The Bike Lobby is too powerful in DC...

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Tyranny of the Minority (2020-2023) RIP.

You had a god run. The adults are finally back in charge in 2024. Drive, bus, walk, or Metro. Those are your choices.

Anonymous rando on DCUM on a Friday night, deciding which modes of transportation people should get to use.

Love these entitled white guys who are like, I don’t want to walk or ride the subway or take the bus or drive. You have to spend billions of dollars building me my own separate transportation system because I just really like riding my bicycle. Because a city with one quarter of its kids living in poverty doesn’t have anything better to spend its money on.

Hey jerk, paint and a little concrete isn't billions of dollars. All that asphalt and signaling is. The bike infrastructure costs next to freaking nothing compared to the subsidized car infrastructure.

Not billions of course. But if some touch up paint on the mayor’s “BLM plaza” will cost $300K, what do you think bike lanes with the barriers and infrastructure changes nearly the length of Connecticut will cost? That would certainly pay for some needed cops and reading teachers

Look at the budget. The city routinely spends a quarter billion dollars each year on bike infrastructure. They’ve been spending at this rate for 15 years.

I don't see how that's possible when Bowser's budget proposal last year proposed spending $6 million per year on 10 miles per year of protected bike lanes, over the course of six years: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/04/01/dc-transportation-budget/

Either the city hasn't actually spent $250 million per year on bike infrastructure, or there are actually many, many more miles of protected bike lanes than any of us is aware of.

The city's budget is a public document. You can just look it up. Here's a *small* sampling of what you'd find:

$36 million for bike lanes
$15 million for Capital Bikeshare
$800,000 for electric bike rebates
$56.4 million for Vision Zero
$39.1 million for bike and pedestrian safety
$18.5 million for signs
$32 million for intersections for intersections with safety concerns
$52 million Long Bridge bicycle connection

The big money comes when they build trails and bridges and redesign roads. Bowser wants $185 million just to build bike trails.

It would be cheaper for the taxpayer if the city paid every cyclist in the city $1 million to ride the subway

Similarly, think how much money on road maintenance and public safety would be saved by taxpayers if the only motor vehicles allowed on city streets were commercial vehicles, transit vehicles, and emergency vehicles!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tyranny of the Minority (2020-2023) RIP.

You had a god run. The adults are finally back in charge in 2024. Drive, bus, walk, or Metro. Those are your choices.

Anonymous rando on DCUM on a Friday night, deciding which modes of transportation people should get to use.

Love these entitled white guys who are like, I don’t want to walk or ride the subway or take the bus or drive. You have to spend billions of dollars building me my own separate transportation system because I just really like riding my bicycle. Because a city with one quarter of its kids living in poverty doesn’t have anything better to spend its money on.

Hey jerk, paint and a little concrete isn't billions of dollars. All that asphalt and signaling is. The bike infrastructure costs next to freaking nothing compared to the subsidized car infrastructure.

Not billions of course. But if some touch up paint on the mayor’s “BLM plaza” will cost $300K, what do you think bike lanes with the barriers and infrastructure changes nearly the length of Connecticut will cost? That would certainly pay for some needed cops and reading teachers

Look at the budget. The city routinely spends a quarter billion dollars each year on bike infrastructure. They’ve been spending at this rate for 15 years.

I don't see how that's possible when Bowser's budget proposal last year proposed spending $6 million per year on 10 miles per year of protected bike lanes, over the course of six years: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/04/01/dc-transportation-budget/

Either the city hasn't actually spent $250 million per year on bike infrastructure, or there are actually many, many more miles of protected bike lanes than any of us is aware of.

The city's budget is a public document. You can just look it up. Here's a *small* sampling of what you'd find:

$36 million for bike lanes
$15 million for Capital Bikeshare
$800,000 for electric bike rebates
$56.4 million for Vision Zero
$39.1 million for bike and pedestrian safety
$18.5 million for signs
$32 million for intersections for intersections with safety concerns
$52 million Long Bridge bicycle connection

The big money comes when they build trails and bridges and redesign roads. Bowser wants $185 million just to build bike trails.

It would be cheaper for the taxpayer if the city paid every cyclist in the city $1 million to ride the subway

Similarly, think how much money on road maintenance and public safety would be saved by taxpayers if the only motor vehicles allowed on city streets were commercial vehicles, transit vehicles, and emergency vehicles!

It would be fantastic! I mean, we'd all lose our jobs because 99 percent of the businesses would die, and the government would have no money because no one would have any income to tax, and it would be a pain in the ass to get around, but other than that, it would be great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tyranny of the Minority (2020-2023) RIP.

You had a god run. The adults are finally back in charge in 2024. Drive, bus, walk, or Metro. Those are your choices.

Anonymous rando on DCUM on a Friday night, deciding which modes of transportation people should get to use.

Love these entitled white guys who are like, I don’t want to walk or ride the subway or take the bus or drive. You have to spend billions of dollars building me my own separate transportation system because I just really like riding my bicycle. Because a city with one quarter of its kids living in poverty doesn’t have anything better to spend its money on.

