Also there are blind and other handicapped people that can easily ride public transport on their own, but would have to rely on others to ride with their own car.

          Public transport is especially useful for the handicapped and elderly compared to personal cars.

          • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
            13·
            2 days ago

            why would they buy a car when they can pay the same price for public transport

            They answered that

            In some parts of the US not having a car would be a real problem

            And truthfully, for a not insignificant part of the country, it won’t be. Population densities just wouldn’t support it.

            • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
              31·
              1 day ago

              why would they buy a car when they can pay the same price for public transport

              They answered that

              Basically, because they have no choice. More public transportation is choice.

              • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 day ago

                Yes it’s definitely 100% a reasonable choice for people who don’t even technically live in cities. Absolutely

                • LovesTha🥧@floss.social
                  01·
                  1 day ago

                  @Lv_InSaNe_vL @Malfeasant I’m happy to limit the ‘no personal cars’ to areas that are 1/4 acre blocks and below. (Remembering that a 1/4 acre block gets back a substantial amount of useful land when you delete the driveway, so blocks all become ‘bigger’ in such a system)

                  Places that are substantially less dense than that do benefit from cars. But that isn’t that large a % of people, while it is a very large % of the land mass.

      • kameecoding@lemmy.world
        42·
        2 days ago

        Sure no problem, let’s say you live in a village that’s next to a small town and then you are sent to an appointment to another doctor that’s only found in a nearby city, doing all that stuff is a lot of travelling, exhausting

        • loonsun@sh.itjust.works
          124·
          2 days ago

          Let’s say you live on the moon and need to reach earth for the funeral of your Aunt who rules the underground city of Uthrangon.

          You are discussing edge cases. Urban planning should consider edge cases but not base the code design of a city after them.

          • kameecoding@lemmy.world
            21·
            2 days ago

            I am not discussing edge cases I provided the example asked for, I agree with James May that cars in cities suck and we should plan cities better and reduce their numbers as much as possible, I just dislike the absolutist nature of the headline it’s the exact type of headline that opposers of good urban planning will point to when accusing people of wanting to taker freedum and their cars

          • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
            22·
            2 days ago

            I disagree. I think disability access should be one of the most important things considered when designing public spaces.

            Its something that I (an American) honestly took for granted until I spent some time in Europe. I’m fortunate to be completely physically and mentally (for this conversation lol) capable, but I have friends who are not. But going around Europe, especially outside of big cities, it was shocking to see how many buildings aren’t wheelchair accessible, how roads crossings aren’t designed for people with vision impairments, how little braille there was, bathrooms without mobility bars, and countless other little things.

            And the argument I heard a lot was either “but they’re old buildings” or “it’ll cost too much money” and honestly those are some BS answers.

            Idk the US does a lot wrong, but the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) really does seem to be the global standard. And it’s an incredibly good thing.

            • triplenadir@lemmygrad.ml
              2·
              1 day ago

              To explain my downvote: yes, designing for disabled access is important. But making out that the ADA is actually enforced, and ignoring its origins in controlling and disempowering disabled people, is bullshit. So’s your original pessimistic example - if we’re improving public transit and banning cars from cities, we can absolutely tear up the carbrained suburbs, and massively expand access-a-ride and similar services in the meantime.

      • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
        53·
        2 days ago

        My local public transit only commes by five times a day, and if the bus is already full, they’ll not let the wheelchair user on. Ostensibly they’ll send a van to pick them up, but those don’t adhere to a schedule and can take hours to arrive.

        Transit around here is so bad that I’ve had multiple jobs tell me I’m not eligible for hire if I rely on the bus.

        • LovesTha🥧@floss.social
          101·
          2 days ago

          @faythofdragons @pineapple shitty PT is not the goal. Yes there are PT systems that are shit, that doesn’t mean good PT is worse than good individual car ownership (something I’ve never heard of), it just means shitty PT need to be less shitty.

          • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
            42·
            2 days ago

            Shitty public transit is the goal around here though. Its being run by fucking NIMBYs that don’t like that the bus that goes to my town also services a reservation, and just whine whine whine that the fully packed bus is too expensive and should be cut.

              • faythofdragons@slrpnk.netEnglish
                2·
                1 day ago

                Western Washington, surprisingly enough. I thought the area had fantastic transit before I moved, but outside the cities it sucks. I’m currently waiting for a taxi because my MRI finished after the last bus home. It’s only 5:30pm.

    • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
      114·
      2 days ago

      I don’t really see any circumstance where a mobility-impaired person would prefer a car inside a city over just a motorized wheelchair…

      • kameecoding@lemmy.world
        45·
        2 days ago

        i would like to answer.

        What is, human settlements outside city where people also live but have to go into the city sometime?

        • Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de
          52·
          2 days ago

          bro you are on fuckcars, commenting shit like this either means you’re here in bad faith or you’re just ignorant.

          • kameecoding@lemmy.world
            24·
            2 days ago

            I didn’t notice it’s fuck cars and I don’t really care, I will not make shitty absolutist comments that I don’t agree with, I believe in cities needing much better designs and better public infrastructure and disincentivizing cars as much as possible.

  • OmegaLemmy@discuss.online
    518·
    2 days ago

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