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this post was submitted on 08 Mar 2024
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micromobility - Ebikes, scooters, longboards: Whatever floats your goat, this is micromobility
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Ebikes, bicycles, scooters, skateboards, longboards, eboards, motorcycles, skates, unicycles: Whatever floats your goat, this is all things micromobility!
"Transportation using lightweight vehicles such as bicycles or scooters, especially electric ones that may be borrowed as part of a self-service rental program in which people rent vehicles for short-term use within a town or city.
micromobility is seen as a potential solution to moving people more efficiently around cities"
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Back in the day people would go for a drive and stop at random shops...
I'm older now, but traffic and road rage is way crazier these days. I don't know how people find driving enjoyable.
Lots of people like riding bikes tho, and they've got even more reason to stop for shopping, food, or drinks.
What works better than bike lanes tho is bike trails. Lots of cities are converting old rail road tracks into biking/walking trails, and business is booming up and down those trails.
Bike trails are great for recreation. Bike lanes, separated and safe, are great for taking care of business. They also keep more cars off the roads in denser areas, making life better for everyone. We can do both.
Bike trails are like freeways for bikes...
Especially on old train tracks that were designed to minimize crossing road traffic. It's faster than driving downtown in my city.
Bike lanes are for going a couple blocks, and even if they're completely separated from the road, you're going to be crossing lots of other roads. And if there's separation, you're not as visible.
In my area that means cyclists either just ride on the single lane roads anyways, or they use the bike trail and blow thru "mini intersections" 5-10 feet away from where vehicles are looking. Usually not even slowing down for stop signs because they're too frequent.
The big issue is people doing it on roads "for exercise" on a $5k bike with all the equipment money could buy to make it as easy as possible. And bike trails give them a place to ride.
That makes life better for everyone
I'm not personally a fan of rail trails. Most of the rail trails I've seen kind of start nowhere and go nowhere, and they'd be much better off being part of a larger transit infrastructure (like a bus-only route or tram/light-rail route) than as just this weird long park thing that crosses multiple stroads.
But as for driving, yeah, it sucks. There's pretty decent research to show that car dependency is awful for small businesses, because if you have to drive to the store, you're usually just going to pick the one-stop big box mart instead of stopping at four or five mom and pop shops.