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Metropolitan DC Local Politics
How can we make DC streets bicycle and pedestrian-only?
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Anonymous
Are you all disabled people? Does ever single disabled person have exactly the same needs and abilities as you? Go argue with this group about transportation, mobility, and access: https://www.disabilityrightswa.org/nodriving/ |
Anonymous
No, because you are posting what I need so I am arguing with you. Way to dismiss an actual disabled person's position. You are horrible. Are you a bigot in all parts of your life? Are just against the disabled? |
Anonymous
Here's what I said: "To increase access for the disabled, we need to prioritize sidewalks, mobility lanes, and transit, over driving." Here is what the Disability Rights Washington group says about the Disability Mobility Initiative: "For too long, transportation policy has been written by and for drivers. For those of us who cannot drive or cannot afford to drive, this creates major barriers for us to access school, jobs, medical care, grocery stores, religious services and everywhere else we need to go in order to fully participate in our communities." This is not about you, individually. I am not posting about what you, individually, need - and neither is the Disability Rights Washington Group. How could I be posting about what you, individually, need? I have no idea what you, individually, need. The post is not about you, individually, so why are you making it about you, individually? |
Anonymous
Are you that crazy person from NatGeo? |
Anonymous
You’re posting what you claim society needs as a whole. Last time I checked the disabled are part of society. So as a member of that group my access to transportation is not wider sidewalks, etc. I called you out on your claims that you know what’s better. You tried to tell me I need to argue somewhere else and that I don’t belong here. You can get mad all you want. Not my problem. |
Anonymous
So a disabled person actually having an opinion is crazy. Nice. And I don’t know what NatGeo is so no. |
Anonymous
DP: Your attack on PP is gross. Also, your link is to a group in Seattle addressing the lack of accessible design in the State of Washington, such as missing or unsafe sidewalks, lack of accessible crossing devices and public transit that is not accessibility friendly. They are NOT asking for a city of only bicycle lanes with no way for cars and access vans to drop off mobility impaired residents curbside. The no driving campaign is designed to make people aware of how hard it is to get around when there are uneven sidewalks, when buses can't pick up your wheelchair or don't have a route to where you need to go, when Uber driver and taxis can't or won't pick up a person using a wheelchair or can't find safe place to drop them off at the destination, etc.. |
Anonymous
^^ and it is 'no driving' for ONE day to see what it's like; not no driving ever. |
Anonymous
Where did I say "nobody does it" ? I didn't. My point is that for "average" DC folks, a car is preferable and faster when you can't afford the rich closer in real estate and/or your job is also not convenient to a metro. The DC public transportation system is inadequate because it is NOT more convenient nor faster for average joes to take public. Average Joes don't live close in. If your perception is that it is actually faster, you probably live and/or work close in, have a high salary, and are woefully out of touch with the "average" DC resident. |
Anonymous
No, it's no driving for ONE WEEK to see what it would be like if, like many disabled people, you didn't have a car and/or couldn't drive. The OP (banning all cars from DC streets) is either trolling or bonkers. The need to emphasize non-driving modes is real, for many reasons, including the mobility needs of many disabled people. Note that there are many disabled people who don't use wheelchairs. |
Anonymous
Why are you defining your individual circumstances as "average DC folks"? |
Anonymous
Because "average" DC folks can't afford to live close in geographically and I'm one of those people. If you disagree, go drive around DC - not downtown - I mean, the areas where family homes and apartments aren't $900k+ or $3K+ rent. Knock on doors, ask people where they live and where they work and whether it's more efficient to take public transportation. Get back to us when you complete your scientific study. |
Anonymous
Basic math will tell you that you're full of shit. If 40 percent of DC's 310,000 households did not own cars, that would mean the 298,000 cars registered with the city are owned by 186,000 households. Do you really think the average car owner in Washington DC owns 1.6 cars? If you assume (correctly) that a large percentage of car owners only have one car, then everyone else would have to have a *fleet* of cars in order to make the numbers work. It's even worse than that, since so many people have cars that are not even registered with the city. |
Anonymous
In our neck of the woods people have at least two cars, more if they buy cars for their kids -- and a lot do. |
Anonymous
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The bottom line is that when commute times are less with public transportation, people will choose public transportation. When commute times are less with cars, people will use cars.
I use a car except when going downtown (in which case I drive partially to get closer to a metro, then metro). But I don't work downtown, so I use a car for most of my daily commute and errands. When I used to live downtown, I didn't own a car, but purchased one when I moved farther away from the center of the city and public transportation became inadequate and took longer for day to day needs. And yes, I did try public transportation, used the bus, etc. but it just didn't work as well day to day. Look at NYC. I grew up in a NYC suburb. People generally will use public transportation to get into NYC from the suburbs and to get around once in NYC because it is vastly easier and faster. DC is sadly not set up this way. There are some instances where adding a metro stop would vastly change that (even with all it's issues, metro is still far superior to bus for transportation times), but was historically declined - Georgetown for one. Kingman Park for another. Perhaps that could be revisited. |