What would it ACTUALLY take for you to consider biking or taking the bus, in lieu of motoring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be able to perform my job without a car (or truck or van). i am a mom, a dad, a person confined to a wheel chair that is blessed enough to have an outfitted vehicle, a delivery driver, an EMT, an InstaCart Shopper trying to earn extra money. I am your plumber, your contractor, your landscaper, your childcare provider, your cleaning crew, your Uber (can you imagine telling someone you are picking them up to go to dinner by bike?) and lastly, I am the person who has to take their elderly mother to their doctor's appointments. I cannot do grocery shopping for six on a bicycle FWIW I'm not the one complaining about it.

You’re none of those.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bikes are friggin expensive for a non POS.

Crime is too high.

I'd bike when I can park my bike outside completely unlocked and not have to worry about it, like Japan.

Cars are friggin expensive for a non POS.

Crime is too high.

I'd drive when I can park my car outside completely unlocked and not have to worry about it, like Japan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It IS unsafe.

Objectively, going by bus is much, much safer than going by car. However, people's perception of risk is subjective, not objective.

I’m afraid you’re wrong. No one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people have been vehicular homicided in cars recently though and you’re just as dead that way.

(But also: public transit has to be more convenient than driving for most of the places most people go and in the DMV it just isn’t. And I say this as someone who doesn’t own a car.)

Clearly I’m not just as dead. Your hypotheticals are somewhat interesting but it’s still a fact that no one has been murdered in my car recently.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It IS unsafe.

Objectively, going by bus is much, much safer than going by car. However, people's perception of risk is subjective, not objective.

I’m afraid you’re wrong. No one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people have been vehicular homicided in cars recently though and you’re just as dead that way.

(But also: public transit has to be more convenient than driving for most of the places most people go and in the DMV it just isn’t. And I say this as someone who doesn’t own a car.)

Clearly I’m not just as dead. Your hypotheticals are somewhat interesting but it’s still a fact that no one has been murdered in my car recently.

However, other people have been murdered in their cars. In fact, more people have been murdered in their cars than have been murdered on the bus, recently, in Montgomery County. And many, many, many more people have been killed in their cars than have been killed on the bus. Including people who were unimpaired, undistracted, and wearing their seatbelts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It IS unsafe.

Objectively, going by bus is much, much safer than going by car. However, people's perception of risk is subjective, not objective.

I’m afraid you’re wrong. No one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people have been vehicular homicided in cars recently though and you’re just as dead that way.

(But also: public transit has to be more convenient than driving for most of the places most people go and in the DMV it just isn’t. And I say this as someone who doesn’t own a car.)

Clearly I’m not just as dead. Your hypotheticals are somewhat interesting but it’s still a fact that no one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people are murdered in cars. Buses are the safest form of transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It IS unsafe.

Objectively, going by bus is much, much safer than going by car. However, people's perception of risk is subjective, not objective.

I’m afraid you’re wrong. No one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people have been vehicular homicided in cars recently though and you’re just as dead that way.

(But also: public transit has to be more convenient than driving for most of the places most people go and in the DMV it just isn’t. And I say this as someone who doesn’t own a car.)

Clearly I’m not just as dead. Your hypotheticals are somewhat interesting but it’s still a fact that no one has been murdered in my car recently.

Plenty of people are murdered in cars. Buses are the safest form of transportation.

Pretty sure trains are even better and domestic planes are the best.

https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/home-and-community/safety-topics/deaths-by-transportation-mode/

BTW most of the 'train deaths' seem to be deaths of people hit by trains when they illegaly cross the road in a car in front of the train.l

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not having children. Before kids we rented an apartment in Cleveland Park (no yard, no home maintenance) and walked or took the Metro almost everywhere. What else did we have to do besides eat brunch and workout? Nothing!
I lived for years without a car in Cleveland and Chicago as well.

I live in a fairly walkable area. I can walk to the post office, library, bank, hair salon, dentist, a few restaurants, and a small grocery store that has basics like milk and eggs.

It is not practical to use the bus to shop at Target or to pick up a week of groceries for a family of 4. My kids have activities and I work full time. My office and my home are both a block from Wilson Blvd in Arlington and are less than 3 miles apart. I could take the bus except my kids need to be places at specific times and I don’t have time to wait for the bus and then walk from the bus stop to their school. Even if a bus came every 7 minutes, it only takes me 6 minutes to drive from my office to their school.

I can use my car to carpool in my fuel efficient car and plan my errands to batch them up and shop as close and local as possible - OR I could use the bus and Metro and buy everything from Amazon. I am pretty sure having shampoo shipped to my doorstep in a cardboard box is more wasteful than a shared trip to Costco with my neighbor every 3 months.

Public transit is not always automatically better.

People actually do this, though. Many people can't drive or don't have cars, and that is what they do. Maybe "inconvenient" would be a better word.

It is extremely difficult to do. I did it for two years in the recent past. It really makes other passengers angry when you board with many bags or even just a couple bulky items. More than once drivers refused to let me board because I had more than two bags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not in your area, but for me to use bikes as a mode of transport I’d need dedicated bike lanes that are raised and fenced off from the road (ie much safer) ALL THE WAY. I’m not going to be safe for some of the way then play Russian roulette for the rest.

To use buses, I’d need to know they were safe and clean (no gangs, homeless or other crazies) and there would need to be “green roads and bridges” that only buses and bikes can use that significantly reduce travel time especially during rush hour.

I’ve lived in other places in the world that have these things and they really do work.

