NYC closed Central Park and Prospect Park to cars. This is just one of the things that’s happening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think NPS is blaming covid for a lot of things that they wanted to do all along. Like tickets at the National Zoo. There were fights and gangs nonstop that they couldn't control. The tickets have stopped all that.

Please don't fall for the "fights and gangs nonstop" nonsense. I am a longtime Zoo volunteer and it's just not true. Were there a few highly publicized instances over a period of years (and not all inside the Zoo), yes. But they were rare and there has never been constant, or even intermittent, mayhem. I'm not sure what the objective is for repeating this mischaracterization as truth, but we all need to cut it out. It's a shame that the Zoo is no longer as accessible as it once was to all who want to visit.

Not to make this thread about the zoo. But there were a lot of unruly teenagers that were there daily on days off, weekends or holidays. I'm not making this up and have no reason to. We went often with our kids. The teens weren't there to see the animals, so they should hang out in other parks.

NPS made a lot of changes post covid like closing beach drive and the zoo tickets

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the PP said, there are other options if you are concerned about traffic backups

This is an idiotic response. Many people in this city commute by car. Despite what the 100 loudest members of the bike mafia say, that's not going to change anytime soon. Metro ridership is way down, and was dropping long before the pandemic. Build the city that people want, not the one you wish they wanted.

where do you live and where do you work? we can help you with a metro commute. otherwise, no, no sympathy for people who could easily get to metro but “just prefer to drive.”

No one want your help Karen. Metro all you want. You can pry my car keys from my cold dead hands. I will never step foot on metro. I would prefer to arrive alive and on time.

Then you can leave earlier if you insist on driving I guess? Not really sure what else you expect to happen. The days of decisions being made car first are over

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As the PP said, there are other options if you are concerned about traffic backups

This is an idiotic response. Many people in this city commute by car. Despite what the 100 loudest members of the bike mafia say, that's not going to change anytime soon. Metro ridership is way down, and was dropping long before the pandemic. Build the city that people want, not the one you wish they wanted.

where do you live and where do you work? we can help you with a metro commute. otherwise, no, no sympathy for people who could easily get to metro but “just prefer to drive.”

No one want your help Karen. Metro all you want. You can pry my car keys from my cold dead hands. I will never step foot on metro. I would prefer to arrive alive and on time.

Way more people die in car accidents then on the metro, even controlling for ridership. That's a dumb reason to avoid the metro.

Anonymous wrote:I think NPS is blaming covid for a lot of things that they wanted to do all along. Like tickets at the National Zoo. There were fights and gangs nonstop that they couldn't control. The tickets have stopped all that.

NPS has wanted to close Beach Drive for a while. Beach Drive really hurts the park. It’s just like the 4 wheel drive cars on the beach at Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It goes against the mission of the park. NPS has no mission or directive to easy commute times in DC. I can see all of Beach Drive in the park getting permanently closed and surprised did not happen during the pandemic. NPR service is doing this at other parks.

It’s not only bikers.
A lot of people use the road, other than the bikers you like to ridicule — for running, walking, taking young kids on strollers and scooters, or people with restricted mobility and need a smooth surface.
Access to Beach Drive made safe, relatively quieter pathways and fresh air accessible to many of us who couldn’t find that space in the city without driving to suburban parks.

The needs of Maryland commuters is not the only thing that matters.
Maybe, now, if there’s an agreement that DC tickets could be enforced on MD drivers, I could have more sympathy.

Anonymous wrote:I think NPS is blaming covid for a lot of things that they wanted to do all along. Like tickets at the National Zoo. There were fights and gangs nonstop that they couldn't control. The tickets have stopped all that.

Please don't fall for the "fights and gangs nonstop" nonsense. I am a longtime Zoo volunteer and it's just not true. Were there a few highly publicized instances over a period of years (and not all inside the Zoo), yes. But they were rare and there has never been constant, or even intermittent, mayhem. I'm not sure what the objective is for repeating this mischaracterization as truth, but we all need to cut it out. It's a shame that the Zoo is no longer as accessible as it once was to all who want to visit.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree OP. I live on a DC street that has experienced an exponential growth in cut through traffic due to the weekday closure of Beach Dr plus the reduction in drive lanes on Connecticut Ave. A lot of this is rideshare drovers and Amazon/fed ex drivers who will never be eligible to take metro

This is a narrow east-west residential street and it’s utter bullshit that we suffer arterial-road levels of new traffic, all because of 45 hardcore MAMILs who who want to get their miles in on Beach Drive on a Tuesday at 2:30 pm l

All closing streets to traffic does is force traffic onto other smaller streets that weren't designed for so many cars.

That's empirically false.

Ok, so first there are traffic jams when driving options reduced, and later, there aren't. That your point? In dream land the reason traffic jams created by lane removal eventually go away is because the car drivers start riding bikes, e scooters, metro, buses, ride sharing. But this isn't what happens. People adjust their lives to stop needing to make that commute and.... city centers die.

Actually, car commuting is what kills city centers.

I think NPS is blaming covid for a lot of things that they wanted to do all along. Like tickets at the National Zoo. There were fights and gangs nonstop that they couldn't control. The tickets have stopped all that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree OP. I live on a DC street that has experienced an exponential growth in cut through traffic due to the weekday closure of Beach Dr plus the reduction in drive lanes on Connecticut Ave. A lot of this is rideshare drovers and Amazon/fed ex drivers who will never be eligible to take metro

This is a narrow east-west residential street and it’s utter bullshit that we suffer arterial-road levels of new traffic, all because of 45 hardcore MAMILs who who want to get their miles in on Beach Drive on a Tuesday at 2:30 pm l

All closing streets to traffic does is force traffic onto other smaller streets that weren't designed for so many cars.

That's empirically false.

Ok, so first there are traffic jams when driving options reduced, and later, there aren't. That your point? In dream land the reason traffic jams created by lane removal eventually go away is because the car drivers start riding bikes, e scooters, metro, buses, ride sharing. But this isn't what happens. People adjust their lives to stop needing to make that commute and.... city centers die.

I do take public transit to the office. My bus ride is sketchy as hell. The other day, some dude on my bus route was brandishing a huge kitchen knife threatening to stab everyone. We’re a one car family, so I don’t have much of a choice. But let’s not pretend public transit is an amazing experience.

The closure of the upper segment of Beach Drive is a travesty. The only purpose it serves is to push traffic onto Oregon Ave and other residential streets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having it closed when the federal workers come back is going to only end up with a ridiculous amount of traffic being pent up on other streets with stop lights and massive traffic back ups.

That’s a good idea. I wonder if they will work together with a Park service to have this happen or was the Beach Drive closure permanent?

The Beach Drive opening is permanent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree OP. I live on a DC street that has experienced an exponential growth in cut through traffic due to the weekday closure of Beach Dr plus the reduction in drive lanes on Connecticut Ave. A lot of this is rideshare drovers and Amazon/fed ex drivers who will never be eligible to take metro

This is a narrow east-west residential street and it’s utter bullshit that we suffer arterial-road levels of new traffic, all because of 45 hardcore MAMILs who who want to get their miles in on Beach Drive on a Tuesday at 2:30 pm l

All closing streets to traffic does is force traffic onto other smaller streets that weren't designed for so many cars.

That's empirically false.

Anonymous wrote:Or you could take a bus or Metro.

But covid!