DC delays Conn Ave bike lanes bcuz of opposition

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

One of the WABA contracts with the city include paying someone $150,000 per year, rising to $180,000 to be a “bicycle ambassador” which includes hanging out and riding around trails and bike lanes for 20 hours per week

Maybe this bike ambassador could teach cyclists to ride their bikes safely. I saw one riding on the sidewalk at probably close to 30 mph, ignoring every single stop sign, who came with a hair’s breadth of being mowed down by a SUV turning left

These are the dumbest comments. Do you see the problems with cars in dc right now

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

My company can do that. We provide instructors at a reasonable rate but each child is required to rent swim goggles for $1,000 per year. They must be returned or the city will be charged extra.

See what I'm sayin'? Sure you do. And so does everyone else, despite your best efforts to pretend otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

One of the WABA contracts with the city include paying someone $150,000 per year, rising to $180,000 to be a “bicycle ambassador” which includes hanging out and riding around trails and bike lanes for 20 hours per week

Maybe this bike ambassador could teach cyclists to ride their bikes safely. I saw one riding on the sidewalk at probably close to 30 mph, ignoring every single stop sign, who came with a hair’s breadth of being mowed down by a SUV turning left

30 mph on a bike on a sidewalk with stop signs in DC? Wow! Where was this?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do the bike folks always make me want to go out and run over a bunch of cyclists? Talk about the most insufferable pedants in the world...

Can you cite specifically what has triggered you?

I don’t want to run bikers over, but as the wife of an ‘avid’ cyclist, I can help fill in the gaps.

Complete arrogance about sharing the road with cars to the point where some will deliberately ride adjacent to each other, blocking the car, and slow to 20MPH

Viciousness towards each other if the other biker is moving too slowly for their tastes - who can forget the one biker who actually caused brain damage to another - and that was just on the trail

Most bikers think they are dividing their time between biking and family - they are not. When you are an avid cyclist riding 12+ hours per week and work full time, you don’t have much time for anything else when you add in sleeping, personal hygiene and *of course* working on your bike.

Vacations are often planned around biking, or simply aren’t a priority due to biking. When on vacation with family, they get sullen because “it’s a beautiful day and I’m not on my bike”.

Bike clubs normalize this behavior, and worse, make it seem normal

sounds like you have a very personal beef against a very non-representative set of bike users. bike lanes are being built for people getting to work, school, stores, etc.

Sure they are. There's only a few dozen people that bike on Connecticut. There's already a path for commuters on Beach. The businesses on Connecticut are opposed and say it will harm them while the schools are located on the very side streets that will get the majority of diverted traffic.

They don’t bike there *because there is no bike lane.* Have there been mass business declines om 17th or 9th since the bike lanes went in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73YhoHCD11k

https://thewash.org/2021/10/05/it-is-unbelievable-that-this-is-still-coming-up-dupont-residents-continue-long-standing-arguments-about-protected-bike-lanes-on-17th-street/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/10/bike-lanes-are-not-best-way-protect-children-dc/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/businesses-concerned-about-new-bike-lanes-planned-for-9th-street-nw/2687097/

https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-revoke-ddot-17th-st-nw-bike-plan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

I taught my children to read. So does that mean teaching children to read is the parents' job, not the school's job?

Teaching children to read, ride a bike, and swim in school means that everyone gets to learn how to read, ride a bike, and swim, regardless of which parents they picked to be born to. That's a good thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

I taught my children to read. So does that mean teaching children to read is the parents' job, not the school's job?

Teaching children to read, ride a bike, and swim in school means that everyone gets to learn how to read, ride a bike, and swim, regardless of which parents they picked to be born to. That's a good thing.

Ummmm, yes. Teaching your child to read is also a parents job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally. Having bike lanes on a major artery is insanity.

So the rest of the major cities around the world are insane. mmmmokay.

You’re claiming all other major cities around the world have bike lanes on major roads? Interesting.

Paris is building a lot of bike infrastructure. Many less car-centric cities are already more bike and ped friendly.

Since Paris embarked on this journey, its population has declined from all time highs to the lowest level since the 19th century. Turns out that if you intentionally make it harder for people to get around, eg “traffic calming” and “slow streets”, it makes people’s lives miserable enough to leave in large numbers. Maybe that’s the goal? I don’t know.

Paris Metropopulation:

1850 ~1.5 million
1950 ~6 million
2023 ~11+ million

Please don’t waste peoples time. Unless you think population changes in Loudon and Frederick counties are relevant to DC proper.

If they had the transit connections of metropolitan Paris then yes they would be relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

I taught my children to read. So does that mean teaching children to read is the parents' job, not the school's job?

Teaching children to read, ride a bike, and swim in school means that everyone gets to learn how to read, ride a bike, and swim, regardless of which parents they picked to be born to. That's a good thing.

