4 ms·

> Voicing a fairly widespread belief, Dickerson said he believes ride-share companies like Uber paid the city to remove parking spaces to free up room for picku

> Voicing a fairly widespread belief, Dickerson said he believes ride-share companies like Uber paid the city to remove parking spaces to free up room for pickups and dropoffs. It's crazy how quickly people go to conspiracy theories. Everyone knows what the solution is though: make the street one way, except for bikes (with a real concrete-protected barrier between cars and bikes), and everyone is happy. Everyone except those business owners who will probably be upset at any change.

jonahhorowitz 3y ago
The real solution is to remove cars from the street entirely and make it a pedestrian mall with a center running bike lane that can also be used by emergency vehicles. We'll get there in another 10 years.
- OkayPhysicist 3y ago
  Remove cars from the city entirely. Cars are for suburbs, trucks for the sticks.
- plorkyeran 3y ago
  We've even already seen what the street is like without cars, and it was amazing. The decision to discontinue the car-free days was utterly baffling.
  - shiroiuma 3y ago
    I'm guessing the politicians all drive cars and don't ride bikes or hang out in car-free areas.
    - tomowatanabe 3y ago
      they all ride bikes to work on bike to work day so they can get their pictures in the papers and be on the news.
roamerz 3y ago
>>and everyone is happy Except for the cars trucks and busses.. you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure. I would be more okay with such things if they separated the costs and made the bike lanes tolled or funded by bicycle registration. But that doesn’t solve the problem of what the displaced motor vehicle traffic does when they now have less lanes of travel on which is divert to neighboring streets which causes other problems.
- thatfrenchguy 3y ago
  This is San Francisco, my property taxes pay for the roads. There’s a parallel 4 lane road a block away.
- estebank 3y ago
  > you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure Do you have a citation or is this something that "feels true"? > I would be more okay with such things if they separated the costs and made the bike lanes tolled or funded by bicycle registration. That would be great to implement! I think you would be surprised at the result, though.
- eesmith 3y ago
  > the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure Motor vehicle user fees pay for less than half of the road infrastructure. Everyone is paying for the roads through property taxes. (Even if indirectly through rent.) Many people with a bicycle also have a car. Cars require significantly more space than bicycles, cause more road wear, and car crashes tend to require more from emergency services than bike crashes, so any fees for bikes should be scaled appropriately - and remember that those without a motor vehicle are already contributing to road infrastructure. Motor vehicle traffic isn't a fixed value. If it's harder to drive somewhere, fewer people will drive. Sometimes removing traffic lanes increases traffic capacity. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/18/mr-go https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/18/mr-go
- masklinn 3y ago
  > Except for the cars trucks and busses.. you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure. That is utter nonsense. Most of the infrastructure is paid for via the general funds. US gas taxes are laughably low, and the federal gas tax (supposed to pay for highways) has not been raised since 1993, so its value effectively halved since it was last raised. The highest gas tax in the US is a combined 70c/gal.

jonahhorowitz 3y ago

The real solution is to remove cars from the street entirely and make it a pedestrian mall with a center running bike lane that can also be used by emergency vehicles. We'll get there in another 10 years.

OkayPhysicist 3y ago
Remove cars from the city entirely. Cars are for suburbs, trucks for the sticks.
plorkyeran 3y ago
We've even already seen what the street is like without cars, and it was amazing. The decision to discontinue the car-free days was utterly baffling.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  I'm guessing the politicians all drive cars and don't ride bikes or hang out in car-free areas.
  - tomowatanabe 3y ago
    they all ride bikes to work on bike to work day so they can get their pictures in the papers and be on the news.

roamerz 3y ago

>>and everyone is happy Except for the cars trucks and busses.. you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure. I would be more okay with such things if they separated the costs and made the bike lanes tolled or funded by bicycle registration. But that doesn’t solve the problem of what the displaced motor vehicle traffic does when they now have less lanes of travel on which is divert to neighboring streets which causes other problems.

thatfrenchguy 3y ago
This is San Francisco, my property taxes pay for the roads. There’s a parallel 4 lane road a block away.
estebank 3y ago
> you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure Do you have a citation or is this something that "feels true"? > I would be more okay with such things if they separated the costs and made the bike lanes tolled or funded by bicycle registration. That would be great to implement! I think you would be surprised at the result, though.
eesmith 3y ago
> the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure Motor vehicle user fees pay for less than half of the road infrastructure. Everyone is paying for the roads through property taxes. (Even if indirectly through rent.) Many people with a bicycle also have a car. Cars require significantly more space than bicycles, cause more road wear, and car crashes tend to require more from emergency services than bike crashes, so any fees for bikes should be scaled appropriately - and remember that those without a motor vehicle are already contributing to road infrastructure. Motor vehicle traffic isn't a fixed value. If it's harder to drive somewhere, fewer people will drive. Sometimes removing traffic lanes increases traffic capacity. https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/18/mr-go https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2019/4/18/mr-go
masklinn 3y ago
> Except for the cars trucks and busses.. you know the ones who actually pay for such infrastructure. That is utter nonsense. Most of the infrastructure is paid for via the general funds. US gas taxes are laughably low, and the federal gas tax (supposed to pay for highways) has not been raised since 1993, so its value effectively halved since it was last raised. The highest gas tax in the US is a combined 70c/gal.