How can we make DC streets bicycle and pedestrian-only?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I still think in DC the real hurdles are climate and topography.

That’s why electric bikes are making an as big or bigger difference than infrastructure stuff.

I love the e-bike discourse. It’s so exaggerated as to be laughable because the demographic is so limited.

It’s the transportation solution to get your kids to day care/pre-school for people with a child between the ages of 3-5 years old and either don’t work, work part time or work from home.

Such great potential for scaling that up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. Police cars, ambulances or fire trucks make DC less safe and need to be eliminated.

Is that what you drive as your personal-use vehicle?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I still think in DC the real hurdles are climate and topography.

That’s why electric bikes are making an as big or bigger difference than infrastructure stuff.

I love the e-bike discourse. It’s so exaggerated as to be laughable because the demographic is so limited.

It’s the transportation solution to get your kids to day care/pre-school for people with a child between the ages of 3-5 years old and either don’t work, work part time or work from home.

Such great potential for scaling that up.

The demographic for driving is limited.

and the space for cars is also limited. The reality is that cars are an extremely inefficient mode of transportation in cities. A giant vehicle, usually only transporting one person, that needs to be stored wherever that person goes. That's why the PP who lives, works, and has kids in NE spends so much time in the car, going very short distances. We can do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, let's make the city fully inaccessible to people with mobility issues. Nice one, OP.

https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility/wwd/

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day. We created the Week Without Driving challenge so that policy makers, elected leaders and transportation professionals can begin to understand the barriers nondrivers experience in accessing our communities.

Totally believe in making cities pedestrian friendly.

And also know that some of us physically disabled people, like me, rely on our cars to get to work because we live far from our offices metro and metro buses are nightmares for us.

All the more reason to improve transit and stop making transportation difficult or impossible for disabled people who can't drive or afford a car.

Transportation systems can prioritize cars, or they can prioritize people. It's not possible to do both. Any transportation system that prioritizes cars necessarily deprioritizes people. And because of the way we've built stuff over the last 100 years, any attempt to slightly deprioritize cars is interpreted, by some, as "a war on cars."

Unless a public transportation vehicle is coming to my house and dropping me off right at my office it’s not doing me any good.

What I hear you saying is you are fine with excluding people like me. Come live in my body for a week and see how your viewpoint changes.

And yes I believe in improving public transportation especially for those who have difficulty or can’t walk or ride a bike or drive. But banning cars hurts disabled drivers.

How about banning cars EXCEPT for disabled drivers?

Sure. And the elderly who are still capable of driving. And drivers of disabled or elderly family members. And drivers rushing someone sick to the doctor or hospitals. I’m sure there needs to be more exceptions but how to enforce that.

But first you need to get the $$$$ to vastly improve the transportation system —street cars would be desirable— and also make sure that remote work stays put so those living out in (more affordable) suburban /rural areas without direct public transport into DC can still keep their jobs.

I fully support these initiatives.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is such a beautifully designed city, with amazing outdoor dining and cafe potential.

But trucks, busses, cars and motorcycles ruin it for us residents.

DC is geographically tiny, so why not make our streets pedestrian and bicycles- only?

Let’s go back to horses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. Police cars, ambulances or fire trucks make DC less safe and need to be eliminated.

Is that what you drive as your personal-use vehicle?

There are like 600,000 registered vehicles in DC.

I’ll let you draw conclusions as to what that means for city living preferences by residents not named you.

[Anonymous]

So taxi drivers and their livelihood are being ignored in this conversation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a great idea. Police cars, ambulances or fire trucks make DC less safe and need to be eliminated.

Is that what you drive as your personal-use vehicle?

There are like 600,000 registered vehicles in DC.

I’ll let you draw conclusions as to what that means for city living preferences by residents not named you.

