Comments

1
This reads like an op-ed from a high school newspaper.

People with any empathy at all wonder how disabled/blind/wheelchair-bound people are doing with navigating this bike share shitshow. I notice you don't mention them at all.
2
I like the bike share concept and have used them myself (although I mainly use my own bike). But when I see three or so bikes bunched together at a corner and have to squeeze by, I get annoyed. At least I'm lucky to not be in a wheelchair. Also, I'm still mostly negative on having tons of them parked inside of parks. During one loop of Green Lake there were 60 parked ofo bikes.
5
No, this is not like an op-ed from a high school newspaper. It is like a Sarah Huckabee Sander press conference!
6
I don't think "meritless" means what you think it means.
7
P.S., MOFO.
8
Maybe they should rename it semiautomatic gun share... Then all the russian Trump bots will love it.
9
Haters gonna hate. Bike share is incredibly useful to more and more people. And the relatively few bikes that block a sidewalk pale in comparison to block-long construction projects, or those 400,000 cars.

And if you see a bike blocking g a sidewalk, here's an idea: move it out of the way. Make your city better, instead of whining.
10
Externalities have reached new levels when private companies are using public space for storage of revenue-generating equipment--and cluttering the side-walks that need to be clutter-free.
11
@1: Any adult who thinks "high-school-quality" is a worthwhile or substantive critique may want to consider keeping their mouth shut / fingers away from the keyboard.
12
They are bicycles, not cockroaches. I love seeing share bikes all around the city! In trees, on stop signs, hanging out of a NIMBY's ass or otherwise!
13
Will they be here in 2019? NO!
14
@12: Yes, people who don't exercise their personal responsibility are the cockroaches, not the bicycles.
15
wow. by the sounds of the comments, a lack of humor and intolerance rule the day. As I read through the majority of them "Ordnung muss seien!" echoed through my head as the predominate sentiment, a phrase straight out of my equally humorless and intolerant and ancestral history...
Seems this narrow minded fascism is well entrenched in our current Zeitgeist... here's hoping we can all lighten up and smile at each others foibles with a quip and a joke again soon. Are your lives really so small that you can't tolerate the occasional misplaced bike?
16
A pedestrian steps off the curb and into the road without looking and promptly gets knocked flat by a passing cyclist.
β€œYou were really lucky there,” says the cyclist.
β€œWhat on earth are you talking about! That really hurt!” says the pedestrian, still on the pavement, rubbing his head.
The cyclist replies, β€œWell, usually I drive a bus!”
19
"Just like the bikes, cars are left everywhere around the city, cluttering up spaces that could be used for lots of other things. You can't look in any direction in Seattle without resting your eyes on a row of cars. I know, they've become totally normalized, but that doesn't make it right or healthy."

Welcome to Social Engineering, via Big Oil and Big Auto.

Can you still breathe?
20
"People with any empathy at all wonder how disabled/blind/wheelchair-bound people are doing with navigating this bike share shitshow. I notice you don't mention them at all."

Oh my. I hope you did some warmups before attempting that stretch.
23
#15/16 save the word soup for your into to philosophy class.
24
"...cars are left everywhere around the city."
I wonder how many other "useful" things we can leave scattered around. I mean, who cares? There are already ugly cars everywhere, gosh.
25
Geez, when I see a poorly parked bike from one of these companies, I move it out of the way. It doesn't take much time and helps everyone. I had no idea there was so much vitriol about these. What I still don't understand is why we had to spend a ton of taxpayer dollars on the failed Pronto experiment when there were all these vendors willing to do this thing at no cost to us...
27
@22
Except they do have headlights...
28
Unlike a car parked in a driveway or on a corner blocking a sidewalk, a bicycle can be moved. To everyone above complaining about the bike they saw blocking a sidewalk, did you move it? It's not your job, but it takes only a second and does a lot more to help that person in a wheelchair than complaining on a blog comment section.

Speaking of which, where it the outrage over the damn sandwich boards all over our sidewalks? I move those as well.
29
Private companies benefitting from free commercial use of public space is my primary objection. What if Coca-Cola machines started popping up on public sidewalks?
30
Or privately manufactured cars started using our roads?
31
You know, the bright colors of the bike share bikes --as well as the automatic front & rear lights-- goes a long way to preventing cars from crashing into them. As a lifelong, lifestyle bicyclist I see so many bicyclists wearing dark colors, and with no lights or even reflectors. While car drivers definitely need to be careful and give the right-of-way to bicycles, being basically invisible at twilight and in the dark doesn't really help one's own safety.

32
@29 - Or all those fucking billboards invading my vision and attention while I'm driving. Who complains about those, although they are a significant factor in car accidents. Fucking commercial use of our public space...

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.