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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many of the wealthier households have more than one vehicle. And many of those households don't actually use all of their vehicles often.

[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 . . .

Who here is saying bike lanes only, besides anti bike people who are wanting to create strawman arguments? Most cyclists are also public transportation users. It's about spending less on car transportation and spending more on everything else. Bus, Bike, Rail, Sidewalks. It's astounding how much money it takes to keep up blacktop for roads which are perpetually being destroyed by heavier and heavier vehicles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Many of the wealthier households have more than one vehicle. And many of those households don't actually use all of their vehicles often.

The average DC household has chosen to own 1 vehicle. Not by force but by choice. It’s hilarious to me that you think that you should be able to impose your preferred lifestyle on an entire city that has chosen to live differently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 . . .

Who here is saying bike lanes only, besides anti bike people who are wanting to create strawman arguments? Most cyclists are also public transportation users. It's about spending less on car transportation and spending more on everything else. Bus, Bike, Rail, Sidewalks. It's astounding how much money it takes to keep up blacktop for roads which are perpetually being destroyed by heavier and heavier vehicles.

This is so illogical. Most cyclists are also car users. Most car users are also sidewalk users. Etc, etc.

[Anonymous]

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.

Under this scenario, it is best for society if you move close to your office.

[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.

Yes!

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!

Ha ha - in the "federal" district? Good luck with this...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Of course there are many more cars than that because it is obscenely expensive to register your car so many don’t, especially when everyone knows the city doesn’t enforce shit

[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?

We were a beautiful city. And then a million flexiposts and permanent jersey walls were installed everywhere. DC is hideous now with so many lines painted everywhere and dirty, half broken flexiposts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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?

We were a beautiful city. And then a million flexiposts and permanent jersey walls were installed everywhere. DC is hideous now with so many lines painted everywhere and dirty, half broken flexiposts.

I agree. Attractive, permanent concrete would look much better, function much better, and be more cost-effective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

We were a beautiful city. And then a million flexiposts and permanent jersey walls were installed everywhere. DC is hideous now with so many lines painted everywhere and dirty, half broken flexiposts.

I agree. Attractive, permanent concrete would look much better, function much better, and be more cost-effective.

Do you not wonder why the city has made a lot of the bike lanes so easily removable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
We were a beautiful city. And then a million flexiposts and permanent jersey walls were installed everywhere. DC is hideous now with so many lines painted everywhere and dirty, half broken flexiposts.

Lol, that's your definition of a "hideous" city? Street lines painted everywhere? Only problem with your scenario is that we need real concrete bollards installed everywhere in DC in place of flexiposts to ensure drivers suffer consequences of their dangerous and selfish driving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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?

We were a beautiful city. And then a million flexiposts and permanent jersey walls were installed everywhere. DC is hideous now with so many lines painted everywhere and dirty, half broken flexiposts.

I agree. Attractive, permanent concrete would look much better, function much better, and be more cost-effective.

Do you not wonder why the city has made a lot of the bike lanes so easily removable?

No, I don't, actually. It's because plastic flex posts are fast and cheap. Concrete takes longer, for example with curb bump-outs. But with plastic flex posts, DDOT can at least be doing something to increase safety, while we wait for the concrete to be installed. It's much better than doing nothing.

If you hate the appearance of plastic flex posts, you should be advocating for DDOT to be making the permanent safety improvements as fast as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

The vast majority of elderly people can and should walk - maybe we should concentrate on making walking easier and safer for them? They can also take public transportation. Maybe we should concentrate on making public transit safer and more efficient?

Or is your argument really that the beat solution is to continue to force 90 year olds to drive everywhere?

[Anonymous]

You all are seriously nuts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

The vast majority of elderly people can and should walk - maybe we should concentrate on making walking easier and safer for them? They can also take public transportation. Maybe we should concentrate on making public transit safer and more efficient?

Or is your argument really that the beat solution is to continue to force 90 year olds to drive everywhere?

Good idea to have DCs elderly population out walking. Would make them easy targets to be robbed and beaten on the sidewalks and run down by spreading carjackers in intersections.

Would obviously help ensure social security remains solvent. A win-win for everyone.