Correction: DC has 310,000 registered vehicles and 288,000 households.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, let's make the city fully inaccessible to people with mobility issues. Nice one, OP.

https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility/wwd/

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day. We created the Week Without Driving challenge so that policy makers, elected leaders and transportation professionals can begin to understand the barriers nondrivers experience in accessing our communities.

Totally believe in making cities pedestrian friendly.

And also know that some of us physically disabled people, like me, rely on our cars to get to work because we live far from our offices metro and metro buses are nightmares for us.

All the more reason to improve transit and stop making transportation difficult or impossible for disabled people who can't drive or afford a car.

Transportation systems can prioritize cars, or they can prioritize people. It's not possible to do both. Any transportation system that prioritizes cars necessarily deprioritizes people. And because of the way we've built stuff over the last 100 years, any attempt to slightly deprioritize cars is interpreted, by some, as "a war on cars."

It’s not just about “improving transit” — though that is a large part of it including putting in new floors in metro stops that are non-slip even when they get wet. Never mind needing more elevators and escalators. It’s about changing the behavior of non-disabled passengers, the largest reason I stoppped riding public transportation and started driving. Too many rides where I got on a full metro car and no one offered me a seat despite my being visibly mobility challenged. It is dangerous for me to stand in a moving vehicle especially when there are few good options for holding on to any kind of railing.

And it gets tiresome for a disabled passenger to have to ask for a seat. And how do we even know if the people sitting don’t have their own disabilities many of which are invisible?

No thanks. I had one fall in a metro car and after that started driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ah yes, let's make the city fully inaccessible to people with mobility issues. Nice one, OP.

https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/programs/disabilitymobility/wwd/

If you can drive or afford a car, you may not understand what it’s like to rely on walking, rolling, transit and asking for rides. But for nearly a third of people living in the United States – people with disabilities, young people, seniors and people who can’t afford cars or gas – this is our every day. We created the Week Without Driving challenge so that policy makers, elected leaders and transportation professionals can begin to understand the barriers nondrivers experience in accessing our communities.

Totally believe in making cities pedestrian friendly.

And also know that some of us physically disabled people, like me, rely on our cars to get to work because we live far from our offices metro and metro buses are nightmares for us.

All the more reason to improve transit and stop making transportation difficult or impossible for disabled people who can't drive or afford a car.

Transportation systems can prioritize cars, or they can prioritize people. It's not possible to do both. Any transportation system that prioritizes cars necessarily deprioritizes people. And because of the way we've built stuff over the last 100 years, any attempt to slightly deprioritize cars is interpreted, by some, as "a war on cars."

It’s not just about “improving transit” — though that is a large part of it including putting in new floors in metro stops that are non-slip even when they get wet. Never mind needing more elevators and escalators. It’s about changing the behavior of non-disabled passengers, the largest reason I stoppped riding public transportation and started driving. Too many rides where I got on a full metro car and no one offered me a seat despite my being visibly mobility challenged. It is dangerous for me to stand in a moving vehicle especially when there are few good options for holding on to any kind of railing.

And it gets tiresome for a disabled passenger to have to ask for a seat. And how do we even know if the people sitting don’t have their own disabilities many of which are invisible?

No thanks. I had one fall in a metro car and after that started driving.

Those bumps on the floor of the platform are great for the blind and vision impaired. They are land mines for anyone who walks with a shuffling gait. Tripping points is what my father calls them. So dangerous for him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolet and Smith & Wesson. If you want to live a European, New Zealand or Australian lifestyle then move to one of those places and enjoy your life.

America is the nation where 40,000 people die and hundreds of thousands of people have their lives destroyed so drivers can blow red lights a full five seconds late and drive with as little responsibility for operating their two ton murder machine as possible. We're also the nation of the highest prison rate per capita and the world's most wasteful health care "system."

How do you like that?

My god you’re so dramatic and very preoccupied with this one issue.

