Comments on: Cash Rewards May Cut Through Traffic Congestion

By: Thunderstruck

Thunderstruck — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:53:44 +0000

Biking sounds like a great idea, if your area is safe enough to travel by bike. The country needs more physical exercise to curb weight issues. The problem I can’t see a solution to, is for those of us who work in an office environment, arriving to work after a decent length bike ride would leave you sweaty and feeling less than comfortable for the rest of the day, even with a change of clothes. No one wants to be hot and smelly and covered with sweat for their morning meetings. My brother is a biking finatic for life.. and he has done a 40 min bike ride to work at our family business, but the office consisted of his boss (our mother) and two other employees.. and sitting in sweat I guess didn’t bother Him.

By: floodmouse

floodmouse — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:31:08 +0000

Pippa said: “In many cities cycling is close to suicidal behaviour and for many communities the distance is too long. Those who can afford to live down town can afford a car!”

I’m sure all cities are different. In the city where I live, there are lots of very inexpensive houses downtown. There is a housing rehab project at work, rehabilitating old houses and trying to sell them as more “upscale” housing. Then there are us do-it-yourselfers, who just buy the house “as is” and make our own improvements. The issue with living downtown is not expense, but prestige. Lots of people invest their status or self-esteem in buying a newer and more expensive house in the suburbs. It’s a local political grievance – how they come downtown to work and collect their paychecks, sucking money out of the city, then go home to the suburbs where they shop and pay taxes to another city.

Also, we have pretty good bike lanes. There was a “safe streets” initiative, and things seem to get continuously better. The bike lanes are underutilized, but I do see lots of students and a few other people using the bike lanes in good weather. I only know of 2 all-weather bike commuters, myself and a super-fit young guy who passes me almost every single day on the road. (Hare and tortoise – guess which one I am.)

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:08:01 +0000

I think some incentives can be made through insurance. Pay as you go (PAYG) insurance, coupled with real-time GPS technology will enable more accurate pricing of risk, making it cheaper to commute (or use overall) less congested/risky roads. Besides this, PAYG has the promise of fixing what I view as a huge unfairness: why should my parked car pay the same risk premium as a moving one during peak-time? Once the technology becomes available, it may be easier (plugging into the GPS data stream) for authorities to apply incentives.

By: Mer

Mer — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 04:01:25 +0000

My workplace has core hours of 10-3, so I work from 10-7. A number of my coworkers leave between 3 and 4 pm. I can’t bike or take the bus because I’m disabled and there aren’t benches at the bus stops where I need to wait. It works out okay.

By: Kaviani

Kaviani — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 20:11:08 +0000

That’s fine for 24hr workplaces or “freelance” people who set their own schedules, but impractical for us majority 8-5 monkeys with rigid in-times. Our companies are not going to extend hours (and therefore, electricity costs) to suit little ol’ us or even road congestion, which in my case is 2 time zones away from corporate hq.

I much more support Floodmouse’s spirit/efforts and any others to REDUCE the number of cars overall. Public transport grants to improve efficiency and buy new, less-toxic machinery is what we need, but it’s clear that the Federal government is still humping the 2-cars-per-household dream that’s failed us miserably (while lining auto industry coffers either directly or by bail out).

By: Margaret Bartley

Margaret Bartley — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:27:28 +0000

The other nice advantage to supporting floodmouse’s solution is that it will cut down on population, since this option is not available to parents. As yet another way society could make parenting more difficult, it could cut down on people’s decisions to have kids. Although once you’ve got one child, it doesn’t really add to the incremental cost of having more kids, it’s really just a life-style choice of being childless as well as carless. In fact, they seem to go hand-in-hand.

By: John Lerch

John Lerch — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 15:22:11 +0000

It seems to me that like the inter-states which seemed to offer a shorter commute this will just increase the number of slots for other people to fill from further out in the suburbs; so the congestion will be the same.

By: Pippa

Pippa — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 14:20:12 +0000

For bikes to work we need people living closer to where they work and bike lanes. In many cities cycling is close to suicidal behaviour and for many communities the distance is too long. Those who can afford to live down town can afford a car! There are some things that a community could do, eg. – -
Subsidize housing down town with a bike rack and no parking, other than for communal vehicles which one can join in with or decline.
Reward businesses for starting later/earlier.
Send teenagers to school later and keep them there later – not only do they get better sleep and learn more but it has the added benefit of keeping them busy and out of trouble in the evenings.
Improve public transportation and increase parking fees, using this money to subsidize public transportation.

By: floodmouse

floodmouse — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:25:42 +0000

I approve of having less pollution from traffic – but to my way of thinking, this is an unnecessarily complicated solution to an unnecessary problem. Since I started my bicycle commute, I no longer have to pay gas, car insurance, or monthly car payments – not to mention oil changes, tire rotations, and miscellaneous unwarrantied repairs. According to a brochure I got from the League of Michigan Bicyclists, it costs $6000-$8000 a year to operate a motor vehicle, but I think I was spending more than that. (It depends on what you drive, I suppose.) That is $6000-$8000+ a year that goes directly into my pocket – I don’t have to accumulate voucher points so I can play an online game of chance where I might (or might not) win something.

Another benefit is that I don’t have to pay gym fees, because I am using a real bike instead of a stationary exercise bike. It takes a little longer to bike than drive to my job – about 30-45 minutes instead of 15-25 – but I don’t have to get up early to do aerobics, or try to talk myself into doing an hour of aerobics when I get home.

All of these benefits are extremely obvious, once you stop to think about it – but they haven’t been widely publicized. Information about effective bicycle commuting is just not available without scavenging widely on the web, and engaging in trial & error. When I get some extra time, I’m going to post my own experiences and a list of low-cost gear that saves you a lot of hassles (i.e., tools for changing bike tires, and lightweight waterproof clothes in case you get rained on).