Too crowded. DMV governors and mayors: please dedicate streets to walkers and bikers

[Anonymous]

https://www.greeleytribune.com/news/6-feet-may-not-be-enough-distance-to-stop-the-spread-of-coronavirus-experts-say/

[Anonymous]

arent the anti-car people the same people as the pro-density people? you don't get to complain about the city being too crowded.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:arent the anti-car people the same people as the pro-density people? you don't get to complain about the city being too crowded.

That's not what people are complaining about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. People act so entitled about “their” streets but streets belong to the driving public. It’s annoying to have people walking in the streets when essential personnel are driving to work or trying to dash to the supermarket. The other day I had to slow almost to a crawl to dodge joggers and walkers on one of the approach streets to Cathedral Commons in NW DC. Sheesh.

Nope. The streets belong to the public, period. Far too much of our street space is devoted to cars under normal times, but especially now, when there is so much less driving. Essential personnel who are driving to work don't need more than one lane each way. The rest of the street space can be reallocated as public space for walking, biking, and playing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. People act so entitled about “their” streets but streets belong to the driving public. It’s annoying to have people walking in the streets when essential personnel are driving to work or trying to dash to the supermarket. The other day I had to slow almost to a crawl to dodge joggers and walkers on one of the approach streets to Cathedral Commons in NW DC. Sheesh.

Nope. The streets belong to the public, period. Far too much of our street space is devoted to cars under normal times, but especially now, when there is so much less driving. Essential personnel who are driving to work don't need more than one lane each way. The rest of the street space can be reallocated as public space for walking, biking, and playing.

Uh, what? Have you noticed that almost no one uses the bike lanes? There are stretches of bike lanes that I've *never* seen anyone use. By your logic, we should get rid of the bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is an extremely stupid idea. This will just encourage people to go outside -- because hey it's a party in the streets! - and completely ignore social distancing. Bowser was right to reject this hare brained idea.

This.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I disagree. People act so entitled about “their” streets but streets belong to the driving public. It’s annoying to have people walking in the streets when essential personnel are driving to work or trying to dash to the supermarket. The other day I had to slow almost to a crawl to dodge joggers and walkers on one of the approach streets to Cathedral Commons in NW DC. Sheesh.

Nope. The streets belong to the public, period. Far too much of our street space is devoted to cars under normal times, but especially now, when there is so much less driving. Essential personnel who are driving to work don't need more than one lane each way. The rest of the street space can be reallocated as public space for walking, biking, and playing.

Uh, what? Have you noticed that almost no one uses the bike lanes? There are stretches of bike lanes that I've *never* seen anyone use. By your logic, we should get rid of the bike lanes.

Really - where?

I bike and there are always people using the bike lanes, even on weekends.

You do realize that DC has very few bike lanes so you are whining about something that is pretty insignificant.

Also curious if you even live in DC?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When everyone’s working from home, there are too many people on city sidewalks to achieve proper 6 foot spacing.

We need to dedicate streets to walkers and bikers, and close them to cars. Traffic is way down already.

Bowser and the DC council could do this right now.

Dedicate some streets to walkers, runners, and bikers.
Promote social distancing.

WTF? How the hell am I supposed to drive to work? I'm an essential employee who has to go in every other week.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When everyone’s working from home, there are too many people on city sidewalks to achieve proper 6 foot spacing.

We need to dedicate streets to walkers and bikers, and close them to cars. Traffic is way down already.

Bowser and the DC council could do this right now.

Dedicate some streets to walkers, runners, and bikers.
Promote social distancing.

WTF? How the hell am I supposed to drive to work? I'm an essential employee who has to go in every other week.

Oh god I hope reading and common sense aren't essential parts of your job because you are lacking at both.

No one here is proposing to close all roads and other cities that have closed streets have only closed some streets or some lanes on streets.

You'll still be able to drive to your "essential" job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When everyone’s working from home, there are too many people on city sidewalks to achieve proper 6 foot spacing.

We need to dedicate streets to walkers and bikers, and close them to cars. Traffic is way down already.

Bowser and the DC council could do this right now.

Dedicate some streets to walkers, runners, and bikers.
Promote social distancing.

WTF? How the hell am I supposed to drive to work? I'm an essential employee who has to go in every other week.

Oh god I hope reading and common sense aren't essential parts of your job because you are lacking at both.

No one here is proposing to close all roads and other cities that have closed streets have only closed some streets or some lanes on streets.

You'll still be able to drive to your "essential" job.

Can you guarantee that? How many streets are we talking about here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bikers need to be banned from riding on the roads.

And OP, you wanted to live in a tightly packed dense area well before social distancing was a thing. That’s your dumb fault, not the states.

You want people to ride their bikes on sidewalks? That’s incredibly dumb and even more dangerous.

so you're arguing that the sidewalks are too packed and walkers are too slow for dudes on bicycles and that is dangerous. So they need to be on the crowded streets where they are the slow ones in the cars way.? Bikers don't have this right to clear sailing open roads. As a driver they are welcome on the roads with me as long as they accept the results if something goes wrong... I like my odds if it does

[Anonymous]

I thought density was good? Dense cities,dense sidewalks, dense advocates for getting rid of cars, lol!

Lots of dense-ness going around!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought density was good? Dense cities,dense sidewalks, dense advocates for getting rid of cars, lol!

Lots of dense-ness going around!

There are a lot of dumb people who post on DCUM.

Density is great.

What is stupid is dedicating so much space to cars in dense areas - space that generally benefits non residents and especially now should be transitioned to uses that benefit residents and not people driving in from the burbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When everyone’s working from home, there are too many people on city sidewalks to achieve proper 6 foot spacing.

We need to dedicate streets to walkers and bikers, and close them to cars. Traffic is way down already.

Bowser and the DC council could do this right now.

Dedicate some streets to walkers, runners, and bikers.
Promote social distancing.

WTF? How the hell am I supposed to drive to work? I'm an essential employee who has to go in every other week.

Oh god I hope reading and common sense aren't essential parts of your job because you are lacking at both.

No one here is proposing to close all roads and other cities that have closed streets have only closed some streets or some lanes on streets.

You'll still be able to drive to your "essential" job.

Can you guarantee that? How many streets are we talking about here?

Hopefully a lot of streets.

In any case there is a lot of space on our roads and little of it is there for people on foot and bikes - I'm sure you'll be able to still drive to your "essential" job in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is an extremely stupid idea. This will just encourage people to go outside -- because hey it's a party in the streets! - and completely ignore social distancing. Bowser was right to reject this hare brained idea.

This.

People are going outside. For example, my parents, who are in their 80s. They are going outside on daily walks because they need exercise and sunlight. They also need to be able to stay six feet away from other people while they're getting their exercise and sunlight on their daily walks. But they can't stay six feet away from other people - unless the other people walk in the street - because the sidewalks aren't wide enough. Meanwhile there is all this street space, sitting empty. Repurpose it for the uses people are already putting it to, namely: walking in the street at appropriate distances from other people.