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US DOT deleting bike lane references

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Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#101

Post by Moomoomoo309 »

pandaman wrote: post #78
VariousPrograms wrote: post #6

I have friends who despise cyclists but oppose bike lanes. Bike lanes would take cyclists out of your lane and into their own lane. Plus if more people start cycling because there's infrastructure, that's less car traffic in the way of your truck! It just seems like a win-win for everybody. I've given up hope on transportation in the USA. It certainly won't be fixed within my lifetime.

I don't know if you noticed that, but when they make bike lanes they don't cut them off the sidewalk, they cut them into the car lanes, either taking a lane out or making the existing lane very narrow. Unlike a cyclist, which you see once in a blue moon, the reduced lanes are there forever, you drive through them all the time. Does this explain the paradox to you? I, for one, cycle and still oppose bike lanes - they…

You don't see cyclists because they don't have to wait in traffic as much, and because there's essentially no safe road for them to travel on. Bike theft is not why people don't cycle, from my experience, it's because they're right next to cars going 35+ miles per hour that would maim them if they got hit, even plastic bollards are enough to get drivers to stop riding so close to the bike lane, which makes cyclists feel safer.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#102

Post by stasomatic »

pandaman wrote: post #78
VariousPrograms wrote: post #6

I have friends who despise cyclists but oppose bike lanes. Bike lanes would take cyclists out of your lane and into their own lane. Plus if more people start cycling because there's infrastructure, that's less car traffic in the way of your truck! It just seems like a win-win for everybody. I've given up hope on transportation in the USA. It certainly won't be fixed within my lifetime.

I don't know if you noticed that, but when they make bike lanes they don't cut them off the sidewalk, they cut them into the car lanes, either taking a lane out or making the existing lane very narrow. Unlike a cyclist, which you see once in a blue moon, the reduced lanes are there forever, you drive through them all the time. Does this explain the paradox to you? I, for one, cycle and still oppose bike lanes - they…

Absolutely. In my part of Miami proper, what's left for the SUVs after the bike lane was cut in, is not enough for them to pass me. When I am on that same street in a car instead of the bike, it's very unnerving to be that close to a cyclist. I mean, technically, it's enough, but it's scary for the driver. Many streets are painted with solid double no-pass markings.

When I cycle, I take the full lane even if there is a "bike lane". If I am holding up traffic, I'll slow down and retire to the bike lane until that wave of car passes, no need to agitate anyone.

This has been a solved problem in Europe, but in the states, cars got wider, but the streets didn't.

I do dislike Tour de France militant wanna be tribes, they act really obnoxious in traffic in my part of the world. When it's a single rider, mostly all is cool, but when there is a pack of a dozen or more, they transform into something else.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#103

Post by pandaman »

Moomoomoo309 wrote: post #101
pandaman wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if you noticed that, but when they make bike lanes they don't cut them off the sidewalk, they cut them into the car lanes, either taking a lane out or making the existing lane very narrow. Unlike a cyclist, which you see once in a blue moon, the reduced lanes are there forever, you drive through them all the time. Does this explain the paradox to you? I, for one, cycle and still oppose bike lanes - they…

You don't see cyclists because they don't have to wait in traffic as much, and because there's essentially no safe road for them to travel on. Bike theft is not why people don't cycle, from my experience, it's because they're right next to cars going 35+ miles per hour that would maim them if they got hit, even plastic bollards are enough to get drivers to stop riding so close to the bike lane, which makes cyclists f…

> You don't see cyclists ....

Glad we agree on this, the reasons you imagined could be true or false, the main point is that drivers are going to be affected by the bike lanes significantly more than by cyclists.

> Bike theft is not why people don't cycle

It is in my experience. E.g. I don't bike to work because the office building requires bikes to be stored in the shared storage room and I don't want it to be stolen. There is a bike trail between my home and office so no 35 mph cars you are so afraid of.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#105

Post by krapp »

jimt1234 wrote: post #29
f17428d27584 wrote: post #8

"This is a common sense approach despite the Left's belief that everyone should ride a bike to their shoebox-sized apartment to eat crickets to achieve a phony climate agenda." The government we deserve. Nobody bother thinking coherent thoughts, insults and spurious non sequiturs are policy now.

That's one of the many problems I have with the current regime: they can't say anything without framing it as an opposition to some exaggerated bogeyman. I get it, politics is about messaging. But can't these fools, for once, rise above it and just do something without taking a jab?

These fools were elected because they refuse to "rise above it."

