Reply to Connecticut Ave bike lanes are back!

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What if the goal was a safe and thriving neighborhood?  If you want a dedicated tunnel to downtown then take Metro.[/quote]

If the goal is a safe and thriving neighborhood then the impact of any plan on accidents and traffic volume within the neighborhood is vitally important.

If your goal is to ban cars that's simply not happening.[/quote]

A safe and vibrant neighborhood has bike lanes.[/quote]

Pretty sure there are many, many safe and vibrant neighborhoods that don’t have bike lanes.[/quote]

But how many neighborhoods have bike lanes that aren't safe and vibrant?[/quote]

Lots. You especially see this in other cities that haven’t been overrun with gentrification.[/quote]

If there's one thing we can take off the table absolutely when it comes to this particular bike lane debate, it's gentrification. You can't gentrify out the landed gentry.[/quote]

Bike lanes are not about gentrification but they are about density, vibrancy and smart growth.  Connecticut Ave has had the reputation of being rather boring and, well, old.  Bike lanes add a certain hipness factor to attract younger buyers and renters.  This is the group that developers who want to build dense housing need to attract.[/quote]

Uh rent is expensive. Owning and storing a car is expensive. Younger people who have lower disposable income depend on biking to get around. [b]So if the city wants to continue to attract these post-college younger residents, bike lanes is a great way to do it.[/b][/quote]

DC attracts plenty of single post-college younger residents (and in any case it’s doubtful that many want to live in Chevy Chase DC or Cleveland Park vs U St or Petworth).  DC needs to do more to retain families who otherwise move to the suburbs  better quality public schools and overall public services.  Conn. ave. Bike lanes aren’t at the top of their priority list.[/quote]

For a lot of younger families who are car free or car-light, yes they are. You clearly have no idea of the demographic shift away from the Boomer-led car era.[/quote]

Petworth is full of parents, and hardly anyone uses the bike lanes, fyi. Bikes are extremely impractical when you have children. [/quote]

This is a reality for a lot of younger families.

[twitter]https://x.com/bellachu10/status/1784621213882687912[/twitter]

If we had the proper infrastructure, more people would do this.[/quote]

We have more than 150 miles of bike lanes. [b]We've spent billions of dollars on biking infrastructure[/b]. Still, the number of people on bikes is microscopic. People don't ride bikes because they don't want to ride bikes, and it has nothing to do with whatever you think the infrastructure is still missing. [/quote]

The bolded is a flat out lie, and a lot of the 150 miles of bike lanes you are citing is simply paint on the ground. That isn't infrastructure. Ergo, the false conclusion you are drawing is a result of the false premise and lies you start with.

Try again: if biking were safe, more people would be doing it. Despite the infrastructure, there are a lot of young families who are using cargo bikes and electric bikes as a replacement for a car or second car, and it works very well for them. Just imagine how many more would do this if they felt it was safe enough![/quote]

Yes, yes, we know. Tens of thousands of bikers are ready to crawl out of the woodwork at any moment, if those pesky drivers would just get out of the way.[/quote]

It’s a bit chicken and egg.  Bike lanes are needed to help transform Connecticut Ave from a somewhat sleepy linear retirement community  (albeit one with traffic) into a vibrant urban corridor.  Bike lanes will attract the private investment to add density, thousands of new housing units to attract young creatives.  That, in turn, will generate thousands of bike riders for the new infrastructure.[/quote]

It is really more about converting the road from a dangerous traffic sewer to a bona fide main street that connects various commercial nodes.[/quote]

“Commercial nodes”?  I thought they were neighborhood shopping districts?[/quote]

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