Ummmm, yes. Teaching your child to read is also a parents job.

Ok, homeschooler.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

I’m sympathetic about needing professionals for swim instruction but my god there is no need to pay anyone millions to reach kids how to ride a bike. It would be cheaper and more effective to just buy every kid whose family is below AMI a $300 bike. Call ‘em “Bowser bikes” and be done with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Connecticut Avenue is already on a diet now that parking is allowed all day, no rush hour restrictions. That should slow things down the same as bike lanes would.

With the safety argument gone and the transportation argument quite dubious seeing that it is a major public transit corridor there is no rationale at all beyond providing an expensive amenity for a couple dozen of wealthy white people in a city where a lot of basic needs are not being met. This is the kind of thing a city does when it has a growing economy and is flush with cash. That is not the DC of 2023 and thankfully Mayor Bowser and the Council understand that very well.

DC has the same poverty rate as West Virginia

Is West Virginia planning any boondoggle transportation projects that will only benefit a handful of rich people?

Exactly. DC has spent billions of dollars on bike lanes.

Not sure about billions but certainly more than $100 million over the past decade.

This is total nonsense. After repeated requests, someone in the other thread strung together a bunch of projects that allocated funding to a wide range of infra, including road maintenance, and sheepishly tried to claim that the allocations were all for bike lanes. It was patently absurd. If you nothing to contribute other than lies and manipulation, please just be quiet.

Bowser's current budget proposal alone has close to $60 million. $100 million over the past decade is neither absurd nor an exaggeration.

Bike funding routinely exceeds $100 million annually. DC has had bike lanes for 15 years. Things aren’t cheap and the DC government is very generous when it spends other people’s money

show a link for this claim

Here's a sampling from the 2023 budget:

$36 million to expand bike lanes
$15 million to expand Capital Bikeshare
$1.3 million to hire people to clean bike lanes
$57 million to make K Street more bike/bus friendly
$21 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$18.5 million for bike/pedestrian bridge
$120,000 to buy electric bikes

Most of the Washington area bicycling associations annual budget comes from the city. DC pays the bike lobby to lobby the DC government. Surprisingly few real people actually give to waba

can we create a bingo card for this thread? “WABA is funded by DC and controls DDOT” will be a square.

Uh, well you can look at the budget and see for yourself

WABA gets about $100,000 annually in membership dues and almost $1 million from the government. I think that’s called astroturf

WABA has/had a contract with DC to teach 2nd graders how to ride bikes. How horrible! What monsters!!!

Oh you mean the program where WABA charges DC public schools $1,000 per child to rent one of their bikes? No, that’s not shady at all

A quarter of kids in DC live in poverty. Can we cut out the WABA graft and just give the money to the kids?

That’s about 30,000 kids. The city could buy each of those kids a backpack and school supplies every year for what they give WABA.

FYI, most parents think the learn-to-ride program is great. I'm happy that DC spends money on recreation for kids. There's a lot in the mayor's proposed budget on that - a new afterschool program app, lots of pool maintenance, some funds for special needs swim lessons. Truly, find something else to fixate on.

Are they spending excessive amounts of money renting googles and fins to kids? If not, that has nothing to do with being fleeced by WABA.

Are you kidding? There is a well-known dearth of swimming instruction for kids in DC. If DC expanded access by contracting with an outside organization, that would be amazing. There is actually money in the Mayor’s budget proposal to increase swim lesson access. Qualified instructors are hard to find, so if the city can contract for a good source of instructors that would be amazing.

You know what would be really amazing? Swimming lessons AND bike-riding lessons! Everyone should know how to swim, and everyone should know how to ride a bike.

Isn’t that a parents job? Teaching your kid to ride a bike is probably one of the most joyous accomplishments in life. I miss those days.

I’m sympathetic about needing professionals for swim instruction but my god there is no need to pay anyone millions to reach kids how to ride a bike. It would be cheaper and more effective to just buy every kid whose family is below AMI a $300 bike. Call ‘em “Bowser bikes” and be done with it.

We don't know if it's "millions", it's just that one anonymous person who keeps insisting it is, without evidence. Also, why are you ok with swim instruction but not with bike instruction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally. Having bike lanes on a major artery is insanity.

So the rest of the major cities around the world are insane. mmmmokay.

You’re claiming all other major cities around the world have bike lanes on major roads? Interesting.

Paris is building a lot of bike infrastructure. Many less car-centric cities are already more bike and ped friendly.

Since Paris embarked on this journey, its population has declined from all time highs to the lowest level since the 19th century. Turns out that if you intentionally make it harder for people to get around, eg “traffic calming” and “slow streets”, it makes people’s lives miserable enough to leave in large numbers. Maybe that’s the goal? I don’t know.

Paris Metropopulation:

1850 ~1.5 million
1950 ~6 million
2023 ~11+ million

Please don’t waste peoples time. Unless you think population changes in Loudon and Frederick counties are relevant to DC proper.