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#106

Post by JohnTHaller »

f17428d27584 wrote: post #10
goatlover wrote: post #2

What's a "DEI bike lane"? Like woke, DEI has lost all meaning at the political level of discourse. It's just whatever the current regime dislikes.

Making things better is Progressive, and Progressive is woke, and woke is DEI. So to fight back against DEI find the things that make peoples’ lives better (like bike lanes) and destroy them. Just tear them up, and you’ve won the culture war and saved America. This is the official GOP policy, the best of what the GOP has to offer. Fight friends, betray allies, threaten your neighbors, drop bombs, smash bike lanes.

GOP/MAGA/"Conservative" ideas are basically Regressive.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#107

Post by cucumber3732842 »

jimbokun wrote: post #100
cucumber3732842 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So White Flight was a good thing? I'll take your flagrant strawman. You're telling me that black communities weren't doing probably the best they've ever done during that exact same period? A conspiracy theorist would say the white man invented welfare to keep them down. I would say they weren't thinking that far ahead. I mean hell, wealthy (enough, and mostly white but that's beside the point) folk had their own co…

This is an incoherent mess of labels and epithets. I can’t detect any real argument.

>I can’t detect any real argument

I'd say that's a you problem but it's actually an "everyone who has to share society with you" problem.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#108

Post by JeremyNT »

kgermino wrote: post #55
johnnyApplePRNG wrote: post #18

It's pretty clear that from the other side of the border that the man in charge is literally acting like an 80 year old 4chan b troll. He's just trying to get under everyone's skin and it's working. Look at those crowds of bikers... ICE protesters... no king protesters... He's a showman and he loves it. Stop giving him airtime. So what if federal funding doesn't recognize bike lanes or whatever this is about? Vote in…

A big part of the issue is that federal funding drives probably the majority of significant projects at all levels. We have a completely broken system where every project is a targeted towards winning a grant as much as if not more than the actual local need. Milwaukee WI has had several (awarded!) street reconstruction grants killed by this admin because they included bike lanes. They weren't bike lane _projects_, t…

> The real fix for this is to fix the stupid system we have, but for now it's what we're stuck with and this has a real impact you can't overcome locally.

And to elaborate on the stupidity, blue states send more taxes to the federal government, which then doles them back out to subsidize the low cost of living in red states.

So you end up with people in dense urban areas sending tax dollars to Washington, then begging to get the taxes their own citizens paid back, in support of building the infrastructure projects they want locally.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#109

Post by pstuart »

macintux wrote: post #62
pstuart wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are a real news organization. Even after losing federal funding they deliver the news without editorial. Perhaps editorial bias but that's inherent in all outlets. Question: if the news reports something you don't like, is it fake?

> Question: if the news reports something you don't like, is it fake? One of Trump’s many talents is corrupting language. The phrase “fake news” was originally used to criticize his many outright lies about what was going on in the world during his first run for office, but he managed to change the meaning to “anything that doesn’t show him in the best possible light”. He’s remarkably adept at demagoguery.

I think he's an idiot savant in this regard (and others).

When he claimed he could shoot somebody on 5th Ave and not lose a vote I remember the collective shock (including my own), but he proved to be prescient in this regard.

Hate speech towards democrats has been going on for decades and has primed that segment of the population to consider the left as to effectively be sub-human.

Couple this with the fact that the Right excels at messaging (e.g., "pro-life", "entitlements", "woke" as an amorphous "bad librul stuff!", etc.)

I spend a lot of time thinking about this problem and am quite terrified for the future because the weaponization of hate and "low information voters" is a powerful force and effectively beyond reasoning with.

It's relevant to HN because the matter is effectively "hacking humanity". It's hard to discuss here because people are primed to get very emotional about the matter and that doesn't lead to healthy engagement.

edit: I am not a Democrat and am strongly against partisanship. George Washington warned the nation about this in his farewell address.

Re: US DOT deleting bike lane references

#110

Post by tzs »

Freedumbs wrote: post #99

From what I've seen and heard, the propaganda is blaming pedestrians for being "distracted". I've heard ads on the radio telling kids to look up when walking and not walk distracted (because automobiles are dangerous). This is absurd and I'll spell it out: larger cars designed to generate more revenue and distracted drivers are problems, not people walking around with their heads down. Nearly everything is backward a…

Kids have repeatedly been warned to pay attention when walking near roads for as long I can remember which is over 60 years.

Even getting hit by a subcompact car can kill someone if they just step out in front of it not giving it enough time to stop.

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