1.4M views · Mar 27, 2023 · 20:49 · 1 HN recommender · 3 mentions · discussed 2023–2025
Not Just Bikes looks at traffic in the Bahamas to show that a small country can be just as car-centric as a big one. He ties it to land use, car dependence and how dedicated transit lanes help.
Why Hacker News points people here: Pointed to as a good rant on car-brained design and as evidence that country size is not what drives car dependence.
“Not Just Bikes did a great rant on the carbrain of The Bahamas”HN comment, 2025
“Not Just Bikes did a great rant on the carbrain of The Bahamas”
Rant on car-brained Bahamas traffic
> moved from the Caribbean, where public transportation was nonexistent, and traffic and parking were a constant nightmare Not Just Bikes did a great rant on the carbrain of The Bahamas: this video
“explained in this video with the extreme example of the Bahamas”
Example of dedicated bus lanes improving transit in the Bahamas
According to the NYC MTA[1], there are close to 6k buses in the fleet with 1.2M riders per day. That's over 200 riders per bus per day. With each paying a $2.75 fare, you are making about enough to cover your estimated costs. I think the problem is not the cost of the bus but the organisation of the city's infrastructure. The bus could be a viable option for a lot more people -- far more than 200 per bus per day -- they just don't structure the roadways to maximise bus use but rather to minimise it. If there isn't a dedicated lane for buses (physically separated since NYPD cannot or will not enforce painted separation) then buses will go at least as slow as traffic, along with regular stopping, making it a less attractive option to driving or cabbing. It's pointless to operate the system this way and very cheap to fix it, where fixing it would make everyone's lives so much better as explained in this video with the extreme example of the Bahamas [2] [1] link [2] this video
Used to argue weather is not the barrier to cycling
Oh you picked the wrong guy for your comment: I worked 10km away the winter before and got out the door at 6am, cycled to work and left a 5pm to cycle back home, often when it was dark again. It's only a question of the right outfit, not the weather, otherwise everyone on the Bahamas would cycle this video
