The key word here is "urban". I ride my bike around the city core sometimes just for fun and I can easily keep up with cars because they are going so slow. Now imagine how many bikes you could fit on a two lane road vs how many cars. Obviously if the car is coming from the suburbs its going to be faster.
> Also, serious question: if electric SDCs became widespread, would it still make sense to advocate things like bikes?
Yes, absolutely yes. The cars would still have to go somewhere after they have dropped off their occupants. Hopefully we will get on-demand carpool services that allow us to have vastly fewer vehicles on the road, which would free up space for bikes and other public transit.
> You can't transport a family of three or a baby as safely in a vehicle smaller than a car
Not everyone can use a bike of course. Some will have to use public transit, and yes some will have to use a car for various reasons. The streets don't have to be car-less, we just need to get enough cars off the road to ease congestion and be able to turn existing lanes into bike lanes or public transit lanes. Once good reliable and quick public transit exists, there won't be such a strong incentive to own a car.
I feel the picture is misleading. First, the angle for cars results in a closer, more zoomed in picture than for the bus and bike. Second, it assumes 1 occupant per car, but a full bus. More likely, each car will probably average more than 1 occupant, and buses will probably be less than half full, if not 25%.
> First, the angle for cars results in a closer, more zoomed in picture than for the bus and bike.
That's true, but I don't think it makes much of a difference. I couldn't fix the angle, but here's the same picture with second and third images also zoomed in similarily: https://imgur.com/a/2GMcSlE
> Second, it assumes 1 occupant per car, but a full bus. More likely, each car will probably average more than 1 occupant, and buses will probably be less than half full, if not 25%.
Actually, below is an example for a few countries. Average number of persons in a car seem to be decreasing with 1.8 in the 80s, down to around 1.4 in 2005. At the same time average seat occupancy for buses seem to be around 70%. This matches what I observe everyday - vast majority of cars has only the driver inside.
> Plus car drivers are advised to give a bike the same room as a car, so on mixed use roads a bike effectively takes up the same space as a car.
Yes, that is one case. On the other hand:
1. The fact that such advices are given doesn't mean they are followed. I also heard that car drivers are supposed to leave at least 1 meter of space between themselves and a bike when overtaking said bike. In my experience that happens only on an empty wide road; otherwise car drivers won't hesitate to overtake as close as possible.
2. In case of bike lanes, bikes obviously do take much less space, both when driving and when queuing.
3. Even in case of mixed road, there may be multiple bikes which do not need to stay so far away from each other.
4. Also on mixed road, when queuing together with cars, bikes will usually position themselves alongside cars, therefore effectively taking zero space in the queue.
5. Finally consider also requirements for parking. A single car parking space could probably fit 10 bikes.
I’d be interested in seeing an equivalent side-by-side image based on occupancy data. For instance, cars in the US average only 1.7 people per vehicle:
> Also, serious question: if electric SDCs became widespread, would it still make sense to advocate things like bikes?
Yes, absolutely yes. The cars would still have to go somewhere after they have dropped off their occupants. Hopefully we will get on-demand carpool services that allow us to have vastly fewer vehicles on the road, which would free up space for bikes and other public transit.
> You can't transport a family of three or a baby as safely in a vehicle smaller than a car
Not everyone can use a bike of course. Some will have to use public transit, and yes some will have to use a car for various reasons. The streets don't have to be car-less, we just need to get enough cars off the road to ease congestion and be able to turn existing lanes into bike lanes or public transit lanes. Once good reliable and quick public transit exists, there won't be such a strong incentive to own a car.