If they had the transit connections of metropolitan Paris then yes they would be relevant.

LOL. The high growth areas of suburban Paris look just like suburbs in the US. Nice way to show your ignorance.

Paris city population
2014: 2.3 million (Anne Hidalgo elected)
2022: 2.1 million

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally. Having bike lanes on a major artery is insanity.

So the rest of the major cities around the world are insane. mmmmokay.

You’re claiming all other major cities around the world have bike lanes on major roads? Interesting.

Paris is building a lot of bike infrastructure. Many less car-centric cities are already more bike and ped friendly.

Since Paris embarked on this journey, its population has declined from all time highs to the lowest level since the 19th century. Turns out that if you intentionally make it harder for people to get around, eg “traffic calming” and “slow streets”, it makes people’s lives miserable enough to leave in large numbers. Maybe that’s the goal? I don’t know.

Paris Metropopulation:

1850 ~1.5 million
1950 ~6 million
2023 ~11+ million

Please don’t waste peoples time. Unless you think population changes in Loudon and Frederick counties are relevant to DC proper.

If they had the transit connections of metropolitan Paris then yes they would be relevant.

LOL. The high growth areas of suburban Paris look just like suburbs in the US. Nice way to show your ignorance.

Paris city population
2014: 2.3 million (Anne Hidalgo elected)
2022: 2.1 million

I am so excited for the 124 new miles of Grand DC Express Metro to open in 2024! Wait, what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally. Having bike lanes on a major artery is insanity.

So the rest of the major cities around the world are insane. mmmmokay.

You’re claiming all other major cities around the world have bike lanes on major roads? Interesting.

Paris is building a lot of bike infrastructure. Many less car-centric cities are already more bike and ped friendly.

Since Paris embarked on this journey, its population has declined from all time highs to the lowest level since the 19th century. Turns out that if you intentionally make it harder for people to get around, eg “traffic calming” and “slow streets”, it makes people’s lives miserable enough to leave in large numbers. Maybe that’s the goal? I don’t know.

Paris Metropopulation:

1850 ~1.5 million
1950 ~6 million
2023 ~11+ million

Please don’t waste peoples time. Unless you think population changes in Loudon and Frederick counties are relevant to DC proper.

If they had the transit connections of metropolitan Paris then yes they would be relevant.

LOL. The high growth areas of suburban Paris look just like suburbs in the US. Nice way to show your ignorance.

Paris city population
2014: 2.3 million (Anne Hidalgo elected)
2022: 2.1 million

I am so excited for the 124 new miles of Grand DC Express Metro to open in 2024! Wait, what?

Are those bike lanes? Then what’s your point? Where the bike lanes have gone in, the population has gone down.

DC population
2015: 677k (Bowser elected)
2022: 671k

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do the bike folks always make me want to go out and run over a bunch of cyclists? Talk about the most insufferable pedants in the world...

Can you cite specifically what has triggered you?

I don’t want to run bikers over, but as the wife of an ‘avid’ cyclist, I can help fill in the gaps.

Complete arrogance about sharing the road with cars to the point where some will deliberately ride adjacent to each other, blocking the car, and slow to 20MPH

Viciousness towards each other if the other biker is moving too slowly for their tastes - who can forget the one biker who actually caused brain damage to another - and that was just on the trail

Most bikers think they are dividing their time between biking and family - they are not. When you are an avid cyclist riding 12+ hours per week and work full time, you don’t have much time for anything else when you add in sleeping, personal hygiene and *of course* working on your bike.

Vacations are often planned around biking, or simply aren’t a priority due to biking. When on vacation with family, they get sullen because “it’s a beautiful day and I’m not on my bike”.

Bike clubs normalize this behavior, and worse, make it seem normal

sounds like you have a very personal beef against a very non-representative set of bike users. bike lanes are being built for people getting to work, school, stores, etc.

Sure they are. There's only a few dozen people that bike on Connecticut. There's already a path for commuters on Beach. The businesses on Connecticut are opposed and say it will harm them while the schools are located on the very side streets that will get the majority of diverted traffic.

They don’t bike there *because there is no bike lane.* Have there been mass business declines om 17th or 9th since the bike lanes went in?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73YhoHCD11k

https://thewash.org/2021/10/05/it-is-unbelievable-that-this-is-still-coming-up-dupont-residents-continue-long-standing-arguments-about-protected-bike-lanes-on-17th-street/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/10/bike-lanes-are-not-best-way-protect-children-dc/

https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/transportation/businesses-concerned-about-new-bike-lanes-planned-for-9th-street-nw/2687097/

https://www.change.org/p/petition-to-revoke-ddot-17th-st-nw-bike-plan

lol you posted something by Nick Delle Donne to convince us of your bona fides?