Let's look at some of the goofy things Bowser wants to spend our tax dollars on

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The cost per use of D.C.'s bike infrastructure must be astronomical.

The city must have spent many hundreds of millions of dollars on bike lanes, capital bikeshare, etc. How many people regularly ride in the city? 500? 1000?

It would be cheaper for the city to pay each of those people $10,000 to ride the bus (and paying them is probably the only way they'd agree to ride the bus).

You can thank the bike lobby for these silly laws and huge waste of taxpayer dollars.

The spandex crowd is a menace regardless of the medium they ride on. Period. But the bike lobby has convinced our fearless leaders they are wise and forward thinking when they pass laws benefiting this group of idiots, trumping common sense or reasonableness. Or maybe the idiots simply bribed them.

[Anonymous]

There are some people with real brain worms on this thread. You all need to look up more while driving and put down DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are some people with real brain worms on this thread. You all need to look up more while driving and put down DCUM.

+100

For a metro area with an otherwise highly-educated population, the inability to see the world through anything other than a windshield that so many people here display is rather astounding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From her 2023 budget proposal:

$1.3 million to hire 11 people to keep bike lanes free of snow.

What do they do on the other 360 days in the year when it doesn't snow?

Tell me you don't understand how budgets work without saying you don't know how budgets work.

Please explain to us how spending $1.3 million to keep bike lanes free of snow in a city where it barely snows is a good idea...

The same way the budget for the rest of roads on the area get handled. If it doesn't snow much then most of the money doesn't get spent and can be reallocated to other things, likely within DPW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From her 2023 budget proposal:

$1.3 million to hire 11 people to keep bike lanes free of snow.

What do they do on the other 360 days in the year when it doesn't snow?

Tell me you don't understand how budgets work without saying you don't know how budgets work.

Please explain to us how spending $1.3 million to keep bike lanes free of snow in a city where it barely snows is a good idea...

The same way the budget for the rest of roads on the area get handled. If it doesn't snow much then most of the money doesn't get spent and can be reallocated to other things, likely within DPW.

Aren't those other things already funded? Do you understand how a budget works?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From her 2023 budget proposal:

$1.3 million to hire 11 people to keep bike lanes free of snow.

What do they do on the other 360 days in the year when it doesn't snow?

Tell me you don't understand how budgets work without saying you don't know how budgets work.

Please explain to us how spending $1.3 million to keep bike lanes free of snow in a city where it barely snows is a good idea...

The same way the budget for the rest of roads on the area get handled. If it doesn't snow much then most of the money doesn't get spent and can be reallocated to other things, likely within DPW.

That's not what the budget proposes. It says they intend to hire a "dedicated team" of 11 people to remove snow and debris from bike lanes. So when it's not snowing, they'll pick up candy wrappers.

How much will they be paid for this? Dividing 11 people into $1.3 million I get $120,000 per person.

Must be nice to have more money than you know what to do with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some people with real brain worms on this thread. You all need to look up more while driving and put down DCUM.

+100

For a metro area with an otherwise highly-educated population, the inability to see the world through anything other than a windshield that so many people here display is rather astounding.

The D.C. government must have spent close to a half billion dollars over the years developing its bike lane infrastructure. That's an absolutely incredible amount of money for something that is used by so few people. I would rather my tax dollars help poor people than to subsidize the hobbies of a few hundred white guys from Tenleytown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some people with real brain worms on this thread. You all need to look up more while driving and put down DCUM.

+100

For a metro area with an otherwise highly-educated population, the inability to see the world through anything other than a windshield that so many people here display is rather astounding.

The D.C. government must have spent close to a half billion dollars over the years developing its bike lane infrastructure. That's an absolutely incredible amount of money for something that is used by so few people. I would rather my tax dollars help poor people than to subsidize the hobbies of a few hundred white guys from Tenleytown.

Neither a white guy nor from Tenleytown and I'm very appreciative of having a safe lane to bike to work in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$36 million to expand bike lanes, which I believe works out to about $500,000 per each person expected to actually use them.

Did you go by the new bike lanes on the Mall and 15th/17th St. yesterday? There's no shortage of demand for bike lanes. https://twitter.com/allofthebikes/status/1506406851847634951

And if you're a driver you should like this too--fewer cyclists in the car lanes when there are good bike lanes available!

DC is putting in bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue, one in each direction. While this may seem like an attractive idea, the rush hour carrying capacity of Conn. Ave. will be cut from 4 lanes down to 2 lanes. DC just assumes that the traffic will just go away, or maybe MD commuters will all switch to those little Lime scooters. More likely, Connecticut will be gridlocked several hours a day, with more traffic diverting onto Reno Rd, Porter St., etc. trying to find a way to or from downtown. Nice.

