Zorba
Lifer
Because the car in the US is king, and all other forms of transportation are not our problem...
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Bike lanes
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MrSquished
Lifer
I found the video and channel of the guy who had a revelation when traveling to Houston, about transportation. All his videos are pretty good. Also the second video is from the CityBeautiful channel I used to watch, also very smart analytical data driven analysis of our transportation issues
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GodisanAtheist
Diamond Member
- The issue is the roads are narrow and everyone parks on the street. So its almost one lane in the middle of the road a lot of times, and pedestrians, dog walkers, cyclists, and cars all have to share that cramped space.
A sidewalk would at least get the pedestrians and dog walkers off the road and free up space for everyone else.
Charmonium
Lifer
It's sad to say but around here, a car really is essential. My dead end street is pretty long and in all fairness, really should have been a thru street to the huge condo development. But we didn't want cars buzzing thru all day long. Kids toward the end can still play in the street though with virtually no worries. So I guess there are good and bad aspects to everything.
There's still undeveloped patches of land all over the place and with immigration, this area could eventually become an actual city rather than a sleepy not-so-little town. The oldest section of town is already a bit like that. I'm pretty sure they have sidewalks there but I never really notice. In that case though, they really are needed.
So sidewalks could be in our future at some point too. But I can tell you for certain, it won't be w/o a fight.
Brainonska511
Lifer
I wish we had more mixed infrastructure. American suburbs and cities don't have to be so car-centric.
Narrow streets are a good thing for a neighborhood. It seems that engineering controls are the only thing that gets vehicles to slow down.
Put bike lanes in the road gutter or in the door zone and it's no surprise people don't use them.
GodisanAtheist
Diamond Member
-Why, oh why, would you think that narrow streets makes cars slow down? Cause they sure as shit don't slow down at all around here.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
Nothing against them but I voted no as if they are added as an after thought it's usually done terribly and ends up being a waste of money. They added some green rubber matt type ones here and they lasted about a month before they started to tear apart. Some of them also go right in the middle of the road, I would not even feel safe riding on them. Some of them use regular line paint but that doesn't last either so in spring you have people who know there is suppose to be a bike lane there and people who don't, so people are all over the road.
I would rather just have them change the rules so that riding on the sidewalk is allowed and you just need to go around pedestrians and give enough room. The idea of riding so close to car traffic is just unsafe in general at least on the sidewalk there is a bit more distance and also way less pot holes to go around. There are way less pedestrians than there are cars so it just makes sense to keep bikes off the road really and make use of the open sidewalk. Most people here just ride on the sidewalk anyway, I don't think they really enforce that rule.
I would rather just have them change the rules so that riding on the sidewalk is allowed and you just need to go around pedestrians and give enough room. The idea of riding so close to car traffic is just unsafe in general at least on the sidewalk there is a bit more distance and also way less pot holes to go around. There are way less pedestrians than there are cars so it just makes sense to keep bikes off the road really and make use of the open sidewalk. Most people here just ride on the sidewalk anyway, I don't think they really enforce that rule.
Red Squirrel
No Lifer
Now that is a good way of doing it.
The Netherlands is about the only country that gets close to doing it right.
bicycledutch.wordpress.com
They build things like this
Whereas we get things like this
www.theguardian.com
Europe’s longest cycling bridge opened
The new longest cycling bridge of Europe was opened one and a half weeks ago. A representative of the province of Groningen and the mayor of the municipality of Oldambt cut the ribbon together on 1…
bicycledutch.wordpress.com
They build things like this
Whereas we get things like this
Crap cycle lanes
From amusing and pointless to downright dangerous lanes, the Warrington Cycle Campaign's book of Crap Cycle Lanes is notorious among cyclists
That's because they are almost always shit. Full of lamp-posts, drain covers, parked cars, and broken glass.
biostud
Lifer
I think Denmark and the Netherlands are always competeting for being the most bike friendly country. 🙂The Netherlands is about the only country that gets close to doing it right.
Europe’s longest cycling bridge opened
The new longest cycling bridge of Europe was opened one and a half weeks ago. A representative of the province of Groningen and the mayor of the municipality of Oldambt cut the ribbon together on 1…
They build things like this
View attachment 83609
Whereas we get things like this
Crap cycle lanes
From amusing and pointless to downright dangerous lanes, the Warrington Cycle Campaign's book of Crap Cycle Lanes is notorious among cyclists
Though in my (admittedly, extreme) opinion, even the Netherlands doesn't go quite far enough. As I understand it even there it's a constant struggle to keep the infrastructure from being slowly degraded under pressure from the motor lobby.
Ours is just _awful_. Comically bad.
Strangely enough, Boris Johnson's stint as mayor was the only time any progress was made. Khan has actually been pretty crap on that score. He's pathetically timid (which makes it all the more absurd he's been attacked by the right as being some sort of 'radical').
