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| Re: Anti-car democrats are a road hazard (1578141) | |||
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Re: Anti-car democrats are a road hazard |
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Posted by BrooklynBus on Mon Jun 14 09:36:56 2021, in response to Re: Anti-car democrats are a road hazard, posted by Displaced Angeleno on Sun Jun 13 18:27:47 2021. A bike is not suitable for most trips for all the reasons you listed.Most people are not able to ride a bike. Some think it is too dangerous because of cars and other cyclists. Even if there is a safe bike route for part of the trip, you still have to get to and from it. Many people need to carry stuff, groceries, stuff from Home Depot, luggage, tools, baby carriages, etc. Many trips are too long for a bike to be convenient unless you are riding for fitness. Bikes are largely weather dependent. People do not want to ride when it's too cold, too hot, too rainy or too windy. Alternates need to be available and transit service doesn't magically increase during inclement weather which is why the ability to use a car must be a viable alternative. The ability for higher capacity as justification for bike and bus lanes is a theoretical argument. We have many bike lanes that are very lightly used and many buses operating with three people or infrequently where a bus or bike lane is not warranted where the demand for car usage is high. On Queens Blvd, a bike lane was built taking away a traffic lane adding maybe ten minutes to hundreds of thousands of cars every day, while helping about 1200 or at the most 2,000 cyclists a day. How does that make sense when far more people are hurt than helped? It only makes sense when you give preferencial treatment to a class of people you believe to be entitled and that everyone else has no rights. It probably was possible to design a bike lane without disturbing traffic but would have involved major reconstruction which the city doesn't want to do. Similarly, the bike/ pedestrian congestion on the Brooklyn Bridge could be solved by building a new bike lane above the pedestrian walkway. But that would cost more and wouldn't be detrimental to cars by removing a lane of traffic that will have far reaching effects on increasing traffic congestion. Which brings me to your next point. Traffic speeds in Manhattan declined because of increases in truck deliveries which will only get worse, and more for hire vehicles because of mass transit inadequacies. But that isn't the only reason, reduced green times, more channelization, the elimination of traffic lanes from bike and bus lanes, the removal of over 10,000 parking spaces, etc, have also contributed. |
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