Homeless people also have places to go. They might be traveling from a shelter to a social services office to a medical clinic to the library to apply for a job. And many more people are experiencing homelessness than the folks sitting outside the Starbucks. It includes mothers transporting their young children to school and even people with jobs. If you are worried about people who smell or have paranoid schizophrenia state that specifically, though that isn’t limited to homeless people.

So you believe that transit should prioritize the needs of homeless riders over all others? Interesting perspective.

A homeless person sitting next to you on public transportation doesn’t prohibit you from using public transportation. That is your choice based on your prejudice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Biking works well for people who don't have to pick up and drop off kids, don't have to carry a lot of stuff, can roll into work looking like they just biked there and have that be professionally acceptable, live relatively close to work, don't have to do grocery shopping for a family after work, have place to safely store their bike at home and at work, have a safe route to work (bike lanes alone don't do it, unless they go door to door), and who know how to ride and bike and feel comfortable and are physically able to do so.

Biking doesn't work for me for the vast majority of these reasons. But I will admit; I am physically fit and could ride a bike, especially if I practiced, but it seems hella dangerous and sweaty and unpleasant to me. I'd rather live a mile from work and walk, which I'd do happily when it's over 30 and under 85 degrees.

There are people who do pickup/dropoff, carry stuff on a bike, look professionally acceptable, and grocery shop on a bike. So it's definitely possible to do all of those things on a bike. Especially on an e-bike! I think the most important things are a safe route and secure bike storage.

Just this week I had to pick up my kid after school at 5:30 PM in NWDC and get them to an appointment at 6:00 PM in Kensington. So no, it’s not possible. Thanks for the advice though.

How late were you?

LOL - "I schedule appointment that are nearly impossible to achieve and then complain that transportation can't get me there in time" 😂😂

Not that PP, but I suspect you’ve never had a school-aged child in therapy. You don’t have the luxury of 7 pm appointments. 6 is a unicorn as it is. I would fight tooth and nail to keep that slot.

[Anonymous]

I usually travel by Metro. I occasionally take the bus — although I reduced this during COVID times. I walk a lot as well. I would take the bus more if they ran more frequently — and I could be pretty sure that I’d get a seat. I’d take the METRO more if it had later hours ( say, until 3am). I grew up using the bus and the METRO in DC, and got used to having public transportation available when I lived in NYC. It’s my norm.
More express buses would help. I also have several friends who live in neighborhoods that aren’t close to a METRO stop. I’d visit them more if I could either walk or take one bus — and be sure that the return trip would be fairly straightforward.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Motoring"?

Yeah, sounds like a foreign troll.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the obesity rate in this country is almost 42%:https://www.tfah.org/report-details/state-of-obesity-2022/#:~:text=Nationally%2C%2041.9%20percent%20of%20adults,obesity%20rate%20of%2041.4%20percent.

Walking and biking require a degree of fitness that most folks simply don't possess. Good luck.

It's sad and true. Less than 5% of people in the US get the recommended $150 minutes of exercise a week! Pretty terrible.

On the flip side, round trip biking to work would take me nearly 150 minutes per day. Who has time for that?!

It would take you 75 minutes each way? In that case, instead of your sassy response, you could answer the OP by saying "living closer to work"

No one asked you to police others’ responses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't be able to perform my job without a car (or truck or van). i am a mom, a dad, a person confined to a wheel chair that is blessed enough to have an outfitted vehicle, a delivery driver, an EMT, an InstaCart Shopper trying to earn extra money. I am your plumber, your contractor, your landscaper, your childcare provider, your cleaning crew, your Uber (can you imagine telling someone you are picking them up to go to dinner by bike?) and lastly, I am the person who has to take their elderly mother to their doctor's appointments. I cannot do grocery shopping for six on a bicycle FWIW I'm not the one complaining about it.

No one's telling you, doing all those tasks, to do them with a bike. We want to make driving more painful, more inconvenient, and more expensive for the ahole who is driving him or herself to get eggs at the grocery store a mile down the street, with free and plentiful parking available at the destination.

Who is “we?” You vastly overestimate your own power and that of your laughably tiny lobby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bikes are friggin expensive for a non POS.

Crime is too high.

I'd bike when I can park my bike outside completely unlocked and not have to worry about it, like Japan.

Cars are friggin expensive for a non POS.

Crime is too high.

I'd drive when I can park my car outside completely unlocked and not have to worry about it, like Japan.

Are you 12? Because I’m embarrassed for you that you thought this was clever or made a cogent point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m not in your area, but for me to use bikes as a mode of transport I’d need dedicated bike lanes that are raised and fenced off from the road (ie much safer) ALL THE WAY. I’m not going to be safe for some of the way then play Russian roulette for the rest.

To use buses, I’d need to know they were safe and clean (no gangs, homeless or other crazies) and there would need to be “green roads and bridges” that only buses and bikes can use that significantly reduce travel time especially during rush hour.

I’ve lived in other places in the world that have these things and they really do work.

Homeless people also have places to go. They might be traveling from a shelter to a social services office to a medical clinic to the library to apply for a job. And many more people are experiencing homelessness than the folks sitting outside the Starbucks. It includes mothers transporting their young children to school and even people with jobs. If you are worried about people who smell or have paranoid schizophrenia state that specifically, though that isn’t limited to homeless people.

So you believe that transit should prioritize the needs of homeless riders over all others? Interesting perspective.

A homeless person sitting next to you on public transportation doesn’t prohibit you from using public transportation. That is your choice based on your prejudice.

Yawn. My car is homeless person free, mugger free and murderer free.