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Old 06-21-2013, 05:42 AM
nei nei started this thread nei won $500 in our forum's Most Engaging Poster Contest - Thirteenth Edition (Jan-Feb 2015). 

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Location: Western Massachusetts
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for bikes. What to do when your city runs out of room for them?

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/wo...nted=1&_r=0&hp

Should it start charging? Encourging a shift to mass transit?

“When you look at the large squares, on a Friday night the place is completely covered with bikes,” he went on. “There is also a question of aesthetic values.”

“I have three,” said Timo Klein, 23, an economics student, picking one of his out from a scattering of dozens of bikes on the central Dam Square, some still usable, others clearly wrecks. “If one breaks down, I don’t have to use public transportation,” like buses or trams, which in the city’s narrow, clogged roadways are slower than bikes.
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Old 06-21-2013, 08:55 AM
 
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I don't think a shift to buses is going to help in Amsterdam; if a significant number of cyclists started using buses the narrow roads would be clogged with them all the time. If a lot of them are obvious wrecks, a tag-and-sweep would probably be the first step; tag any non-operational bikes and if they're not removed within a certain time, remove and scrap them or auction them off.
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Old 06-21-2013, 09:42 AM
 
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That's the kind of problem I'd like to have.
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Old 06-21-2013, 12:34 PM
 
Location: Sunbelt
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Introduce a bike limit. Nobody really needs 3 bikes and (this is a huge assumption) when you have that many, it's easier to just forget about the broken bike and just ride the good one. If your bike breaks down, don't use another one; just fix it up right then. It has much less moving parts than a car and most people can fix their bikes at home.

Also, possibly institute a system for licensing bikes. That way the city knows who each bike belongs to, and can better control how many bikes are in one place. They could also fine people for leaving their bike in certain areas for an extended period of time or ditching broken/rusted bikes.
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Old 06-21-2013, 05:15 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JaySwelly View Post
Introduce a bike limit. Nobody really needs 3 bikes


Who will save us from those who will save us from ourselves?
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Old 06-21-2013, 06:56 PM
 
Location: Southern California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JaySwelly View Post
Introduce a bike limit. Nobody really needs 3 bikes and (this is a huge assumption) when you have that many, it's easier to just forget about the broken bike and just ride the good one. If your bike breaks down, don't use another one; just fix it up right then. It has much less moving parts than a car and most people can fix their bikes at home.

Also, possibly institute a system for licensing bikes. That way the city knows who each bike belongs to, and can better control how many bikes are in one place. They could also fine people for leaving their bike in certain areas for an extended period of time or ditching broken/rusted bikes.
A bike limit - how would that be enforced? Regarding the issue of abandoned bikes, maybe a parking charge could be implemented. Make it deposit-based so that if you remove your bike you get a full refund and if you don't, i.e. abandon it, then you lose your deposit. Perhaps the deposit amount could equal the price of a typical new bike. This would make abandoning the bike more expensive than taking a damage bike home and fixing it.

[both solutions may discourage bike use which would be counterproductive]
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Old 06-21-2013, 07:52 PM
 
Location: Centre Wellington, ON
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It's a bit difficult to propose solutions because I'm not that familiar with Amsterdam, but it seems like much of the bike traffic is from people from North Amsterdam taking the ferry/bike to the main train station in the old core, leaving their bike near there and then taking transit to jobs elsewhere in the city?

North Amsterdam doesn't have a subway or tram. I don't know what the bus system is like there, but hopefully the U/C subway that will connect North Amsterdam to the old and new (South) CBD will divert many of these bicyclists. I think transit improvements, even surface transit should be part of the solution. Even if it's surface transit and the surface transit takes up as much road space per capita as bikes, it the surface transit is an improvement to the current system it should divert drivers in addition to bicyclists, and drivers take up more road space per capita than transit. And of course, unlike bikes and cars, transit doesn't really need parking (except a maintenance yard that can be in the outskirts where land is less valuable).

It looks like the bike problem is mostly concentrated in the old CBD area too, so maybe diverting trips to other areas of the city to distribute bikes more evenly across the city would help? Encouraging jobs to be built closer to homes and homes closer to jobs should also reduce travel distances and increase walking.
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Old 06-21-2013, 08:02 PM
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JaySwelly View Post
Introduce a bike limit. Nobody really needs 3 bikes and (this is a huge assumption) when you have that many, it's easier to just forget about the broken bike and just ride the good one. If your bike breaks down, don't use another one; just fix it up right then. It has much less moving parts than a car and most people can fix their bikes at home.

Also, possibly institute a system for licensing bikes. That way the city knows who each bike belongs to, and can better control how many bikes are in one place. They could also fine people for leaving their bike in certain areas for an extended period of time or ditching broken/rusted bikes.
Just three? How about one for regular riding, one for racing, a beater for the winter, folding bike for portability, mountain bike for trails?
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Old 06-21-2013, 09:20 PM
 
Location: Centre Wellington, ON
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Originally Posted by pvande55 View Post
Just three? How about one for regular riding, one for racing, a beater for the winter, folding bike for portability, mountain bike for trails?
I guess if you have a big area to store them and live alone... Between my 6 room mates there are 3 cars and 2 bikes although I have one beater and a road bike (no car) myself. If as the stats say, there are a bit more than one bike per resident in Amsterdam, that doesn't seem unusual, although 1 car for every 4 people is relatively low. Although my room mates have surprisingly few bikes, each of my family members has one. Most new condos in downtown Toronto have around 1 bike spot per unit, with around 1.5 residents per unit and maybe 0.5 car parking spots on average. I wouldn't be surprised if the suburbs had more bikes per person, you have lots of garage space and I think most families would want to have the option of going on bikes rides with their family, so everyone would have a bike, especially they're cheap, plus maybe a couple that have been outgrown by the kids but not thrown out. That's how it was for me growing up in autocentric outer suburbs.

From the comments, it seems that the problem is mainly around the Central Station and one commenter suggested that this was mostly because the completion of the subway to the North side was delayed and is still not complete.
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Old 06-21-2013, 10:51 PM
 
Location: Richmond/Philadelphia/Brooklyn
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I've got a lovely idea



just kidding
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