Hey jerk, paint and a little concrete isn't billions of dollars. All that asphalt and signaling is. The bike infrastructure costs next to freaking nothing compared to the subsidized car infrastructure.

Not billions of course. But if some touch up paint on the mayor’s “BLM plaza” will cost $300K, what do you think bike lanes with the barriers and infrastructure changes nearly the length of Connecticut will cost? That would certainly pay for some needed cops and reading teachers

Look at the budget. The city routinely spends a quarter billion dollars each year on bike infrastructure. They’ve been spending at this rate for 15 years.

I don't see how that's possible when Bowser's budget proposal last year proposed spending $6 million per year on 10 miles per year of protected bike lanes, over the course of six years: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/04/01/dc-transportation-budget/

Either the city hasn't actually spent $250 million per year on bike infrastructure, or there are actually many, many more miles of protected bike lanes than any of us is aware of.

The city's budget is a public document. You can just look it up. Here's a *small* sampling of what you'd find:

$36 million for bike lanes
$15 million for Capital Bikeshare
$800,000 for electric bike rebates
$56.4 million for Vision Zero
$39.1 million for bike and pedestrian safety
$18.5 million for signs
$32 million for intersections for intersections with safety concerns
$52 million Long Bridge bicycle connection

Transit surveys show biking is becoming less popular in DC. The government is spending more and more money on fewer and fewer people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tyranny of the Minority (2020-2023) RIP.

You had a god run. The adults are finally back in charge in 2024. Drive, bus, walk, or Metro. Those are your choices.

Anonymous rando on DCUM on a Friday night, deciding which modes of transportation people should get to use.

Love these entitled white guys who are like, I don’t want to walk or ride the subway or take the bus or drive. You have to spend billions of dollars building me my own separate transportation system because I just really like riding my bicycle. Because a city with one quarter of its kids living in poverty doesn’t have anything better to spend its money on.

Hey jerk, paint and a little concrete isn't billions of dollars. All that asphalt and signaling is. The bike infrastructure costs next to freaking nothing compared to the subsidized car infrastructure.

Not billions of course. But if some touch up paint on the mayor’s “BLM plaza” will cost $300K, what do you think bike lanes with the barriers and infrastructure changes nearly the length of Connecticut will cost? That would certainly pay for some needed cops and reading teachers

Look at the budget. The city routinely spends a quarter billion dollars each year on bike infrastructure. They’ve been spending at this rate for 15 years.

I don't see how that's possible when Bowser's budget proposal last year proposed spending $6 million per year on 10 miles per year of protected bike lanes, over the course of six years: https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2022/04/01/dc-transportation-budget/

Either the city hasn't actually spent $250 million per year on bike infrastructure, or there are actually many, many more miles of protected bike lanes than any of us is aware of.

The city's budget is a public document. You can just look it up. Here's a *small* sampling of what you'd find:

$36 million for bike lanes
$15 million for Capital Bikeshare
$800,000 for electric bike rebates
$56.4 million for Vision Zero
$39.1 million for bike and pedestrian safety
$18.5 million for signs
$32 million for intersections for intersections with safety concerns
$52 million Long Bridge bicycle connection

The big money comes when they build trails and bridges and redesign roads. Bowser wants $185 million just to build bike trails.

It would be cheaper for the taxpayer if the city paid every cyclist in the city $1 million to ride the subway

Similarly, think how much money on road maintenance and public safety would be saved by taxpayers if the only motor vehicles allowed on city streets were commercial vehicles, transit vehicles, and emergency vehicles!

It would be fantastic! I mean, we'd all lose our jobs because 99 percent of the businesses would die, and the government would have no money because no one would have any income to tax, and it would be a pain in the ass to get around, but other than that, it would be great.

I hope you didn't hurt yourself while moving the goalposts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Transit surveys show biking is becoming less popular in DC. The government is spending more and more money on fewer and fewer people.

Which, you know, is kind of weird, because year by year, I see more people biking in DC. Well, who am I going to trust, some anonymous rando on DCUM or my lying eyes?

[Anonymous]

Addressing crime needs to be the #1 priority in DC -- before we can talk about anything else. Two big robberies and a carjacking on Connecticut Avenue just last night. Let's put resources into addressing crime before everyone moves out. Then we can talk about bike lanes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Addressing crime needs to be the #1 priority in DC -- before we can talk about anything else. Two big robberies and a carjacking on Connecticut Avenue just last night. Let's put resources into addressing crime before everyone moves out. Then we can talk about bike lanes.

Certainly the whole of city government is only capable of doing one thing at once. This year, crime! Next year, schools. The year after that, transportation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Transit surveys show biking is becoming less popular in DC. The government is spending more and more money on fewer and fewer people.

Which, you know, is kind of weird, because year by year, I see more people biking in DC. Well, who am I going to trust, some anonymous rando on DCUM or my lying eyes?

