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Comment by daniel_sim | Hacker News Reader

I have a 30-minute walking commute to work, and changing back to non-automated buttons has added about 5 minutes to that if I'm not super lucky with timing. The worst is seeing the lights turn and knowing it would have lit up green for pedestrians only to have to wait a full cycle for the next opportunity.

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> I have a 30-minute walking commute to work

isn't that like 10 mins cycling?

Not everyone feels safe doing that. Plus you need a plastic hat in Australia.

> Plus you need a plastic hat in Australia.

You always do. The damage you can get from a simple balance loss, or worse, when falling on a car or a curb is scary. Wear your plastic hats to protect your head people!

agree with some caveats. helmets are a must when cycling on roads. but parks are a bit different. also, i remember a study that said drivers are more cautious when they see a cyclist without a helmet. not sure how relevant the study was, but as a driver i can confirm this.

all this being said, summer time + helmet = lots of sweat.

How often do you lose you balance and what direction if I may ask? Not sure how I'm supposed to hit my head on a bike unless a car hits me. If you lose balance that often leave it at home. Helmet is good especially for the latter reason but a bicycle goes 20kmh and if you fall you don't die, just get your knees hurt or something.

Once in a bad situation is enough for permanent brain damage. Another bike or a car making a sudden move, someone hitting you, etc. Curbs and cars provide for dangerous landing spots if you fall.

I know of two separate people who were biking as a part of their daily commute without a helmet, and woke up in the hospital with zero recollection of what happened, but multiple issues (such as one of them being unable to concentrate or remember things).

So did the two seperate people fall, or get hit by a car? I know zero people who hurt themselves badly on a bike, but I know two that got hit by a car as pedestrians, so going with my anecdata walking is much more dangerous than biking

That's the "fun" thing about it, neither of them actually know. They woke up in the hospital and have no recollection of what happened.

You don't hit your head on the bike, you hit it on the concrete or a curb. Roads can be slippery, material failure is possible. The speed of the bike isn't that much of a factor, it's the object under you preventing you from effectively mitigating the fall, or making it worse.

I fell twice recently because of slippery roads just as you're saying. Both times my head was far far away fron the floor, I only hurt my palms and knees both times.

I still don't know how you're supposed to fall head first onto a curb unless you tie your arms behind your back.

> you need a plastic hat in Australia.

That's because safety is cool, although some people do prefer the brain damage option.

True, most people in cars choose brain damage. But my campaign for car helmets has not taken off, despite the fact that more people in cars will die or be irreparably damaged for want of a helmet than people in bikes.

I'm not having much luck selling my shower helmets either. I was hoping to get double sales on stairs helmets by selling ascending/descending models.

Sydney is probably less cycling-friendly than you expect. I don't have the source but I remember reading that the trend over the years has been removing bike lanes instead of adding.

Edit:typo

Several new bike lanes were added in inner Sydney during the pandemic, e.g. in Newtown/Erko.

as a road bike cyclist and a driver, i tend to cycle wherever there's a road. so i do understand that i'm a bit biased, but usually it's quite safe riding a bike in a city (due to slow traffic), especially in a place like the CBD in Sydney.

I feel like they've tried to add bike lanes, but there's generally a lot more hills to climb in the inner city, and the culture is more anti-cyclist.

I moved to Melbourne a few years ago and the infrastructure, elevation and culture is much friendlier towards cyclists.

I wouldn’t say it’s always comparable like that. I takes me twenty minutes to walk to work, but there is a 200 m elevation difference. I don’t walk back up home and take a bus instead, which does take a bit longer, but i think walking back up would still be easier than cycling.

Some of the pedestrian route isn’t really bike accessible too, as stairs are involved, there are alternative routes of course, but some can be considerably longer.

fair point. elevation is truly a bike killer. except for the electric bikes, but those are really heavy.

Walking is also good exercise. I often walk when I live in a very cycle-able city, to add to low effort exercise. Cycling is too easy :-)

walking also does a lot of good for the mind.

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