Seriously. This bike people are such morons. Look I’ve been a DC resident for 20 plus years. I’m all for less driving and more biking but the problem with bike people- you are extreme and myopic. Good luck running a city with mediocre public transportation to establish bikes ONLY. Are you honestly that stupid? I guess I’ll bike my kids to hockey practice 5 nights a week out in Rockville and the disabled and the elderly can bike to their doctors appointments. We have s ballooning crime rate, a health care and public school system crisis and metro is basically bankrupt, but yea, let’s focus more on bike lanes! Idiots . . .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For one, our metro system is inadequate, there aren't enough stations.

I live and work in DC, but with an elementary kid in school, it would take me (checks google maps)... 25 min to get my kid to school that's a 10-15 min drive away, then another (checks google maps) 45-55 min to get myself to work that's a 25-30 min drive normally.

This is living in NE, with kids in school in NE, with my work also in NE.

No thanks.

You do realize you're literally driving at bike speed? Probably slower depending on where in NE.

The reason it takes you so long is because of traffic and lights (aka too many cars).

Now imagine your trips if DC had half as many cars.

DP. This is the real answer. It’s not banning all cars, it’s banning any non-DC plates. Or making them pay huge tolls to drive in the city. Anything that reduces MD and VA plates would be fine by me!

Cyclists are almost entirely white. Drivers are disproportionately black and brown (because they're less likely to be able to afford to live close to where they work)

All these cockamamie schemes to help cyclists and punish drivers boil down to privileging white people and hurting black and brown people.

Don’t make cyclists choose between bike lanes and racial equity. You won’t like the answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolet and Smith & Wesson. If you want to live a European, New Zealand or Australian lifestyle then move to one of those places and enjoy your life.

America is the nation where 40,000 people die and hundreds of thousands of people have their lives destroyed so drivers can blow red lights a full five seconds late and drive with as little responsibility for operating their two ton murder machine as possible. We're also the nation of the highest prison rate per capita and the world's most wasteful health care "system."

How do you like that?

My god you’re so dramatic and very preoccupied with this one issue.

Seriously. This bike people are such morons. Look I’ve been a DC resident for 20 plus years. I’m all for less driving and more biking but the problem with bike people- you are extreme and myopic. Good luck running a city with mediocre public transportation to establish bikes ONLY. Are you honestly that stupid? I guess I’ll bike my kids to hockey practice 5 nights a week out in Rockville and the disabled and the elderly can bike to their doctors appointments. We have s ballooning crime rate, a health care and public school system crisis and metro is basically bankrupt, but yea, let’s focus more on bike lanes! Idiots . . .

No you’re not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, Chevrolet and Smith & Wesson. If you want to live a European, New Zealand or Australian lifestyle then move to one of those places and enjoy your life.

America is the nation where 40,000 people die and hundreds of thousands of people have their lives destroyed so drivers can blow red lights a full five seconds late and drive with as little responsibility for operating their two ton murder machine as possible. We're also the nation of the highest prison rate per capita and the world's most wasteful health care "system."

How do you like that?

My god you’re so dramatic and very preoccupied with this one issue.

Seriously. This bike people are such morons. Look I’ve been a DC resident for 20 plus years. I’m all for less driving and more biking but the problem with bike people- you are extreme and myopic. Good luck running a city with mediocre public transportation to establish bikes ONLY. Are you honestly that stupid? I guess I’ll bike my kids to hockey practice 5 nights a week out in Rockville and the disabled and the elderly can bike to their doctors appointments. We have s ballooning crime rate, a health care and public school system crisis and metro is basically bankrupt, but yea, let’s focus more on bike lanes! Idiots . . .

This is spot on.

[Anonymous]

Unfortunately I believe that some of the bike zealots don’t see elderly residents as having a place in their vision for DC as a Vibrant Urbanist Nirvana. On message boards and public meetings, concerns about the need for parking so that older residents can drive to local shopping have been met with snide ageist comments like go to the burbs, or more pointedly, sell your house and move out to Leisure World.