Neither! You could just look at the data. It's not that hard. The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments puts out an annual transit report. TL;DR: Every form of transportation is becoming less popular, except driving, which is way up. It also says cyclists are exactly who you'd think: white, young, upper income and (because of that) they live close to wear they work. Drivers are disproportionately Black and Hispanic.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:That isn't a good point, that is the main point. The whole thing is a safety improvement regiment for Connecticut Avenue. It isn't just about bike lanes. But the blue hairs who were raised in the 1950's and 60's when the concept of a car and freedom was ingrained into the Boomer culture simply cannot imagine that life could be any different for people younger than them. And as such, they are fighting tooth and nail for a transportation paradigm that is no longer sustainable.

They simply cannot imagine that life could be any different, period. For anybody, anywhere, ever. A huge failure of imagination, because life will be different whether they want it to be or not.

+1. They need to let go of their expectations of rapid police response time and viable small businesses. The 20th century is over.

Every time you lump all your hobby horses together and project all of DC’s problems onto (checks notes) *bicycles*, you become more and more unhinged sounding.

Every time a progressive comes up with another great idea it ends horribly. Defund, sanctuary cities, housing vouchers, and on and on. Please just stop.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:A driver, bicyclist and pedestrian walk into a bakery. The baker brings them a plate of 12 cookies. The driver quickly snatches up 11 cookies, turns to the pedestrian and says, “Watch out! The bicyclist is going to steal your cookie!”

The bakery closed because there was nowhere to park. Now no one gets a cookie.

2/3 of the bakery's customers arrive on foot or by bike. Why would it close due to lack of car parking?

66/100 arrive by foot and 1/100 arrives by bike. Your statement is still true. But the bakery lost 33/100 so it had to close.

Every study, everywhere, has shown that bike lanes benefit businesses.

Bike lanes make it harder for people to circulate throughout a city. Hard to see how that would ever be good for a business.

How so? I see cities all over the world with bike lanes and people are able to circulate those cities without issue. Why would it be different here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Addressing crime needs to be the #1 priority in DC -- before we can talk about anything else. Two big robberies and a carjacking on Connecticut Avenue just last night. Let's put resources into addressing crime before everyone moves out. Then we can talk about bike lanes.

Well, to be fair, if the NIMBYs were right, then those crimes would be curtailed because of all the gridlock.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A driver, bicyclist and pedestrian walk into a bakery. The baker brings them a plate of 12 cookies. The driver quickly snatches up 11 cookies, turns to the pedestrian and says, “Watch out! The bicyclist is going to steal your cookie!”

The bakery closed because there was nowhere to park. Now no one gets a cookie.

2/3 of the bakery's customers arrive on foot or by bike. Why would it close due to lack of car parking?

66/100 arrive by foot and 1/100 arrives by bike. Your statement is still true. But the bakery lost 33/100 so it had to close.

Every study, everywhere, has shown that bike lanes benefit businesses.

Bike lanes make it harder for people to circulate throughout a city. Hard to see how that would ever be good for a business.

How so? I see cities all over the world with bike lanes and people are able to circulate those cities without issue. Why would it be different here?

Because in America sitting in traffic in a 6,000 pound SUV is a status symbol. Poor people walk/bike/take the bus. Its really that simple.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A driver, bicyclist and pedestrian walk into a bakery. The baker brings them a plate of 12 cookies. The driver quickly snatches up 11 cookies, turns to the pedestrian and says, “Watch out! The bicyclist is going to steal your cookie!”

The bakery closed because there was nowhere to park. Now no one gets a cookie.

2/3 of the bakery's customers arrive on foot or by bike. Why would it close due to lack of car parking?

66/100 arrive by foot and 1/100 arrives by bike. Your statement is still true. But the bakery lost 33/100 so it had to close.

Every study, everywhere, has shown that bike lanes benefit businesses.

And yet developers keep lobbying for parking because they know that people will travel farther in a car than they will on a bike or by foot, thus increasing the size of the customer base for retail.

[Anonymous]

I do not think bike lanes will continue to be a priority. Crime is the biggest one now, vagrancy, education/truancy, dealing with the whole Caps/Wizards fiasco, and the declining tax base. The mayor and the council have a lot on their plates, and things like bike lanes and pickleball will have to wait a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A driver, bicyclist and pedestrian walk into a bakery. The baker brings them a plate of 12 cookies. The driver quickly snatches up 11 cookies, turns to the pedestrian and says, “Watch out! The bicyclist is going to steal your cookie!”

The bakery closed because there was nowhere to park. Now no one gets a cookie.

2/3 of the bakery's customers arrive on foot or by bike. Why would it close due to lack of car parking?

66/100 arrive by foot and 1/100 arrives by bike. Your statement is still true. But the bakery lost 33/100 so it had to close.

Every study, everywhere, has shown that bike lanes benefit businesses.

Bike lanes make it harder for people to circulate throughout a city. Hard to see how that would ever be good for a business.

How so? I see cities all over the world with bike lanes and people are able to circulate those cities without issue. Why would it be different here?

Obviously, you're completely wrong. Do you think that if we took traffic lanes away from cars and said only people who travel via roller skates can use them -- do you think that would increase or decrease the flow of people? It would be fantastic for the three Washingtonians who are really into roller skates but it would be a nightmare for the half million people who drive every day.