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It's weird how your solution is to replace bikes with safer, human powered cars when there are so many simpler solutions. We could stop building suburbs, stop
by xmprt 5y ago
It's weird how your solution is to replace bikes with safer, human powered cars when there are so many simpler solutions.
We could stop building suburbs, stop building massive parking lots around big box stores, add more public transportation such as light rails, make some highway lanes dedicated to bus transportation (thereby reducing induced demand for cars which would actually reduce traffic), etc.
- wutbrodo 5y agoIs there any indication that the parent comment is opposed to all of these systemic solutions, especially given that he identifies himself as primarily a biker/pedestrian vs a driver? Some people are able to consider an issue on both the systemic and the local, agent-centered level.
- iammisc 5y agoThank you. I agree with the systemic critiques, I just don't see how they move us closer to a workable solution. This is just more of the division that we do to make ourselves feel morally superior. It's the "I don't shop at Walmart like the poor's" mentality that seeks to elevate the status of the critic while ignoring the very real issues that make people want to shop at a giant big box Walmart store rather than their local downtown.
- xmprt 5y agoI can almost assure you that poor people would love to shop at their local downtown if they could but right now with the lack of accessible public transportation and cheap housing near downtowns, shopping at big box stores is the best they can get. Cars are a requirement for living in modern cities if you're poor (with more money you can afford to live closer to work and public transportation). That fact alone is extremely hostile to poor people because it add 100s of dollars to their monthly bills in car payments, maintenance, and insurance.
- iammisc 5y agoThat doesn't fit in with the empirical data that has shown us that -- country wide right now -- people have fled the cities for the burbs. You can make up an anecdotal poor, but that doesn't mean it matches reality. By and large, those with means have left the city, and it shows
- wutbrodo 5y ago> I can almost assure you that poor people would love to shop at their local downtown if they could but right now with the lack of accessible public transportation and cheap housing near downtowns, shopping at big box stores is the best they can get. You don't think people get any value out of a single store, with every product you may want, and much lower prices? This runs contrary to every piece of anecdotal and non-anecdotal evidence I've seen about the way consumers behave en masse. Hell, there's even an upper-income analogue in Amazon's explosive success over the last decade.
- xmprt 5y agoI personally think that most of the effort put into making these minor improvements don't come close to addressing the massive systemic problems with urban planning today. It's a bit frustrating seeing people make the argument that the systemic solutions are too difficult so we shouldn't try them.
- iammisc 5y agoI'm not someone who'd ever engage in 'cycling advocacy', so you haven't lost anyone, believe me.
- iammisc 5y agoNone of those things are simple. They require immense top down effort whereas starting a company providing a safer bike is able to be done right now by a small group of individuals without any political approval or lobbying or legislation. Like I said in an above comments we can sit around and think about what we should have done, or we can make suggestions based on what we have. One is more constructive than the other.