Comment by darkclouds | Hacker News Reader

Comment by darkclouds | Hacker News Reader

Cant get around in Cambridge the traffic is terrible, unless you have an ebike, so I guess everyone will be working remotely from home, but then why do we need so many houses in Cambridge?

Sure Stansted airport is 13mins down the M11 so Ryan Air can get you to most parts of Europe if you need a face to face meeting in Europe; Heathrow or Gatwick is more hassle if you have to head to the Americas, or far east, but this just seems pointless.

Saying that I think Prudential own all the land around Stansted Airport and the trick for the second runway at Stansted airport will be to build the 2nd runway quite a distance away from the first, so the eventual 3rd runway will fit between the two existing runways and its got the longest runway in the UK which is why the space shuttle flew in to Stansted on the back of a plane.

A14 has been improved making getting away for the weekend to the lake district or peak district easier, Cambridge to Mt Snowdon in Wales can be driven in 4 hours if you fancy a stomp and some hills, 3-4hrs walk up and down (pygs/miners), 4hrs drive back, aka a 12hr day, because Cambridge is really flat, and I mean really flat!

But I cant stress enough, the traffic in Cambridge is terrible and with global warming and rising sea levels, would these homes be a poor investment?

https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/parts-c...

> Cant get around in Cambridge the traffic is terrible, unless you have an ebike, so I guess everyone will be working remotely from home, but then why do we need so many houses in Cambridge?

Getting around Cambridge is perfectly easy, as long as you're not in a car.

> Cant get around in Cambridge the traffic is terrible, unless you have an ebike

Isn't that a great news? A good city should be walk-able and bike friendly instead of car friendly

The city centre is walkable and bike-able, but head out to parts of the burbs and its not so doable unless you dont mind walking for about an hour, or spending 20-30mins on a bike.

Cant have an ebike either because the state doesnt like their limited revenue generating and prosecute-ability, judging by the news outlets lamenting ebike fires and deaths, whilst not mentioning the virtue of working smoke detectors.

I actually love the fact that you can get pretty much anywhere in the city within 20-ish minutes by bike…

I've not seen much (any?) anti-ebike stuff in UK media. Scooters, yes, but not ebikes. And 20 minutes sounds fine to me?

Cambridge isnt Texas or the Sahara desert. The UK has a particular type of rain called "Cats and Dogs" and its not nice being caught out in that.

Bikes, scooters are only fair weather modes of transport, but I guess when its raining we can just work remotely from these new homes... and when its too hot to work up a sweat on our bikes we can work remotely from these new homes... but then if we can work remotely why do we need to be in Cambridge or the UK? There's better places in the world to live.

Elon Musk's Starlink has made working remotely possible practically anywhere in the world now. So it doesnt matter of there is no 5G or fibre broadband if you want to live and work off grid.

On the ebike stuff, there is the speed restriction, despite being able to cycle faster. And there was a recent fire in Cambridge were a family died because an ebike or scooter caught fire when charging. The press were negative towards these, but I never saw once any mention of checking the smoke detectors over the two days it was covered in the news. Despite being called an ebike, I think it was actually a e-scooter which has much more negative press than ebikes, the main reason being e-scooters are seen more on the pavements and paths than bikes are, and favoured by school kids more, hence the very intellectual and subtle form of negative press.

> Heathrow or Gatwick is more hassle if you have to head to the Americas, or far east, but this just seems pointless.

it has a direct link to Gatwick and Heathrow is one change (Liverpool Street)

I'd much rather use the Harrods terminal at Stansted Airport to get around, so much less hassle, if you can afford it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com