The Boring Company | Tunnels

Engineering convention puts tunnelling as the most expensive way to build infrastructure - for example the Boston big dig cost 1 Billion dollars per mile - the kinds of costs only car drivers can ( and do ) consider. 

Elon Musk claims he can cut the cost drastically - by speeding up the tunnelling process and reducing the cross section. 

Normally I would dismiss tunnels for bikes as unstimulating, you have to go down and up - but they are dry and could go any where. Something perhaps to be part of a mix. 

What do you think

Dissing + Weitling completes "world's longest" elevated cycling path in ...

Dissing + Weitling - Brilliant and Expensive elevated cycling in China. 

This is a good example of how traditional civil engineering handles cycle lanes - as large expensive pedestrian routes. Think of this as a very long cycle bridge. 

We need smarter thinking. 

The Death And Rebirth Of Bike Highways - Cheddar Explains

A new summary about bike highways and a short history of the elevated cycles. 

हवा में लटकती हुई साइकिल | We Made Hanging In Air Bicycle | Crazy Idea

This experiment shows to me, at the limit,  how thin you could go with an elevated cycle 'wire'. This cycle cable system has been proposed before. This one is clearly used for one one rider,  a real system would have to be strong enough for back to back bikes. IF you look the bike is riding on a rope. 

While this is good as an engineering test and shows off how unobtrusive an elevated system could be it looses the advantage of previous 'sky only' systems and combination systems. A sky only system could hang from one cable ( but never cover the last 100 yards to work ). A combination system would also you to cycle to and from the station. 

Still nice to see people still being enthusiastic.

How to Build a City Around Bikes, Fast

Bloomberg Quick takes gives nice overview of cycling. 

A good example is Seville who had the smart idea of building integrated network rather than isolated fragments of quality road. 

You will notice it sots them $20 million to make 80km of cycle network getting 77,00 people per day. Over $900 million for 18Km of  metro track for 44,000 people per day. Although I will point out this typically requires removing space from cars- who start to object.

Biking Montreal: Montreal's Newest Bicycling Infrastructure Dazzles!

One of the aspects that have emerged with the pandemic is the growing shift in focus towards cycling. 

This example from Montreal shows the economic rebound linked with cycling infrastructure. 

(19) Utrecht: Planning for People & Bikes, Not for Cars - YouTube

(19) Utrecht: Planning for People & Bikes, Not for Cars - YouTube

I've cycled in Utrecht - it's very flat. As you can see from the video if you have segregated cycle routes you can create a fabulous popular, zero carbon, healthy, dense high capacity travel route. 

I liked the cycle streets - letting the cars (safely )  on the cycle strips. It helps solve the problem of surrounding buildings with cycling access ( good ) but isolating a building from say Ambulance access ( bad). 

Paris is young again.

Paris is young again.

By @schlijper pic.twitter.com/ssWL09f5J7

— createstreets (@createstreets) July 21, 2020

This is an amazing video that I never thought would happen. Around the UK and clearly Paris there is a movement to come out of lockdown with more space given over to cycling. 

here is hoping it's going to last. 

Is this infrastructure of paint really good enough ?

(12) A cyclist's view of London's notorious Cycle Superhighway 2 - YouTube

A good example of everything wrong with current cycle lane provision.

Radbahn could become Berlin's first covered cycle path

Radbahn could become Berlin's first covered cycle path





A team of specialists from different fields wants to transform the area under Berlin’s elevated U1 rail line into a covered cycle path. Despite the project "Radbahn Berlin" coming on in leaps and bounds, there are still some hurdles to overcome.

Bike lanes are not good enough

SkyCycle Proposed For Bikes Above London Railways

Why protected bike lanes are more valuable than parking spaces

The 9th Avenue pilot.

'The parking protected lane'



retail sales went up 49%.

Needs to be reliable.

Count how many families use the.



Naturally I would argue that you don't have to give up space with elevated systems. I'm also voting to provide shelter to.

Why Isn't Cycling Normal in London?

A very eloquent and informative review of cycling in London. I think it makes every argument that we have made on the blog. My take-home notes on this are.

1. We need to put cycle routes in where they are needed. 
1. So we need tools to figure out where cycling is needed. 
2. The failure of the Norman Foster scheme and Stevenage is that it's taking advantage whats avaiable not what is nessassasry. 
2. I'm not sure about the push argument. 
1. Naturally, with systems like the Shweeb ( cycle monorail) you can introduce huge capacity  where you need it. 

Well worth watching - Enjoy. 

Tomorrow's Cities: Will the bike become an urban must-have? - BBC News

Tomorrow's Cities: Will the bike become an urban must-have? - BBC News

Things we need words for.

One of the things that is brought up n in this YouTube video is the idea that people have become part of the algorithm. We don't really have methods in Computer science or human computer interaction which really looks at the ecology of people and technology. As mentioned in the video below at an individual basis there isn't really a problem it's only when you look at the larger statistical process that there is an effect at the larger level. In human computer interaction we don't really seem to have systems processes and mechanisms which can understand the human-Technology process such that we can make intelligent design decisions ( which includes the decision not to build something ).



As far as I know we don't really have a word where are we consider algorithms where human beings are part of the system forming a loop. We do know that feedback systems are incredibly nonlinear I'm frequently non-stable. This clearly clearly formed an area in Future research.

Tomorrow's Cities: Will the bike become an urban must-have? - BBC News

Tomorrow's Cities: Will the bike become an urban must-have? - BBC News

Exploring Drivers’ Attitudes and Behaviors toward Bicyclists: The Effect of Explicit and Implicit Attitudes on Self-Reported Safety Behaviors | Transportation Research and Education Center

Exploring Drivers’ Attitudes and Behaviors toward Bicyclists: The Effect of Explicit and Implicit Attitudes on Self-Reported Safety Behaviors | Transportation Research and Education Center



It's a complex read but basically, it suggests among other things



"Crashes between drivers and bicyclists are frequently attributed to a driver’s failure to see a bicyclist, due to inattention or "looked but failed to see (LBFTS)” (Wood et al., 2009), and there is ample evidence from psychology that “seeing” is not purely objective but is influenced by socially directed thoughts and beliefs." 



later 

"While the physical bodywork of a car essentially anonymizes drivers, bicyclists are visible in their variety of shapes, sizes, ages, gender, and “racialized bodies” (Urry, 2007, p.48). Drivers have shown bias in yielding behavior by the race, apparent disabled status, or age of a crossing pedestrian"

This pours cold water on the notion that car drivers will ever willingly 'share the road' safely with cyclists. Remember if you have 1000 good people and one bad one that's still enough danger to put enough people off cycling for good. 

While I'm still a big big big supporter of on road cycling I think it suggests that we won't get a significant shift without a big change in technology. Either from cycle monorails, ECLs  or possibly when self-driving-cars dominate the roads ( the machines can be legally enforced to drive safely near cyclists by having some test for software before release ).

 

What a driverless world could look like | Wanis Kabbaj

I like this talk because it argues for multi-dimensional cities ( such as you would get with elevated cycle lanes ).

China has the longest 7.6km cycle way in the world located in Xiamen!

China has the longest 7.6km cycle way in the world located in Xiamen!: China Has The Longest 7.6km Cycle Way In The World Located



The architecture firm which made this cycleway is Copenhagen based firm Dissing +Weitling. This company is known for the creation of Danish Bicycle Snake Cycle Route.



I like the idea I'm not sure it will be successful ( imagine a train or car which wiggled for no reason )