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Comment by michaelochurch | Hacker News Reader

The bikes ride slowly, which again seems right for a commuting bike in a crowded urban setting.

I actually prefer biking fast in NYC. The traffic lights are synchronized to 30mph traffic. It's not easy to sustain 30 mph (you need a racing bike or to be in very good shape) but I try to get up to 20-22 mph to limit my time spent at lights. Of course, this isn't an option if I need to be presentable and not sweaty whereever I'm going.

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I recently switched from using a racing bike for my day to day commuting to a much chunkier Dutch bike that seems to be in line with the Citi bikes and the difference in commute times is fairly negligible (Cobble Hill to SoHo took me about 15-18 minutes on my road bike and now takes about 18-22). The added ~5 minutes is worth not be drenched in sweat by the end of my ride and having some real cargo capacity on my bike.

Very cool, is that documented somewhere by any chance?

I've noticed the same, the only time I can ever "keep up" with the green lights on my folding Dahon is on 5th ave, the very down-hill portion from 40th street to about 23rd.

There are some special streets though which are not in sync with the other lights: 42nd, 23rd, 14th (maybe 34th)... so as long as I catch each leg within one green light I consider that successful.

I've noticed the same, the only time I can ever "keep up" with the green lights on my folding Dahon is on 5th ave, the very down-hill portion from 40th street to about 23rd.

That's a nice stretch. 7th Avenue between 59th and 48th is also pretty nice hill-wise (assuming the traffic isn't insane).

I've been thinking about implementing a diy "green wave" system, unfortunatly most of the lights were I live arn't exclusivly time based.

A lot of people do, but the vast majority of those who like to bike fast will want to use their own bike.

When is there ever 30mph traffic in Manhattan.

Manhattan traffic is mostly bad in peak traffic (weekdays during rush hours, major holidays when people are trying to leave, etc) on the approaches to bridges/tunnels and in the downtown/midtown core where said approaches are interacting with each other. Anywhere else, anywhen else, and it's not so bad; there's more traffic capacity on the island than there is to get on/off of the island.

> I actually prefer biking fast in NYC.

I've found this to be very dangerous, because other bicyclists simply do not obey traffic laws.

For example: they regularly run red lights, which makes approaching intersections at-speed dangerous for both parties. I was nearly hit on one occasion (the other cyclist skidded out and set his bike down) while I had a clear green light.

After that (and a few other incidents), I stopped riding fast in Manhattan. I'd love to see strict and brutal enforcement of traffic laws to curb people's antisocial bicycle behavior, but I doubt we will.

Yeah, there are some insane NYC cyclists. People go the wrong way in absurd situations - when there's another bike lane going the right way a street over, in full four-lane traffic, etc. I stopped riding to work because the other bikers were going to kill me.

This is very much a problem in London at the moment as cycling is very much in vogue.

Hi,

I don't comment much but this is a misconception I believe.

This study, www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/traffic-note-8-cycling-red-lights.pdf by TFL points out that an average of 16% of cyclist jump lights etc... That's a load of people, but still a minority of cyclist out on the roads.

That 16% must all have been on my way to/from work then. I swear not one of those idiots actually paid attention to the lights.

16% is about 1 in 6. It is very common to be at traffic lights with a group of 6 cyclists. You only need one of them, 16%, to jump the lights for it to cause a problem.

If 16% of drivers jumped the lights, we'd rightly be outraged.

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