Road use! (Animated gif)

[Crissa]

We've talked in the past about road use, different lane striping, why cities aren't designed around trucks... Well, my local rail lobby just posted a cute graphic about road design being better for drivers and everyone else:




We just won a weird campaign against a group trying to sink our local rail line (they've been doing everything they can legally to delay it being implemented or maintained). But that's politics, because everything becomes political when you add money. The anti-rail people outspent everyone by 2:1 and lost the election by about 3:1.

-Crissa

 

[Cybr on]

A little late getting around to this. So, some good read while having my coffee. Thanks ?

 

[rr6013]

We've talked in the past about road use, different lane striping, why cities aren't designed around trucks... Well, my local rail lobby just posted a cute graphic about road design being better for drivers and everyone else:




We just won a weird campaign against a group trying to sink our local rail line (they've been doing everything they can legally to delay it being implemented or maintained). But that's politics, because everything becomes political when you add money. The anti-rail people outspent everyone by 2:1 and lost the election by about 3:1.

-Crissa

Anti-mass transit historically skews toward the people who have no use for mass transit. The great divide came back to bite them in the election!

Well played…

 

[Cybr on]

When i was a young man living in Aptos and Soquel, public trans was my everything to get around and to school, right next to my Vision Tom Gronkowski skate that got me the rest of the way? love the memories. Crissa, you Rock!

 

[Crissa]

When i was a young man living in Aptos and Soquel, public trans was my everything to get around and to school, right next to my Vision Tom Gronkowski skate that got me the rest of the way? love the memories. Crissa, you Rock!

69 all-night-long. Alas, no more, along with the highway being stop and go several times a day we need the old rails to be back in service like, a decade ago.

-Crissa

 

[Cybr on]

69 all-night-long. Alas, no more, along with the highway being stop and go several times a day we need the old rails to be back in service like, a decade ago.

-Crissa

71 as well ? thanks for the smile! and I agree with you!

John K? lol. No man! where is your mind? ?
That’s no what Crissa is meaning.

 

[Crissa]

The 69 and 71 are the main busses serving Soquel and Aptos, or were. They used to have all-night runs for the third shift of the factories on the West side to the housing on the East side and then down South in Watsonville. They used to say that on the bus title. It's before my time, but was still like that when my spouse moved here in the early 1990s.

-Crissa

 

[John K]

Tesla enthusiasts have obligated reactions to certain numbers.

 

[TheLastStarfighter]

Opposition to public transport is one of those weird opinions I just don't understand, no matter what part of the political spectrum you've been indoctrinated to. I just don't get what would motivate you to spend money and time fighting it.

Active transport - especially bike lane retrofits and similar situations - I have mixed feelings about. Particularly here in Canada, where it's cold and things are far apart. Having worked in local government for a decade, there was significant push for active transport and I was a fan. But having seen multiple, multi-million projects go forward, the result is often increased traffic congestion for cars when lanes are taken away for bikes that are seldom used - and never in a Canadian winter. I do see great value in new developments where true dedicated bike paths are created with proper planning separate from auto streets. They seem to get far more use.

 

[Quicksilver]

I rode the buses and trains when I was stationed in Germany back in the 70's.
Fast, on time and cheap. I rode the train more in Germany than I did in the US.
As soon as I got back to the US it was back to my 70 Torino Cobra and the freedom of the road.
I've always been a train guy and the 40's and 50's were the Golden Age of passenger rail service in the US.
Thousands of miles of railroad tracks have been pulled up over the years never to be replaced.
AMTRACK plays second fiddle to freight trains on main lines.
I see passenger rail service returning to several places in the US and I don't have a problem with tax dollars being used as long as the projects are not political boondoggles that are making some politician or company rich.
One of my bucket list items is to take a cross country AMTRACK trip.

 

[Crissa]

Bike lanes are often blamed for much that's not the lane's fault. They'll have tacked on repaving the entire road, redoing drainage, replacing crossings... stuff they should have done in the first place. Then it's built in random chunks that often don't go all the way to anything, because they do the easy bits instead of where people are actually traveling, and then there's no way to actually get to a grocery store or work via the paths. And bikes work great in the cold... provided you don't dump the snow in the bike lane. If you're moving, you're not cold.

And then traffic increases, as it always does, and additional lanes wouldn't solve it, but blame the money on the bike lane rather than the fact that they don't plan these things end-to-end. Or bother to maintain them.

-Crissa

 

[John K]

I am recently back from a visit to Manila. They made an established bicycle lane along the EDSA with illuminated reflectors. Trouble with the lane, the motorcycles swarm the lane and it’s purpose is lost.

Still an awesome bicycle lane. The illuminated section has been greatly expanded during my visit. Don’t let the ticketed portion fool you, the lane was filled with motorcycles during my visit.

 

[Crissa]

Rather share a lane with motorcycles than cars.

-Crissa

 

[John K]

Rather share a lane with motorcycles than cars.

-Crissa

The cars take the lane too. Hundreds of scooters to each bicycle. Their cars also split lanes turning a 4 lane road into 7 to 8 eight lanes.

 

[Dids]

I think my opposition to the special lanes for all the different types of vehicles is that...
1. Who pays for the bike lanes. Is it taxes on bike registrations?
2. Why does public transportation always need such high subsidization? If everyone loves it so much why are only poor people utilizing it? Why can't it pay for itself with fares?
3. Everyone wants to ride in a car by themselves. This is obvious since everyone is doing it. Attempting to change what people want by making it less attractive and making other things more attractive doesn't increase happiness.