A tale of two cities

[geoffyboy]

Visited Paris around this time last year and London recently. Both great cities in different ways. Couldn't help notice the the vast difference in the number of two wheeled commuters though. Apart from a handful of couriers London was bereft of bikers, though I noticed some parked in the bays. Whereas Paris..........well they must have made up at least 25% of the much greater traffic flow. As there isn't much difference in the year round temperatures and London statistically is drier why is this? Is it a perceived climate thing or a cultural difference - bikes being much more popular on the continent? I would guess that in North American and Australian cities, even those with mild climates, two wheeled commuters are also rare compared to four wheeled ones? Sitting on the Place de l'Etoile I had to admire the awareness and careful consideration, being shown by both two and four wheeled drivers, to keep the constant traffic entering and exiting this very busy roundabout flowing and all without the need for traffic lights. Respect. 

Ps we need a Channel type tunnel under the Atlantic so Europeans can easily get their bikes over to enjoy American roads and Americans European roads. So with it's "can do " attitude the US could start digging from their side and after years of bureaucratic wrangling over cost etc we could start from ours and meet up somewhere south of Ireland. 

Pps just viewed a 12 cylinder Lambourghini engined motorcycle on UTube.........reminded me of those vehicles in Supercar / Fireball XL5 etc (for those old enough)..........congrats to the owner on the quite striking bodywork.       

[john348]

Trouble is they will have to start the tunnel in London as it is the centre of the universe and there is nothing outside London (for MPs anyway).

[w8d4it]

We'd likely end up with the tunnel equivalent of this


or this

[cropbiker]

You need to read 'a Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah' by Harry Harrison. A brilliant piece of alternative history. There was even a 1935 movie about a tunnel too!

There have been various engineering theories put forward for a real one with vacuum tunnels, maglevs, rocket trains etc. estimated cost of around $100bn so Apple could fund one with their war chest but then we would have to call it an iTube!

[Stelyn]

Originally Posted by cropbiker

There have been various engineering theories put forward for a real one with vacuum tunnels, maglevs, rocket trains etc. estimated cost of around $100bn so Apple could fund one with their war chest but then we would have to call it an iTube!

cropbiker,  that one made me laugh - very good.....      

[geoffyboy]

I like the pics w8d4it but as the US put a man on the moon and we could well erm …….hire a foreign company to do our share, it should go ok?

Thanks cropbiker, I am looking for a new read, so I will try and track that one down.

[john348]

HS2 will cost probably more than $100 billion??????  For the tax payers to fund.  So if this government is involved then a transatlantic one would cost a lot more.  Not that I am bitter honest.      

[w8d4it]

Originally Posted by geoffyboy

I like the pics w8d4it but as the US put a man on the moon and we could well erm …….hire a foreign company to do our share, it should go ok?

Thanks cropbiker, I am looking for a new read, so I will try and track that one down.

Well the US put the first man on the moon in 1969 and the last manned moon mission was 1972.  Perhaps the US has been hiring too many foreign companies as well.