‘Slow Streets’ is stupid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People who hate cars sometimes seem to forget they are in the extreme minority of people in Washington DC.

Most people in DC have cars. And most of the rest of the people who don’t have cars don’t have them for non-car-hating reasons. Maybe they don’t need one. Maybe they can’t afford one. Maybe they’ve been meaning to buy one but haven’t gotten around to it. People who don’t have cars because they don’t like cars in principle are a minuscule share of the population.

People in the teeny tiny minority don’t get to dictate the rules for everyone else.

Slow Streets is the work of the DC government not "people who hate cars," and they very much do get to dictate the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who hate cars sometimes seem to forget they are in the extreme minority of people in Washington DC.

Most people in DC have cars. And most of the rest of the people who don’t have cars don’t have them for non-car-hating reasons. Maybe they don’t need one. Maybe they can’t afford one. Maybe they’ve been meaning to buy one but haven’t gotten around to it. People who don’t have cars because they don’t like cars in principle are a minuscule share of the population.

People in the teeny tiny minority don’t get to dictate the rules for everyone else.

Slow Streets is the work of the DC government not "people who hate cars," and they very much do get to dictate the rules.

You know what would be awesome? If the DC government enforced any traffic laws at all. People in my neighborhood don’t slow down for stop signs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who hate cars sometimes seem to forget they are in the extreme minority of people in Washington DC.

Most people in DC have cars. And most of the rest of the people who don’t have cars don’t have them for non-car-hating reasons. Maybe they don’t need one. Maybe they can’t afford one. Maybe they’ve been meaning to buy one but haven’t gotten around to it. People who don’t have cars because they don’t like cars in principle are a minuscule share of the population.

People in the teeny tiny minority don’t get to dictate the rules for everyone else.

Slow Streets is the work of the DC government not "people who hate cars," and they very much do get to dictate the rules.

You know what would be awesome? If the DC government enforced any traffic laws at all. People in my neighborhood don’t slow down for stop signs.

Automated enforcement is still enforcement. You can definitely get a camera ticket for running a stop sign.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Isn’t a street that’s closed to through traffic basically a publicly funded shared driveway?

No, it's a street that people can comfortably use while not in a car.

In AU Park where I see them, all the slow streets could be comfortably navigated while not in a car before the barriers went up.

"comfortably navigated" by whom?

Pedestrians, bicyclists, scootering kids, etc. These are not busy streets to start with.

So, pedestrians, bicyclists, scootering kids can comfortable be in (not cross) the streets, even when they're not slow streets? You'd have been comfortable teaching your four-year-old how to ride a bike in those streets last year? Or letting your five-year-old go by themselves to visit their friend on the other side of the street at the other end of the block? Or letting your six-year-old play kickball in those streets?

Children should not be playing kickball in any streets. That’s not their purpose. I taught my kids to ride their bikes on the sidewalk and at the park a few blocks away.

Says who? We're talking about neighborhood streets, right? Why shouldn't streets belong to everyone, including neighborhood kids playing kickball?

They are roads, not sidewalks. They were built for car traffic. Are you on one of those blocks who just blocked it off yourselves with cones last year, thinking the pandemic somehow just changed all the rules? If you don't like the way your street works, move. It is not up to you to alter DC traffic. You should have done the homework about traffic in your neighborhood before you moved in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who hate cars sometimes seem to forget they are in the extreme minority of people in Washington DC.

Most people in DC have cars. And most of the rest of the people who don’t have cars don’t have them for non-car-hating reasons. Maybe they don’t need one. Maybe they can’t afford one. Maybe they’ve been meaning to buy one but haven’t gotten around to it. People who don’t have cars because they don’t like cars in principle are a minuscule share of the population.

People in the teeny tiny minority don’t get to dictate the rules for everyone else.

Whom are you addressing? I don't hate cars. I own two of them. What I hate is the belief that roads are for cars and everybody else just better get the heck out of the way. Actually, I don't even hate that belief, just like I don't hate the belief that the world is flat. It's just a factually incorrect belief, that's all.

So you're okay with your street being closed to traffic so that all those cars are now using your neighbors' streets instead? Can you really not see what an entilted, hypocritical a**h**e that makes you? Don't worry, everyone who knows you knows the kind of person you are. Must be tough going through life like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

They are roads, not sidewalks. They were built for car traffic. Are you on one of those blocks who just blocked it off yourselves with cones last year, thinking the pandemic somehow just changed all the rules? If you don't like the way your street works, move. It is not up to you to alter DC traffic. You should have done the homework about traffic in your neighborhood before you moved in.

No, they weren't. Streets are for everyone. ESPECIALLY city streets. If you want to live somewhere where roads are for cars, don't live in DC. Actually, don't live anywhere in the DC area.

