AI6YR Ben1d ago
LOL I won't ride any of the LTS 4 and monst of the LTS3 streets here, which is where our city puts their "bike lanes". After seeing the "bike streets" and modal filters in Santa Barbara, California, I think that's the easiest way to make cycling possible in the suburbs here. #BikeTooter
Show threadVelocipedestrienne 🇿🇦1d ago
@ai6yr So the thing about putting bike lanes on LTS4 and LTS3 streets is that yes, there IS a better alternative, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't serve the people who are going to cycle on those streets anyway. Invariably, people will cycle on them, so you should do the retrofitting to make them a SAFER space to do it. And last I checked, even shitty bike lanes do increase safety even though they don't ensure it. It should be done, but isn't the ONLY thing that should be done.
Show threadDemonHusky1d ago
@HayiWena @ai6yr if it's an LTS4 after bike lanes are installed, the engineer is bad but also I don't think it's worth installing it for whatever marginal gain you got. You now put a bike lane effectively no one is going to use on what is likely the most significant road, meaning people that don't want real changes can reasonably point to the shitty bike lane and say "why bother".
Show threadDemonHusky1d ago
@HayiWena @ai6yr And since you clearly don't have good political or staff support fighting for something that actually improves the LTS, they will happily wilt under the most minimal push back.
Show threadAI6YR Ben
@DemonHusky @HayiWena Yeah, part of this problem is one of the staff is not a fan of bicycling (I believe), and we had an APPROVED, FUNDED Class III bicycle lane being put into place at a critical connector, and he decided to run an (unsolicited) "test" by putting orange cones on that street for two weeks, soliciting what they say is "the most complaints ever to the city", so they s***canned the project. I believe it was a deliberate move. (I was in a bicycle meeting and he said "we don't want to do Class IV lanes or anything because then we can't reclaims the lanes in the future"... he tried to explain this as "it will be easier/cheaper if they have autonomous vehicles / future technology if we don't put in separation and only use paint". So we're fighting that.
Mar 22 at 4:34amWeb
Show threadVelocipedestrienne 🇿🇦1d ago
@ai6yr @DemonHusky Oh yes, sacrificing today lives for future hypothetical savings when you have to support future magic technology. I must've been absent the day they covered that in my traffic engineering class.
Show threadAI6YR Ben1d ago
@HayiWena @DemonHusky Yeah, I was kinda flabbergasted. I think he went to a traffic engineering school where "MAXIMUM SPEED AND THROUGHPUT OF CARS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD" was drilled into his head.
Show thread😀🚲1d ago
@ai6yr @DemonHusky @HayiWena I think everything wrong with transportation is some variant on a theme of car culture, where we have 10x redundant carway networks and you can aimlessly and incompetently wander through any city in a car without fear of death or even really getting honked at much. But we have like at-best 0.3x complete low-stress bikeway network, and if bicycling isn't outright dismissed as a sport, it's something we "don't have the money for" while cars burn billions in road wear.
Show thread😀🚲1d ago
@ai6yr @DemonHusky @HayiWena and due to how projects get funded in the comfortable world of 10x-redundant car networks, connecting a bike infrastructure network is never going to happen independently of rebuilding car streets (or at all), until politicians demand a quick-build connected bikeway network and set policy to allow extensive use of modal filters and reallocating space from car lanes without political meddling watering-down the protection from / restraints on car traffic.
Show threadDemonHusky1d ago
@enobacon @ai6yr @HayiWena having the politicians require a quick build network on a timeline is how Cambridge (and now neighboring Somerville) are actually building a bike network
Show thread😀🚲1d ago
@DemonHusky @ai6yr @HayiWena exactly. It's the only way any city has ever built a bike network!
Show threadTodd Nelson1d ago
@DemonHusky @enobacon @ai6yr @HayiWena I had a long-running argument with Traffic Engineering and the Mayor (in parallel, via email) about a protected bike lane on an LTS 2 street despite a Master Plan listing four LTS 4 streets as our "near-term" protected bike network.
The best I got was "Mike (traffic engr) thought it was a good idea."
Yes, that LTS 2 segment is safer. No incidents since then, but none before then either. It's the opportunity cost of not improving something that was identified as riskier.
I asked the City Mgr why he wouldn't ask the bike/ped committee to offer opinions on priority among those four and he said, "I would never advise any one of my staff to go into a situation like that."
Hence, all of our bike/ped meetings are " here's your only option, we need you to pass a motion of support."
Show threadVelocipedestrienne 🇿🇦1d ago
@footsteps @DemonHusky @enobacon @ai6yr ack
Show threadAI6YR Ben1d ago
@enobacon @DemonHusky @HayiWena Yes, this seems to be the case, and it's extra-worse in suburban California. (although, not as terrible as some parts of Texas 😱 )
Show threadVelocipedestrienne 🇿🇦1d ago
@ai6yr It's weird cus California has this reputation for being so environmentally friendly, but the urban planning is like, the opposite of that.