Look at all these people stuck in their metal boxes

Bicycles FTW

But fuck those motorbikes in the bicycle lane

I think we should join all those metal boxes together end to end, enlarge the space within, place them all on a track and make it run on a schedule. Just pitching ideas here, what do you guys make of it?

What is this, Communalism?
Ah, the good old Adam Something trick! In the end everything can become a train!
- I also always love these long ass comment chains where people optimise any problem / solution for traffic/transport until it becomes a train.

Meanwhile in my city: passed cars: 1. The second car is already blocking the bike lane for mysterious reasons and you cannot get around. Then first right turn possibility: all the cars turn right without watching out for bikes. Then the light is red again. Maybe you can make it alive during the next green phase 🥲

I like this feeling when I take the bike.

God I hate the assholes that can't even stay in the lines when atopped.

150 cars locking up several buses and an ambulance, no less.

All those school busses indicates this is at maximum possible congestion condition time.

The blocks around my kids school become an instant popup blockade for about 30 minutes everyday.

Public transit options are so necessary.

It's actually an amazing feeling when this happens. Makes me pedal way harder.

I'd bet a bunch of them would rather be on their bikes with you if there were decent bike infrastructure...

Infrastructure is the key. I've had a lot of people tell me they're too scared to cycle.

The fools! The cowards! We should take away their metal boxes!

150 people, likely? So a couple busses or a single crowded LRT? Heavens...

Realistically it can't be a couple of buses because they're not all going to the same place. But even 20 buses would cause such a stand still.
- One bus route doesn't have to go everywhere.
  A well-designed public transport network, even if it "just" uses buses, will have opportunities for connecting journeys. Passengers can change buses and travel to destinations on other routes.

All well and good if you can afford to live in a city. Commuted by bike for a decade. Commuted by train+bike for a few years. I honestly never wanna get on a bike again. Maybe a train if it’s fast.

"afford to live in a city" is such a violently american sentence it just gave me heartburn
- Not sure what you want me to do about that. Most cities are overpriced because of corpo-controlled properties and greedy private landlords. Biking as commute option is only viable if you live in a large urban area.
I started commuting by bike. I've never enjoyed commuting more.
Not all cities are expensive, and they usually offer higher wages to compensate.
- Enjoy it while you enjoy it.

If only separated bike lanes were more common. I'm really not comfortable riding with all those cars just right there.

You don't like it when the cars randomly drift into the bike lanes? You really need to learn to share the road, my friend.
- We should run high-speed rail down the general traffic lane. I see no problem with this if people learn to share the road.
- We should have shared lanes between freight trains and cars, without any signalling or crossing. Everyone should share

What is this, a bike lane for ants!?

A few observations:

That's a fuck-ton of distance for 150 cars.
"One more lane, bro" wouldn't make a goddamn difference.
We really need bike lanes... on every road.

The cars aren't standing still.
- Those brake lights tell a different story. Still, what are we talking... a 1 or 2 km length of road for 150 cars to be passed by a single cyclist? Such an inefficient use of space.

And so many of them can't stay on their side of the line. Glad nobody was opening doors.

Flying by traffic really is one of the best feelings, not quite up there with being on a trail with no traffic, but still... just great.

Even more satisfying is doing it on foot while walking my dog!
- Walking and cycling have that in common - you can just stop and admire the views :)

Shouldn't it be about double that number because of the second car lane?

Yes, but also friendly reminder that there is no such thing as a "car lane." There is only a general-purpose lane, which allows cars along with all other vehicle types (including bicycles, even if there's also a bicycle-only lane).
- That's going to depend on your local area's laws.
- I mean, motorized vehicle only roads exist…

A fun game for cyclists : it's called The Race. I think there were rules somewhere on the internet. I've forgotten the details but this is basically how it goes.

You get 1 point every time you pass a "slow" bike: people who are taking their time, old contraptions, etc
2 pts for decent bikes
3 points for cyclists in racing attire
4 points for electric bikes
5 points for cars

You lose the same amount every time you get passed

On good days I can easily get in the thousands with all the cars commuting. Makes me feel so good.

How many points for busses? Trains?
- Where I am, cyclists and busses share the same lane, so it would be extra hard to pass one. 20 points?
  Passing a train would make you the king/queen of bicycle forever
I used to cross the Manhattan Bridge in NYC on my commute, sometimes the Q or D train would emerge out of the tunnel onto the bridge just as I was coming up the bike ramp and it was a really fun challenge to try racing it up to the apex. If you can manage to pace it on the uphill, you'll always pass it on the downhill, and then come ripping off the bridge at near 30 mph.

Centre Street in Boston. Amusingly enough, this video starts a stone's throw away from a major transit hub connecting three commuter rail lines to the T.

And worth noting, it looks like this backup is almost entirely caused by the reduction to one lane at the Allandale Street intersection due to construction.

Lane reductions are a cause of traffic. The construction causes a bottleneck behind it because traffic before the reduction moves faster.
If we removed all lane reductions it would fix traffic. Simple solution. Make every road have only a single lane for cars in each direction. Solves the problem.

😭

The video is sped up, right?
- Looking at the jogger about halfway through, and the moving cars at the end, looks like it's 1.5x or 2x speed.
This video had obviously been sped up.
it's obviously sped up and even if it wasn't this seems like a perfectly reasonable speed to bike at. This looks to be america and so you rather have to go fast in order to reach your destination within the hour..
If you're using Boost or app capable for controlling playback speed, turn it to 0.25. That's the actual speed. Look out for the jogger at 25 second mark, that's the hint. Any other speed and the jogger will run in cartoonish speed.
- Lol, I reviewed it at .25 and I think you're right. I did that part again at .5 and it looked straight up silly. Those cars are fucked with how slow that is going, although I do think construction near the end might be impacting it.
And a red light. Which was also blocked by gridlock, but still.
Also, oops a Uber passenger just ended their ride early and got out to walk, opens door on the biker because they are flying too fast.
- That's against the law in MA, passenger would be at fault.
  Motorist Responsibilities (see MGL Chapter 89, Section 2 and Chapter 90, Section 14)
  
  Motorists and their passengers must check for passing bicyclists before opening their door. Motorists and their passengers can be ticketed and fined up to $100 for opening car or truck doors into the path of any other traffic, including bicycles and pedestrians.
Dunno about where you are but where I live cyclists do not have to adhere to "posted speed limits".
- Where this video was taken, cyclists do have to adhere to posted speed limits. However, we don't actually know what the speed limit was here (the 20 mph sign did not apply because it wasn't flashing). Edit: found it based on another commenter naming the street. 25 mph.

Not including the buses that are sadly stuck there because of cars, I imagine that would be roughly 150 persons 😄

It's a fucking fire emergency box
Log off, go for a bike ride.
I took a closer look and that doesn't look like a traffic light? I'm not actually sure what it is, it's kind of a red stand alone red bulb. Maybe it's meant to be a stop sign (but those usually blink), but yeah, take a look at the video one more time at a slower speed and it's clearly missing the two other lights for it to be a traffic light 🚦
- It’s a fire box. You can actually see a pretty good shot of another one in the first frame of the video. They’re basically public fire alarms with a pull lever, just like you’d find in buildings. When you pull the lever, it automatically alerts the fire department. They pass several throughout the video; Boston is full of them.
Not a red, but funny enough, all those cars are blocking the intersection...
I think you should buy some glasses mate
That's not a standard stop light. It looks like a globe light that happens to be red - which is admittedly very confusing. What is that thing?
Is that a red light? Looks more like a red balloon or lamp post thing, but it is kind of grainy.
- Looks like a reflection on the camera lens for me?