New Oakland Bike Lane (Pittsburgh, Wilson: sales, water heater, neighborhoods)

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by I_Like_Spam

If people want to charge a lot to park, people just won't go there that often. If you want to ban private vehicles and make life a living hell for suburbanites, it just isn't going to happen. People will find a way just to avoid the aggravation.

I don't see how taking a few parking spots and narrowing a couple of lanes is anything at all comparable to banning private vehicles or making life a living hell for anybody. Sometimes, it seems like any alternative to transportation by private, fossil-fuel powered automobile is perceived as a threat by some people.

[I_Like_Spam]

Originally Posted by PIT2MAD

For those asking for registration fees/insurance for cyclists, almost every cyclist I've ever met has been willing to pay a nominal fee (proportional to the risk they incur upon the public, which statistically is negligable) for registration and isurance if it ensured that there would be a somewhat proportional investment in infrastructure, public awareness, and an acceptance by society as a viable means of getting around an urban environment.
Charge me if you want, just don't insult my intelligence by claiming my 160 pound ass on a 20 lbs bike is as much of a threat to public safety in an urban environment as your 1.5 ton car. That's just silly.

The risk is a lot higher than you are letting on too.


Bicycle riders are injured regularly, and sometimes incur very large medical bills. The risk posed isn't that "nominal" at all, particularly in regards to the damage they can do to themselves.

[jay5835]

Originally Posted by PIT2MAD

Don't insult my intelligence by claiming my 160 pound ass on a 20 lbs bike is as much of a threat to public safety in an urban environment as your 1.5 ton car.

I have never had a 1.5 ton car, or its driver, sneak up behind me silently on the sidewalk, then hiss in my ear "ON YOUR LEFT." Never. Not one time. It used to happen all the time in DC, and now it's happening here.

GET A BELL, BIKERS.

[Moby Hick]

Originally Posted by jay5835

I have never had a 1.5 ton car, or its driver, sneak up behind me silently on the sidewalk, then hiss in my ear "ON YOUR LEFT." Never. Not one time. It used to happen all the time in DC, and now it's happening here.

GET A BELL, BIKERS.

Yes. The bell is needed. But I have had cars sneak up behind me when I was on the sidewalk. Because parking norms around here are strange.

[Catia]

I honestly just want the bicycles off of the sidewalks at least in the city.
I don't really care what they do in Iowa, & at least from my point of view, I'm not hostility driven, it's common sense. I do want to have Pittsburgh be more walkable, not less. There are far more pedestrians that cyclists.

It's just not a good idea with our aging population, the amount of houses that open right onto the sidewalks, children that play in the tiny front yards without fences & also on the sidewalk, people walking dogs, carrying groceries, & joggers, handicapped people, crappy street lights, then add in the businesses that put seating outside, bus stops full of people, benches, trees, & garbage night, hilly/windy terrain, there's just too much going on already.

I've seen many a time people bicycling on the side walk when it suits them, despite an entirely open street.

I drive every day too. I could care less about the bike lanes, or some lost parking down town, I deal with it all.
I do however want to be able to leisurely walk down a sidewalk without being buzzed by a bike, with a hard of hearing, slow grandma, a dog & some little kids. You know--to relax--I don't want to be forced to remain hyper-vigilant & watching the sideWALK the same as if I were walking in the street.

As homeowners, we are forced to maintain our sidewalks, which costs $$, though we do not own them. Since I have to pay for my side walk--I want to pay for people to WALK or JOG or use their hover-round or walker or guide-stick, I don't even care if the kids are playing with their big wheels & tricycles.

Comparing joggers to a person on a bike isn't the same thing.

of course, Yinzer that I am, I'm wanting to let my Yinzer flag fly, I'm just gonna put a chair or two out on my sidewalk--or, on 2nd thought, an aluminum glider.

[Yac]

So, should I close this thread until some of you actually learn to discuss ? Because if it keeps going the way it's going, I will have to.
Seriously, what's the appeal of posting emotional sensationalist rants instead of being calm and respectful ? Why is it better to post wild strawmen instead of facts ?
Think about it.
Yac.

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by Yac

So, should I close this thread until some of you actually learn to discuss ? Because if it keeps going the way it's going, I will have to.
Seriously, what's the appeal of posting emotional sensationalist rants instead of being calm and respectful ? Why is it better to post wild strawmen instead of facts ?
Think about it.
Yac.

I realize over in Europe, where urban planning is a bit ahead of us, the idea of "complete streets" with cyclists, pedestrians, motor scooters, and cars/trucks sharing space with peace and harmony isn't such a foreign concept, but here in Pittsburgh the mantra has been "CARS FIRST---OUTTA MY WAY!!!" for generations. It's frustrating, and hopefully more and more of these people will be dying each year like the dinosaurs.

The city has literally gone from having very few cyclists on the roads here when I moved to Pittsburgh in 2010 to having so many now that I routinely see cyclists struggling to pass slower-moving cyclists on busy narrow streets now in 2015. This is of course a wonderful thing, but the sudden increase in cycling here is apparently jarring to many suburbanites who still have that "OUTTA MY WAY!!!" mentality.

There's been a lot of friction and tension here because this city finally has a good, progressive mayor who is championing "complete streets", and since only a small fraction of the regional population actually lives IN the city because of our horrible sprawl problem, the majority of the suburbanites are squawking now.

I drive 8-10 hours per day; 6 days per week. If one of my deliveries takes an extra 30 seconds because I waited to SAFELY pass a cyclist with a four-foot buffer zone, then so be it. I don't know why I witness so many other drivers being such *#@^$&'s to cyclists on a daily basis.

Our region needs to stop whining; stomach a tax increase (our taxes AREN'T that high---and this is coming from someone who already pays a self-employment tax most of you DON'T pay); and fund more commuter rail lines to the suburbs. Maybe if someone in Cranberry Township or Monroeville could hop onto the "T" and get to Oakland or Downtown in roughly the same amount of time as if they had to sit in traffic in their own cars, then all of this bellyaching about cyclists sharing the roads could stop. I never saw an area so opposed to mass transit in my life. Probably explains why traffic congestion is worsening here while our city's population is continuing to decline.

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by SteelCityRising

It's frustrating, and hopefully more and more of these people will be dying each year

Not for nothin, but it's sad to read something that so casually discusses "Hope" for other people's death.

[Goinback2011]

Originally Posted by tclifton

Not for nothin, but it's sad to read something that so casually discusses "Hope" for other people's death.

If the same sentence was said about bike riders, it would be considered a 'rant'. But since it's not, it's ok.

[tclifton]

Originally Posted by Goinback2011

If the same sentence was said about bike riders, it would be considered a 'rant'. But since it's not, it's ok.

I've never wished or hoped for people to die. That's a level of sickness that confounds me.