4 ms·

> I would've thought the bicyclists would have empathy and solidarity, at least against the cars ... And now we're getting dedicated bike paths often at the cos

> I would've thought the bicyclists would have empathy and solidarity, at least against the cars ... And now we're getting dedicated bike paths often at the cost of sidewalks. I live in another HCOL area allegedly famed for its walking and biking facilities, and I hoped the same thing. Unfortunately, the process here seems to have turned into "each individual group vs car drivers", probably by design. For example, where I live has separate pedestrian, bicycle, and transit advisory boards to the city council. Never mind that projects should be built to benefit all three, not just one. What's wound up happening is, because we "obviously cannot" take space from car drivers, the precious little room given over to modes that don't involve driving are forced to compete with each other. A new train station was built on the north end of town and the former sidewalk area on one side of the train station has been repurposed as a bicycle-only lane. The other side of the street is still a pedestrian sidewalk...but the street itself is a four-lane thoroughfare with very wide lanes and a median turn lane in spots. Of course, narrowing the car space on that road to make the corridor more comfortable for people on feet and on bikes was completely out of the question. Also, the sidewalk didn't get fully rebuilt so I routinely see people in wheelchairs and pushing prams on the "bicycle-only" side because that's much smoother and even.

neilv 3y ago
> Unfortunately, the process here seems to have turned into "each individual group vs car drivers ... where I live has separate pedestrian, bicycle, and transit advisory boards to the city council. I suspect you're right; I've seen that, but didn't realize at the time that it could be a barrier. I could imagine how it might be organized that way in good faith -- e.g., get the input from the people who really care about biking, the people who really care about walking, and the train/transportation buffs, and then have city officials process it all, holistically -- but that's a lot of heavy lifting, and also doesn't bring the advocates together to learn from each other and directly reconcile conflicts.

neilv 3y ago

> Unfortunately, the process here seems to have turned into "each individual group vs car drivers ... where I live has separate pedestrian, bicycle, and transit advisory boards to the city council. I suspect you're right; I've seen that, but didn't realize at the time that it could be a barrier. I could imagine how it might be organized that way in good faith -- e.g., get the input from the people who really care about biking, the people who really care about walking, and the train/transportation buffs, and then have city officials process it all, holistically -- but that's a lot of heavy lifting, and also doesn't bring the advocates together to learn from each other and directly reconcile conflicts.