That's the plan for M St SE as well; I can't image how bad the rush hour traffic will become when they do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is putting in bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue, one in each direction. While this may seem like an attractive idea, the rush hour carrying capacity of Conn. Ave. will be cut from 4 lanes down to 2 lanes. DC just assumes that the traffic will just go away, or maybe MD commuters will all switch to those little Lime scooters. More likely, Connecticut will be gridlocked several hours a day, with more traffic diverting onto Reno Rd, Porter St., etc. trying to find a way to or from downtown. Nice.

Poor Upper NW and MD drivers. Won't someone think of the drivers?

We need to plan for where the traffic will be diverted, I am thinking os much of the drivers, but of the kids who walk along Reno/34th Street to Much, Hearst, Eaton and several other schools. I'm thinking of people who cross or ride their bikes on Albemarle or Porter, and the folks who live on narrow streets who will find that Waze is diverting commuters all the time from the gridlocked Connecticut arterial. What about their safety? Slogans and wishful thinking are no substitute for real traffic planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:$9.4 million to buy 170 new speed cameras, despite D.C. already having the largest police force on a per capita basis in the county.

What if we had all the cops....enforce traffic laws?

Considering how unsafe our streets are how about we have more traffic cameras and have MPD start to enforce our traffic laws.

BTW the traffic cameras only enforce 3 violations while police can enforce all violations and issue criminal citations so there are some pretty compelling reasons to have MPD get off their lazy a$$es and enforce our traffic laws.

The streets are actually quite safe. You're *far* more likely to be murdered in D.C. than be killed in a traffic accident.

This cannot be emphasized ENOUGH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are some people with real brain worms on this thread. You all need to look up more while driving and put down DCUM.

+100

For a metro area with an otherwise highly-educated population, the inability to see the world through anything other than a windshield that so many people here display is rather astounding.

The D.C. government must have spent close to a half billion dollars over the years developing its bike lane infrastructure. That's an absolutely incredible amount of money for something that is used by so few people. I would rather my tax dollars help poor people than to subsidize the hobbies of a few hundred white guys from Tenleytown.

Neither a white guy nor from Tenleytown and I'm very appreciative of having a safe lane to bike to work in.

You’re about 86 times more likely to be murdered by a criminal than be killed on your bicycle. A criminal that likely had a lengthy arrest record and was probably released without bond for whatever crime he committed just prior to murdering you.

Bike lanes should not be a priority right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It would be nice if DC re-striped the crosswalks near the DCPS that my kids attend. The crosswalks are so faded that drivers can't see them.

Drivers here don't respect crosswalks, painted or not.

We need many more raised crosswalks. Crosswalk on a speed bump basically.

[Anonymous]

All of these things seem pretty darn reasonable to me. I mean, feel free to give a citation about the bridge prices, but the rest of this stuff just seems like the cost of doing business. Frankly, if those 11 snow removal employees are picking up trash or doing maintenance the rest of the year, then that's well worth it to me. Bike lanes often get clogged with glass and debris, so it seems like a good idea to have employees who handle that. It also helps to keep the cyclists out of your precious car travel lanes.

Sorry your TV isn't big enough or whatever it is you needed those couple of tax dollars for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is putting in bike lanes on Connecticut Avenue, one in each direction. While this may seem like an attractive idea, the rush hour carrying capacity of Conn. Ave. will be cut from 4 lanes down to 2 lanes. DC just assumes that the traffic will just go away, or maybe MD commuters will all switch to those little Lime scooters. More likely, Connecticut will be gridlocked several hours a day, with more traffic diverting onto Reno Rd, Porter St., etc. trying to find a way to or from downtown. Nice.

Poor Upper NW and MD drivers. Won't someone think of the drivers?

We need to plan for where the traffic will be diverted, I am thinking os much of the drivers, but of the kids who walk along Reno/34th Street to Much, Hearst, Eaton and several other schools. I'm thinking of people who cross or ride their bikes on Albemarle or Porter, and the folks who live on narrow streets who will find that Waze is diverting commuters all the time from the gridlocked Connecticut arterial. What about their safety? Slogans and wishful thinking are no substitute for real traffic planning.

NP and I do see this as being a big problem, especially as the federal government calls more people back to the office. I think the problem is that not enough people will switch to biking to have any dent in the traffic that travels on those roadways. Does DC have any plan?