Re: Daytime running light popularity

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 11/8/2024 9:17 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

AMuzi <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote:

 
...  Then 'second car' became popular along with urban area
dispersal (some say 'sprawl'). And so on until now, when
even children seldom walk anywhere except through a mall.

 
That’s quite a different experience to mine, I and others walk around a
lot, if I want to go to bike shop or get bread or pharmacy or cafe etc this
is all a 5 min walk, I need some sugar and few other bits so will wander
that way shortly.

 
"quite a different experience to mine" should be treated as very
significant!
 

I don’t use bikes particularly for utility bar commuting and few other
bits, more leisure. Though some in the street have cargo bikes for ferrying
kids to places.
 
But I have a bus stop 30s from my doorstep to a larger town with malls and
riverside pubs and so on.

 
There seems to be exactly one bus route that passes near my house,
although I'll admit the transit website is very difficult to use.
Unfortunately, buses don't go where I ever need to go. From what I can
tell, my most common destination is one hour and twenty minutes away by
bus. It's less than 20 minutes by car, thanks to the freeway.

The Transport for london bus and train stops one can check via apps as to
next one, tube which I can’t use isn’t needed as the service there is every
2/3mins.

Or are some urban planning apps that will guide you via the various
services to your destination.

 

And a train station that I can get also into said town or central and so
on, easily.

 
There is zero passenger train service here. We once took Amtrak home
from Oregon. At that time, we were able to get off in the center of
Youngstown, but that's not been true for many, many years.
Interestingly, our bikes couldn't be unloaded here. We had to later
drive to Pittsburgh to fetch them.

I’m guessing bikes in a guard van or something? Most of the suburban rail
and even intercity rail are places one can put a bike, one down to Wales is
remarkably awkward with hooks to hang the bike off! But it’s definitely an
outlier!

 

None of these journeys do cars make sense, while people do it’s a royal
pain.

 
Here, nothing but car use makes sense, unless trips are very short or a
person is very dedicated to another choice. Essentially the entire
nation is that way.
 
Wishing and talking about "political will" won't change that in the
foreseeable future.
 

None of these things are fixed, after all one of the things about
urban/suburban areas is the fairly dramatic changes that can happen, ie
homes get rebuilt or even entire areas.

It absolutely can be changed and is some changes in American cities with
freeway removals, into other uses.

Roger Merriman