Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

cptjeff t1_ixb2d10 wrote

Reply to comment by turnageb1138 in Earlier this year a cyclist killed at this intersection by a speeding truck (a pedestrian killed too). Now their ghost bike has also been hit. by dhasselhof

> protect all road users and discourage car use throughout the system.

Quite frankly, discouraging car use will make the system less safe, because it encourages drivers to be more aggressive to simply keep their trip times the same. And to be very, very blunt, a system designed to protect the most people is one that bans bikes from roads entirely. Bikes make up a single digit percentage of total trips made in DC, and DC has extremely high bike use compared to the rest of the US. Bikes are not a practical transportation mode for the vast majority of trips people make, and many, many people cannot use them the way healthy twenty and thirty-somethings can. If there is a tradeoff to be made between bike and car prioritization on the roads, from a strictly utilitarian perspective bikes will lose that battle every single time.

To solve the problem, you need to make the system more streamlined and efficient for everybody. Car users included. I love biking for recreation, but when you're arguing to punish drivers in favor of your small group of mostly upper middle class white yuppies, you're fighting a major uphill battle.

Edit: No, seriously, bikes have a 2.5% mode share in the region. 7.8% in the core. Here's a GGW link, which you cannot accuse of being anti bike. Bikes are a niche mode of transportation. If you think otherwise, you are stupendously out of touch with reality.

−8

turnageb1138 t1_ixb4p2m wrote

Everything you just said is wrong.

6

cptjeff t1_ixb6jyn wrote

Everything you ever say or think is wrong.

Just as logical and persuasive an argument!

−6

turnageb1138 t1_ixb8av0 wrote

Get mad but you just threw out a bunch of assumptions, lies, and auto industry propaganda. I don't need a logical or persuasive argument when your hot air can simply be dismissed as irrelevant.

4

cptjeff t1_ixb92t9 wrote

I threw out facts that you are entirely unwilling to accept because of your ideological biases. Bike trips have only a 2.5% share of all trips made in the DC area. That is a researched fact from an authoritative source. In the core of the region, it rises to a whopping not quite 8%. And again, these are close to the highest numbers you'll find anywhere in the nation. And that counts the tourists on bikeshare hopping from museum to memorial.

You and your other yuppie friends in NoMA aside, biking is extremely niche as a practical mode of transportation. Because for the vast, vast majority of people and trips, it is not remotely practical and never can be.

If you want to reduce car dependence, bikes are not the answer, nor is punishing drivers. More and better transit is.

−4

turnageb1138 t1_ixbc05t wrote

I'm not a yuppie and I don't live in NoMA. Cycling is not a niche or impractical mode of transportation. More and better transit IS a great part of the solution, you finally told something truthful, good job! The rest of your "facts" are simply unsupported assertions with nothing to back them up.

I'm not interested in administering medicine to the dead, though, so include me out of your little diatribes from here on.

5

lmurp t1_ixehsek wrote

Go on ahead and tell that to my messenger friends. I'm sure they'll have a nice response for you.

0