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movdqa t1_iuyij9c wrote

I was at a town Planning Board meeting a few years ago and a state planning guy did a presentation on making our region friendlier to pedestrians and bicyclists. I pulled him aside after his presentation and told him that Southern NH is just designed really poorly for pedestrians and cyclists. He acknowledged this but he was a planner so this could be something 5, 10, 15, 20 years out. Our roads, bridges, intersections are designed for cars and that's always going to make being a cyclist or pedestrian dangerous. I'm a runner and always looking out for cars; especially those not paying attention.

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Azr431 t1_iuyq80k wrote

America wasn’t designed exclusively for cars until the 50’s. It happened because of car manufacturer/political corruption, suburban white flight, racism, the FHA of ‘56 and carbrains like Robert Moses. Some states and cities have realized what a colossal fuckup that was and began investing in pedestrian and cycling infrastructure and reducing car dominance decades ago. Some have begun more recently. New Hampshire hasn’t gotten the memo at all.

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movdqa t1_iuzz3zw wrote

I grew up in Newton, MA and you can live there without owning a car or knowing how to drive. The city is broken down into about a dozen villages and there is a shopping center area for each village so you're never more than a mile away from shopping. They have five rail stops and several bus lines. There are some main roads that are very busy and not great for cyclists but they have sidewalks on both sides of the road so good for pedestrians. So you can design cities to be walkable but it seems to be very hard to retrofit.

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Azr431 t1_iv0n2ym wrote

Yeah always harder to remediate, but it’s where the whole country is. Honestly, the most difficult thing isn’t the ground work. It’s the initiative and vision, political will, and willingness to push back against car-centric design so many people are just accustomed to.

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Whatwarts t1_iuykpja wrote

I don't think there was a planned design, it just morphed. When they redid exit 3, there was no pedestrian or cycling infrastructure included for the underpass.

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movdqa t1_iuym6xs wrote

I used to ride with the Charles River Wheelmen when I lived in Boston. I tried to bicycle to work when I moved to Southern NH and just found it too dangerous for my comfort level. The bridges were a big problem as crossing them meant that a driver had to stop for you and drivers are in too much of a hurry to stop for you - and, even if they did, they'd annoy the driver behind them.

Our former fitness center manager, a former national class cyclist, told me that the area where I live is not a great area for cycling - she cycles all over the place and knows the main roads well.

I prefer to run in housing developments or around shopping malls or strip malls just because people have to drive at lower speeds.

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Whatwarts t1_iuypb53 wrote

Cycling around here has become a next level of suck, that's how I can describe it best. The last few years have become a very unpleasant cycling experience. Close passes and agro drivers are the norm every ride, laws be damned.

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