Comment by Aromasin | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Aromasin | Hacker News Reader

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The same is happening in the UK. They've made car travel harder without making public transport any better (outside of London), which has just lowered the average person's productivity rather than making any headway into tackling the core issue of people getting from A to B quicker, cheaper, with less pollution.

They put in some heavy traffic restrictions in my local city of Oxford by closing off residential roads, forcing all traffic down "arterial" roads instead and putting parking restrictions all over the place. A year later, there are no fewer cars on the road or increased public transport usage; some local studies by the university confirmed that. People just spend more time stuck in traffic travelling longer distances.

It's like having a person with an injured leg and a missing one. Instead of giving the person a prosthesis to remove the load, they've just lopped the other off altogether, leaving them to crawl from place to place instead of hobble.

> [car travel harder without making public transport better]

Erm aren't you forgetting something?

London just quadrupled its bicycle network. That seems like a massive improvement to me. When I lived there, biking was...let's be kind and say "less than ideal". Last time I visited I was amazed by the improvement, with protected two-way bike lanes right on the Thames and much more.

https://momentummag.com/london-just-quadrupled-its-bicycle-n...

The comment specifically excludes London, as it works differently from the rest of the UK.

Since when have bicycles been public transport?

Exactly.

Poster was presenting cars and public transport as the only two options, and complaining that one has been made worse without improving the other.

That completely misses the fact that there is in fact a third option that has been greatly improved, even if poster doesn’t like it.

Hence “Aren’t you forgetting something” rather than “you’re wrong”

I feel like the best way to make getting from A to B quicker is for A and B to be closer together. Which makes walking or biking more practical and you don’t have to spend as much money on public transit.

A and B being closer works for cars, too.

A 15 minute walk is 2 minutes by car, five by bike.

> A and B being closer works for cars, too.

Only when the distances are greater than short-walk distance. Cars take up (huge amounts of) space at their destination by parking. You can only push two destinations so close together before their parking lots merge.

Only to a point, because car trips have more “friction” especially in a city.

For example, you might need to spend some time getting to/from the car or wending your way through a parking structure. You may need to drive a more circuitous route due to one-way streets—-and certainly can’t cut through a park or building. You don’t need fuel/charging or maintenance every trip but it amortizes out to a small delay. And there’s traffic!

Anecdotally, a 15 minute walk (~1 mile) is probably about the break-even point. My spouse and I both went that far yesterday, one in a car and one walking, and yet we both got home at almost exactly the same time.

‘ making public transport any better (outside of London)’ is not really under the government’s control until after the local electorate agrees to it.

So it’s a moot point when only one decision pathway can actually be budged by more then a few inches.

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