this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2026
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Fuck Cars

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"White Female Mamdani"?

Seattle mayor Katie Wilson added a BUS LANE.

Daily Mail is pure garbage.

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[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 33 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (6 children)

If you can best a bus in a footrace, that bus route needs to be improved. As simple as that.

My rule of thumb is: taking a cycle should be slower than bus (when starting at the same time) but the waiting time should not make the bus slower.

Edited: wording

[–] benjirenji@slrpnk.net 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

With all the stops, cycling is usually faster unless the route is uphill or you really don't have a lot of stops and probably need more.

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

How far apart are you stops? It'll they are too close, I can see this happen. ~5 minute walking?

[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Maybe I'm just a dumbass, but I think your rule of thumb is busted?

X should be slower than A, but should not be faster than A + B.

Isn't slower the same as "not faster"? I think it should be slower than A, but faster than A + B. So between A and A + B.

Or "the bus should be faster if it's already here, but cycling should be faster if you'd have to wait for the bus". I think that's what you were going for.

[–] Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 day ago

Okay, I'm not the only one who was confused there for a sec

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Yeah, almost. Cycling shouldn't be much faster than having to wait. If it is, either the route has too many stops or a low frequency.

My average cycle speed at around 10 kmph (minimal effort, no hills, some red lights) and if a bus can't match this...

Give it better signalling, dedicated lanes to skip traffic, etc.

[–] reptar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

My 'can't hold attention long enough to read all the words' brain auto-converted it to

My rule of thumb is: taking a cycle should be slower than bus but should not be slower than waiting time + the ride.

which must be what they meant.

[–] garbagebagel@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Its a good rule of thumb. I ride an hour in to work (on an e-scooter) because it is faster than that bus during rush hour. Outside of rush hour though, the bus beats me every time. It'd be cool if I could become mayor to add a bus lane for that route. And all the other routes that need it tbh.

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 4 points 1 day ago

My rule of thumb is that within a city, a bus (other than BRT) is likely roughly the same speed as a bike, assuming good bike routes.

If the bikes are stopping regularly because of red lights, that will obviously change.

[–] basxto@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bike with parkin can and often should be faster start to destination than walking+bus+walking at least comzared to city buses, it’s different with buses who are allowed to go faster than 50 km/h

[–] kunaltyagi@programming.dev 1 points 1 day ago

Some cities have abysmal frequencies. So you would be waiting for 20 minutes or more

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

if a bicycle is slower than a bus, then it is definitely slower than waiting+taking a bus

[–] bountygiver@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

no?

counterpoint: cycling takes 10 minutes, bus takes 5 minutes, at this point cycling is slower than the bus. waiting for the bus takes 8 minutes, now cycling is faster than waiting + ride time

[–] Alberat@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

that makes sense and now that i reread it idk what i was thinking. sounds like a few people were confused though loll

[–] Zagorath@quokk.au 2 points 1 day ago

Think you got yourself mixed around there.