Maybe it takes the overconfidence and arrogance of a public-school type like Johnson to actually face down the vested interests of the petrol-head lobby? The politics of it all seem weird and contradictory.
It might have been better all-round if Johnson had stayed as mayor and not gotten involved with Brexit or become the rubbish PM he turned out to be. At least as mayor he wasn't 100% disastrous.
biostud
Lifer
Most things are if done wrong. A house without a roof or a car without wheels are also waste of money. 🙂
MrSquished
Lifer
Look at this jackass riding 6 inches out of the bike lane, so he can supervise his kids!
Absolutely. Crap cycle lanes are worse than useless, becuase often they are death-traps (built in door-zones, for example) yet motorists expect cyclists to use them and get dangerously angry when they don't.
(Cycle lanes that are 6 inches wide or placed in door zones are equivalent to putting a "entrance to the gift shop" sign on the door to the lion enclosure at the zoo - the 'road traffic engineers' who put such things in should be charged with attempted murder)
pete6032
Diamond Member
From what I have seen a much larger concern is vehicles deciding to obstruct the bike lanes.
Muse
Lifer
I bike a lot, so gotta plug bike lanes, but think they are usually not well thought out and implemented. A lot of the ones in my town are cruddy. They seem to be designed and implemented and maintained (???) by people who do not ride bikes, don't have the bicyclist's perspective. Rough pavement a lot of the time. What's the use of a bike lane if it's an inferior route to non-bike-lane routes? Sometimes cars drive in them anyway, depending on the design/implementation.
I quad skate the streets a lot too, which is tougher than biking. Getting from here to there on quad skates is pretty challenging, almost guaranteed to be difficult and frustrating if you haven't determined a preferred route, which is a trial and error process that takes time and experience and experimenting, etc. etc. Creativity too. But it's worth it when it works.
I quad skate the streets a lot too, which is tougher than biking. Getting from here to there on quad skates is pretty challenging, almost guaranteed to be difficult and frustrating if you haven't determined a preferred route, which is a trial and error process that takes time and experience and experimenting, etc. etc. Creativity too. But it's worth it when it works.
MrSquished
Lifer
CitiBike recently celebrated a 10 year anniversary. When it was launched, there was no shortage of doomsayers saying how terrible it would be. The first day of Citibike had 6,050 rides. This year Citibike hit 124,000 rides in a day over a week average in May.
some good quotes in this article from folks involved with the launch 10 years back
www.curbed.com
some good quotes in this article from folks involved with the launch 10 years back
‘We Were Riding in a City That Simply Hadn’t Existed Just a Few Years Earlier’
Reflecting on a decade of Citi Bike with a dozen New Yorkers who made it happen.
www.curbed.com
Muse
Lifer
I got hurt one time bicycling in a bike lane when I was lulled into a dangerous situation. The bike lane at that point in the residential street was slowly narrowing and I didn't notice that fact. I was paying attention to my proximity to the lane marker which was on the left, of course. Meantime I was getting closer and closer to the parked cars and a lady suddenly swung open her parked car's driver's side door and I was struck by the door. I didn't fall but my hand was hurting real bad. She said something insensitive and I rode away smoking mad. It's a lesson, don't trust those bike lanes, widen your perspective and pay attention to what keeps you safe. I'm very seasoned, rarely get hurt, have never been seriously hurt on a bike. But a friend of mine years ago had to have his jaw wired together after being doored! I'm wearing a helmet these days because my physical therapist told me if I suffered a head injury on my bike my life might never be the same. I wear it skating too now. I always wear gloves, biking or skating.
I see bicyclists riding way to close to parked cars and it gives me the chills. I've tried to warn some of them in the past but they usually aren't receptive. I try hard to not get closer to a car than the maximum extension of a wide-open door, and then some, damn all other considerations. There's a law now in CA that moving cars have to give you that kind of room, which helps, I guess.
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Muse
Lifer
Sidewalk in front of my house had a dangerous ledge form because of being pushed up by a root of a city-owned tree between sidewalk and the street. I called the city and they put in a temporary ramp-fix of asphalt. I asked them if they could do a proper concrete fix and they said they would but only if I paid 1/2 the cost and to do so I'd have to get on a waiting list that takes maybe a couple years. I'm on the list. I should call them to remove that tree because it's ugly and literally 1/2 dead at this point and is a danger from it's falling limbs. I don't know how they will respond. They have trimmed that tree a time or two on their own. Maybe they would remove it, maybe put in a new decent tree. The one in front of my house is 1 on a 10 scale for tree-beauty.
MrSquished
Lifer
Rolled up next to this guy today in the East Village. I'm not sure he was quite in the bike lane, maybe 6 inches out, but anyway, it all worked out fine, nobody honked, only fun times. He was going to grill some shit up with friends a few blocks away in their backyard. Bikes!
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