Let's keep the outdoor dining, the streets reserved for walking, and the new bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OMG we ate at a northwest streetery yesterday and the rate came out to play at dusk. Can DC do nothing about the rats?????? One ran over our waiter's shoe while they were talking with us.

The rats are out of control!

Had to go downtown to get somethings from my office and rats were everywhere. It was a “nature is healing” moment but dystopian instead of utopian. It’s terrible and disgusting out there.

The rats have been out of control forever. It worries me that our city poo-bahs want MORE 'vibrant density' but will literally throw nothing at this city wide issue.

DC needs inclusion policies for rats, too.

[Anonymous]

This is how you create an catalyze cycling culture

And let's not with "the weather is bad here" as if it isn't in the Netherlands as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we could create special infrastructure for the rats and just hope they like it and will use it.

Just encourage them to scurry down the bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is how you create an catalyze cycling culture

And let's not with "the weather is bad here" as if it isn't in the Netherlands as well.

Lol. Okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Maybe we could create special infrastructure for the rats and just hope they like it and will use it.

Just encourage them to scurry down the bike lanes.

LOL. Bike lanes or rat highways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how you create an catalyze cycling culture

And let's not with "the weather is bad here" as if it isn't in the Netherlands as well.

Lol. Okay.

Why don’t these people just move to the Netherlands? It’s like if I presented a map of Spain of paella restaurant density and complained about why we cannot do that here.

It also confuses me that these people want to emulate the Netherlands and yet are pro-skyscrapers and anti-sprawl. There are no skyscrapers in the Netherlands and the reason that they have these bike lanes is precisely because people are everywhere.

Let’s do this great think that the Dutch do, but let’s not do any of the things that make it great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how you create an catalyze cycling culture

And let's not with "the weather is bad here" as if it isn't in the Netherlands as well.

Lol. Okay.

Why don’t these people just move to the Netherlands? It’s like if I presented a map of Spain of paella restaurant density and complained about why we cannot do that here.

It also confuses me that these people want to emulate the Netherlands and yet are pro-skyscrapers and anti-sprawl. There are no skyscrapers in the Netherlands and the reason that they have these bike lanes is precisely because people are everywhere.

Let’s do this great think that the Dutch do, but let’s not do any of the things that make it great.

The reason they have these bike lanes is they decided to be more bike and pedestrian friendly, and to develop towns that didn't need as many cars (say, for internal trips in a small town). This isn't something inherent to the Netherlands. They spent the post-war period removing bike infrastructure to benefit cars, but decided to reverse that in the 1970s in response to overcrowding of cars and several car crash deaths, including of children. The campaign was called "Stop de Kindermoord".

[Anonymous]

From what I have observed, the streeteries might more accurately be called rat-eries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I have observed, the streeteries might more accurately be called rat-eries.

Can the DC government not mitigate rats? I've never seen them so bad. Also have noticed a lot of human feces in the streets. Is this DCs way of addressing our inferiority complex with NYC?

[Anonymous]

Not sure if this has been mentioned but part of University Blvd in MoCo now has full dedicated bike lanes- so instead of 3 car lanes on each side its 2 each. Be interested to see how this works- were people really clamoring to bike on this road?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been mentioned but part of University Blvd in MoCo now has full dedicated bike lanes- so instead of 3 car lanes on each side its 2 each. Be interested to see how this works- were people really clamoring to bike on this road?

Yes. Without those bike lanes, your choices are to bike on the narrow sidewalk or to make a big detour. With those bike lanes, you can now comfortably take the most direct route (for about a mile...) Haven't you noticed people biking on the sidewalk? The bike lanes will also make the sidewalk more comfortable for people who are walking or waiting for the bus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is how you create an catalyze cycling culture

And let's not with "the weather is bad here" as if it isn't in the Netherlands as well.

Lol. Okay.

Why don’t these people just move to the Netherlands? It’s like if I presented a map of Spain of paella restaurant density and complained about why we cannot do that here.

It also confuses me that these people want to emulate the Netherlands and yet are pro-skyscrapers and anti-sprawl. There are no skyscrapers in the Netherlands and the reason that they have these bike lanes is precisely because people are everywhere.

Let’s do this great think that the Dutch do, but let’s not do any of the things that make it great.

The reason they have these bike lanes is they decided to be more bike and pedestrian friendly, and to develop towns that didn't need as many cars (say, for internal trips in a small town). This isn't something inherent to the Netherlands. They spent the post-war period removing bike infrastructure to benefit cars, but decided to reverse that in the 1970s in response to overcrowding of cars and several car crash deaths, including of children. The campaign was called "Stop de Kindermoord".

The Netherlands have more abundant public land/right of ways and let me repeat myself because this is important, they have more “sprawl” as people like to call it. There are no massive CBDs, as we have in the US or in other parts of Europe. Promote lower density and more “sprawl”, combined with requirements for land owners to cede right of way and it’s entirely possible. I see no support for any if these preconditions which make the Dutch system practical and feasible.

Being a flat county also massively helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been mentioned but part of University Blvd in MoCo now has full dedicated bike lanes- so instead of 3 car lanes on each side its 2 each. Be interested to see how this works- were people really clamoring to bike on this road?

Yes. Without those bike lanes, your choices are to bike on the narrow sidewalk or to make a big detour. With those bike lanes, you can now comfortably take the most direct route (for about a mile...) Haven't you noticed people biking on the sidewalk? The bike lanes will also make the sidewalk more comfortable for people who are walking or waiting for the bus.

If the planners required setbacks for wider sidewalks then there would be no competing interests. However this is currently anathema for some reason that is hard to comprehend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The reason they have these bike lanes is they decided to be more bike and pedestrian friendly, and to develop towns that didn't need as many cars (say, for internal trips in a small town). This isn't something inherent to the Netherlands. They spent the post-war period removing bike infrastructure to benefit cars, but decided to reverse that in the 1970s in response to overcrowding of cars and several car crash deaths, including of children. The campaign was called "Stop de Kindermoord".

The Netherlands have more abundant public land/right of ways and let me repeat myself because this is important, they have more “sprawl” as people like to call it. There are no massive CBDs, as we have in the US or in other parts of Europe. Promote lower density and more “sprawl”, combined with requirements for land owners to cede right of way and it’s entirely possible. I see no support for any if these preconditions which make the Dutch system practical and feasible.

Being a flat county also massively helps.

Yup. In the Netherlands, they decided to prioritize not killing children over car travel. Here in the US, we continue to prioritize car travel over not killing children. Yay us.

Your argument is novel, though. Usually people say that we can't have non-car travel because we have sprawl and they don't. Now here you are saying that we can't have non-car travel because they have sprawl and we don't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure if this has been mentioned but part of University Blvd in MoCo now has full dedicated bike lanes- so instead of 3 car lanes on each side its 2 each. Be interested to see how this works- were people really clamoring to bike on this road?

Yes. Without those bike lanes, your choices are to bike on the narrow sidewalk or to make a big detour. With those bike lanes, you can now comfortably take the most direct route (for about a mile...) Haven't you noticed people biking on the sidewalk? The bike lanes will also make the sidewalk more comfortable for people who are walking or waiting for the bus.

If the planners required setbacks for wider sidewalks then there would be no competing interests. However this is currently anathema for some reason that is hard to comprehend.

Wider sidewalks are better than narrow sidewalks, certainly. Nonetheless, there's University Boulevard right now, with narrow sidewalks. Also, sidewalks are for pedestrians. Bicyclists bicycle on sidewalks when they don't feel safe riding in the road.