3 ms·

With more bikes because of bike lanes, I hope the city will begin enforcing bike infractions more seriously. So many people on bikes are going way too fast in t

With more bikes because of bike lanes, I hope the city will begin enforcing bike infractions more seriously. So many people on bikes are going way too fast in the bike lanes (and pedestrian pathways) and do not stop at red lights, etc. I was happy to see a person get stopped and ticketed for riding down a walkway to a bike path when there was a sign explicitly stating that riding on the path was not allowed. I've seen so many pedestrians hit by people on bikes, in bike lanes that did not stop at red while someone was crossing the walk. It's invariably a Lance Armstrong type or a tourist on a City Bike with no idea what they are doing. With the loss of revenue from parking tickets it will have to be made up somewhere and people on bikes should be the targets for fines. There should also be stricter requirements on registering bikes for a fee to be used in the city with unlicensed bikes being fined.

TulliusCicero 7y ago
Mandatory bike registration is a terrible idea, but I got no problem with fining people who ride dangerously.
- nemo44x 7y ago
  Make it simple with a 5% tax on any new bike purchased in the city. Call it the “bike lane preservation fund”.
  - TulliusCicero 7y ago
    Why would we want to make it more expensive to bike, when it's better for the environment and saves the city money as it is? Some German cities are going in the opposite direction, giving subsidies for people to purchase electric cargo bikes.
    - nemo44x 7y ago
      Lost revenue from parking tickets. The city is in a very precarious situation right now with debt of 81k per resident and high tax paying citizens leaving the city faster than they are being replaced. Pension obligations are exploding and since 1% of the population funds 50% of the tax revenue, we can’t afford to lose anymore. Building bike lanes is very kumbaya but these types of things are not sustainable as-is. Someone has to pay for it, why not the ones that use it? Make it great to attract more bikers and raise more money. Or maybe just raise taxes on the place with the highest tax burden in the country? Will only chase out the small group of people that actually pay the bills even more. I suppose we could also setup red light cameras for bikes but this would require registrations and license plates. The alternative is to tax bike sales.
      - frabbit 7y ago
        Someone has to pay for it, why not the ones that use it? Just tax the GHG-emitters fairly and there cities coffers will be over-flowing. That will help shift the incentive for those too dim and slothful to make a change on their own.
        nemo44x 7y ago
        I agree that fuel tax should increase. However, that appears to be political suicide.
      - TulliusCicero 7y ago
        Cyclists already pay for their infrastructure and then some. Why do you want them to subsidize drivers more than they already do? Why do you want to incentivize a form of transportation that's more polluting and dangerous and expensive for everyone involved? You're not going to make significant revenue off of bikes, and in any case switching trips to bikes saves cities money. If more money is needed for infrastructure in general, that's what property and sales and income taxes are for.
u801e 7y ago
> So many people on bikes are going way too fast in the bike lanes (and pedestrian pathways) This goes to show that bike infrastructure isn't practical for transportation. If you can't really use that infrastructure at speeds much faster than a pedestrian (3 to 6 mph), then it will take too long to get anywhere other than for the shortest trips. On the other hand, it's quite easy to safely go 10 to 30 mph on the actual road itself while taking the lane.
pedantsamaritan 7y ago
> going way too fast in the bike lanes What is too fast? Why shouldn't bikes be able to go fast in bike lanes? > With the loss of revenue from parking tickets it will have to be made up somewhere How much can be made up from fewer vehicles causing less damage to roads decreasing the maintenance budget? (A study found road damage proportional to the 4th power of weight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHO_Road_Test https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHO_Road_Test)

TulliusCicero 7y ago

Mandatory bike registration is a terrible idea, but I got no problem with fining people who ride dangerously.

nemo44x 7y ago
Make it simple with a 5% tax on any new bike purchased in the city. Call it the “bike lane preservation fund”.
- TulliusCicero 7y ago
  Why would we want to make it more expensive to bike, when it's better for the environment and saves the city money as it is? Some German cities are going in the opposite direction, giving subsidies for people to purchase electric cargo bikes.
  - nemo44x 7y ago
    Lost revenue from parking tickets. The city is in a very precarious situation right now with debt of 81k per resident and high tax paying citizens leaving the city faster than they are being replaced. Pension obligations are exploding and since 1% of the population funds 50% of the tax revenue, we can’t afford to lose anymore. Building bike lanes is very kumbaya but these types of things are not sustainable as-is. Someone has to pay for it, why not the ones that use it? Make it great to attract more bikers and raise more money. Or maybe just raise taxes on the place with the highest tax burden in the country? Will only chase out the small group of people that actually pay the bills even more. I suppose we could also setup red light cameras for bikes but this would require registrations and license plates. The alternative is to tax bike sales.
    - frabbit 7y ago
      Someone has to pay for it, why not the ones that use it? Just tax the GHG-emitters fairly and there cities coffers will be over-flowing. That will help shift the incentive for those too dim and slothful to make a change on their own.
      - nemo44x 7y ago
        I agree that fuel tax should increase. However, that appears to be political suicide.
    - TulliusCicero 7y ago
      Cyclists already pay for their infrastructure and then some. Why do you want them to subsidize drivers more than they already do? Why do you want to incentivize a form of transportation that's more polluting and dangerous and expensive for everyone involved? You're not going to make significant revenue off of bikes, and in any case switching trips to bikes saves cities money. If more money is needed for infrastructure in general, that's what property and sales and income taxes are for.

u801e 7y ago

> So many people on bikes are going way too fast in the bike lanes (and pedestrian pathways) This goes to show that bike infrastructure isn't practical for transportation. If you can't really use that infrastructure at speeds much faster than a pedestrian (3 to 6 mph), then it will take too long to get anywhere other than for the shortest trips. On the other hand, it's quite easy to safely go 10 to 30 mph on the actual road itself while taking the lane.

pedantsamaritan 7y ago

> going way too fast in the bike lanes What is too fast? Why shouldn't bikes be able to go fast in bike lanes? > With the loss of revenue from parking tickets it will have to be made up somewhere How much can be made up from fewer vehicles causing less damage to roads decreasing the maintenance budget? (A study found road damage proportional to the 4th power of weight https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHO_Road_Test https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHO_Road_Test)