mrkreuzerFeb 20
TechAltar

RE: https://mastodon.berlin/@pneumann/116098081824322349

Motorists & conservative politicians keep complaining about "dictatorial" traffic calming measures such as bollards. Meanwhile:

- 68% of surveyed citizens living in the area approve, 25% dislike the changes
- collisions where humans were harmed down by 29%
- pedestrian & bike accidents down 34%
- car ownership in affected areas decreased by 9% points

Traffic calming is a massive success and most people who say otherwise they are either wrong or have an agenda.

Feb 20 at 3:49amWeb
Show threadPunnamaraju Vinayaka TejasFeb 20
@Techaltar this is "equality looks like oppression to the privileged", but with cars and pedestrians
Show threadzakiltenskyiFeb 20
@Techaltar In conclusion, fuck car centrism.
Show threadClickyMcTickerFeb 20

@Techaltar When someone tells me they *don’t* support traffic calming, this is what I’m going to tell them they support:

https://youtu.be/jyR0B6w3I40

This is what unfettered automobile roads look like.

If you want multi-ton bricks of steel flying through the walls of your home or flattening an entire classroom of children, go ahead and take the curbs off the roads and get rid of the sidewalks. Take out the speed limits and stop signs while you’re at it. Pedestrian crossings and school zones? Those slow cars down. Since we’re going full car culture, why isn’t there a parking lot available for your single family home? You throw dinner parties, don’t you?

Angry part of my rant is over now. I was nearly run over by a car ignoring my body wholly two feet into a crosswalk today, so I think I earned it.

As always, conservatives are going to fight anything that didn’t exist yesterday because it didn’t exist yesterday. They’re a broken clock. A broken clock might be right twice a day, but they’re also wrong every other minute of every day. Their job in life is to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future, so it’s really not worth considering their opinion. They don’t do their research and instead base their policy on vibes.

As always, the data continues to show that traffic calming has a positive impact on society. I’m excited to see more of it roll out in my city, and I plan on supporting it in any planning/zoning meetings that I can.

Wild video shows truck go airborne, crash into home

YouTube
Show threadj4n3zFeb 20
@Techaltar fun fact: minister for sport in Czechia, part of the Motorists party, had meeting with minister of transportation (chosen as representative for SPD - far right anti-everything party) to massively support bike and pedestrian commuting 😄
Show threadDaniel GomesFeb 20

@Techaltar That’s great news.

I love driving cars. I love cars. I love motorsports.

But it’s doesn’t mean that cars are the only transport. Nor should they be.

I prefer public transport where it exists. It means no sitting in traffic. No looking for parking. Saves on fuel. You get to see and interact with people.

When I lived in Munich I also had a bicycle and thanks to bicycle lanes I could go anywhere.

All transport forms need to co-exist.l with mutual respect for each other.

Show threadDaniel GomesFeb 20

@Techaltar What I do not like is when there are no dedicated bike lanes and bikers ride in the road, mostly blocking traffic. Worse yet, people on these electric standing skateboard things. Riding in the street going very slowly in peak traffic.

I find that disrespectful to car drivers. Use the pavement. That thing is small enough. Or use a bus. But don’t disrespect fellow human beings in cars by blocking the road.

Show threadBastianFeb 20
@dfgomes @Techaltar Funnily enough, I feel mostly the opposite. When I'm in a car I rarely feel slowed down by people on bicycles, but when I'm riding my bike, I regularly feel like people in cars are blocking the entire street. For every 3m of width you can get 1 car per 1.5 seconds through a crossing, or 4 bicycles. If they were all on bikes or in a bus, I (and they) would get cleaner air to breathe *and* we all get to where we're going faster.
Show threadTechAltarFeb 20
@dfgomes not only is riding on the pavement illegal in most countries, they are a much bigger threat to pedestrians than they are to cars. So yes, ideally, a separated lane, but where that is not possible they belong on the street imo
Show threadVon XylofonFeb 20
@Techaltar Absolutely agreed, traffic calming and walkability all the way BUT why do bollards need to be so ugly? They are the most gopping eyesore to disgrace the public space ever since the jersey barrier. Is this really the best the collective urbanist hivemind of the world can come up with?
Show threadTechAltarFeb 21
@vonxylofon they are designed to be eye sores so you actually see them and don't drive into them accidentally. They are after all placed right in the middle of a street
Show threadVon XylofonFeb 21
@Techaltar That's a big part of the problem – they are used to make artificial routes and obstacles in a sea of completely flat tarmac, where you don't know where to go otherwise. Maybe what we need is breaking that uniform surface, but again, that's expensive as opposed to putting up some plastic columns.