[Anonymous]

I often just slow down and drive through them anyway. I am annoyed that they've made my street busier than ever. And if someone threw a rock at me I would park and call 911 and love every minute of what happened next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who hate cars sometimes seem to forget they are in the extreme minority of people in Washington DC.

Most people in DC have cars. And most of the rest of the people who don’t have cars don’t have them for non-car-hating reasons. Maybe they don’t need one. Maybe they can’t afford one. Maybe they’ve been meaning to buy one but haven’t gotten around to it. People who don’t have cars because they don’t like cars in principle are a minuscule share of the population.

People in the teeny tiny minority don’t get to dictate the rules for everyone else.

Whom are you addressing? I don't hate cars. I own two of them. What I hate is the belief that roads are for cars and everybody else just better get the heck out of the way. Actually, I don't even hate that belief, just like I don't hate the belief that the world is flat. It's just a factually incorrect belief, that's all.

So you're okay with your street being closed to traffic so that all those cars are now using your neighbors' streets instead? Can you really not see what an entilted, hypocritical a**h**e that makes you? Don't worry, everyone who knows you knows the kind of person you are. Must be tough going through life like that.

What are you upset about? Do you live on a street where you think there are more cars now, due to a Slow Street elsewhere? Are you, yourself, now driving on a different street with more cars, due to a Slow Street elsewhere? Do you live somewhere else where a transportation agency made a decision to make the street more available to non-motorists, and you're transferring your anger about that to Slow Streets in DC? Are you just generally annoyed at recent efforts to de-emphasize cars as the ruling mode of transportation? What's the issue?

[Anonymous]

If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

I don’t understand this mentality of “if you don’t like X then move to Y.” A city and its government should be responsive to the different needs of its citizens. If some residents of a citizen want to advocate for bike lanes and some want to advocate for higher speed limits for cars so they can get to their destination, the result should reflect in some way what the citizens want and what helps the city grow. 50 years ago many circles were cut down to provide more car lanes- why didn’t the people who wanted that just move instead of trying to change the city to suit them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

Half of DC is built like a suburb anyway. They're not shutting down K Street and Brightwood isn't Manhattan; the comparison is ludicrous. Either way the changes to street use were decided by the people of DC through their elected government, so if you don't like that, maybe you should move?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

I don’t understand this mentality of “if you don’t like X then move to Y.” A city and its government should be responsive to the different needs of its citizens. If some residents of a citizen want to advocate for bike lanes and some want to advocate for higher speed limits for cars so they can get to their destination, the result should reflect in some way what the citizens want and what helps the city grow. 50 years ago many circles were cut down to provide more car lanes- why didn’t the people who wanted that just move instead of trying to change the city to suit them?

People are free to lobby for whatever stupid thing they want. But if you want kids playing in the streets — and huge yards and you want to live in a McMansion — then you should move because city living isn’t for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

I don’t understand this mentality of “if you don’t like X then move to Y.” A city and its government should be responsive to the different needs of its citizens. If some residents of a citizen want to advocate for bike lanes and some want to advocate for higher speed limits for cars so they can get to their destination, the result should reflect in some way what the citizens want and what helps the city grow. 50 years ago many circles were cut down to provide more car lanes- why didn’t the people who wanted that just move instead of trying to change the city to suit them?

Love how DC has hundreds of miles of bike lanes that hardly anyone uses. The number of bicyclists in DC is pathetically small and yet we have all these lanes everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

I don’t understand this mentality of “if you don’t like X then move to Y.” A city and its government should be responsive to the different needs of its citizens. If some residents of a citizen want to advocate for bike lanes and some want to advocate for higher speed limits for cars so they can get to their destination, the result should reflect in some way what the citizens want and what helps the city grow. 50 years ago many circles were cut down to provide more car lanes- why didn’t the people who wanted that just move instead of trying to change the city to suit them?

People are free to lobby for whatever stupid thing they want. But if you want kids playing in the streets — and huge yards and you want to live in a McMansion — then you should move because city living isn’t for you.

See, that's really weird, because until recently (= cars), here's where city kids played: in the streets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want children playing kickball in the street, move to the suburbs. Seriously, you’re in the wrong place. Do you think kids should be able to play in the streets of Manhattan? If you let your kids play in the street in DC, you should have your head examined.

Half of DC is built like a suburb anyway. They're not shutting down K Street and Brightwood isn't Manhattan; the comparison is ludicrous. Either way the changes to street use were decided by the people of DC through their elected government, so if you don't like that, maybe you should move?

Actually, many parts of DC are more densely populated than many parts of NYC.

Also, I love this: “...were decided by the people of DC through their elected government.” Is this what we’re calling special interest lobbying now? I will let the oil and gas industry know.