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As a person who prefers walking/biking and also a parent the issue for me is all of the American infrastructure is not designed to be comfortable outside of a c

As a person who prefers walking/biking and also a parent the issue for me is all of the American infrastructure is not designed to be comfortable outside of a car. I know the about pedestrian deaths declining, etc. I ride my bike for utility 1,000+ miles a year with both kids. It feels like I am going to war just getting groceries, going to the library or doing school. The statistics may not reflect it but my perception is with huge cars and trends in road designs everything _feels_ unsafe and uncomfortable. Some concrete examples: I regularly encounter drivers rolling through stop signs in F150 trucks not seeing my HUGE cargo bike with a flag and every fluorescent color. I encounter broken crossing buttons at least once a month requiring detours or dangerous crossings. The best routes to not interact with cars are completely barren trails built under electrical transmission infrastructure- in the summer they are brutally hot due to lack of any shade cover. It all just feels bad. To the articles point though I have met some good people and created some excellent experiences by not using a car. And I work hard to design my life around not needing to use a car. But, our defaults really stink and a lot of it comes down to a lack of human design factors. This summarizes my feelings well: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/28/if-we-want-a-shift-to-walking-we-need-to-prioritize-dignity https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2023/7/28/if-we-want-a-s...

bongodongobob 2y ago
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- sweetdekker 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - bongodongobob 2y ago
    It's absolutely not. There's Trump signs everywhere around here and plenty of rednecks rolling coal. It's very real.
l1tany11 2y ago
Every little part of the infrastructure is dumbly serving the idea that a car briefly going 50mph is a good thing. The crossing buttons you mentioned, are often inaccessible from the bike lane. The bike lane doesn’t have a sensor (and such sensors do exist). You have to somehow go up the curb, push the button, and go back to the street. But what if you are turning left or going straight and there is more than 1 lane? What if there are cars in the way, say turning right? Being predictable is paramount to safety, how predictable is it to be in the right lane, hop up a curb to push a button, to go back across 2 lanes to make a left? One thing I’ve realized is that there is a bias regarding speed. If people drive somewhere and there’s a nice fast road with a lot of traffic, then it’s a quick efficient journey. Regardless of the fact that they hit 4 stop lights and actually averaged less than 20mph. Factor in door to door times, and the numbers get crazy. Look at the behavior of people in parking lots. It’s very common for people to spend more time parking, to avoid spending part of that time walking. So instead of going for the available spaces that are a 5-10 second walk from the “good spot” they battle to park as close to their destination as possible. To avoid walking 5 seconds. And now your average speed is 15mph in the suburbs. It’s great.

bongodongobob 2y ago

[flagged]

sweetdekker 2y ago
[flagged]
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  It's absolutely not. There's Trump signs everywhere around here and plenty of rednecks rolling coal. It's very real.

l1tany11 2y ago

Every little part of the infrastructure is dumbly serving the idea that a car briefly going 50mph is a good thing. The crossing buttons you mentioned, are often inaccessible from the bike lane. The bike lane doesn’t have a sensor (and such sensors do exist). You have to somehow go up the curb, push the button, and go back to the street. But what if you are turning left or going straight and there is more than 1 lane? What if there are cars in the way, say turning right? Being predictable is paramount to safety, how predictable is it to be in the right lane, hop up a curb to push a button, to go back across 2 lanes to make a left? One thing I’ve realized is that there is a bias regarding speed. If people drive somewhere and there’s a nice fast road with a lot of traffic, then it’s a quick efficient journey. Regardless of the fact that they hit 4 stop lights and actually averaged less than 20mph. Factor in door to door times, and the numbers get crazy. Look at the behavior of people in parking lots. It’s very common for people to spend more time parking, to avoid spending part of that time walking. So instead of going for the available spaces that are a 5-10 second walk from the “good spot” they battle to park as close to their destination as possible. To avoid walking 5 seconds. And now your average speed is 15mph in the suburbs. It’s great.