DOUG. writes:
This was painted on my street in Wallingford yesterday. I now live on a giant bike path. We are winning the War on Cars.
Related: I ran into an old friend who lives on the East Coast now, and he started shit-talking “all the bike lanes” in Seattle. I felt inordinately distressed and didn’t know what to say. Or maybe ordinately distressed—this seems like a deep ideological divide.
It’s not a bike lane, it’s a reminder to store your bicycle under cover when not in use. Rain = rust, you know.
Seriously, if I had a nickel for every old friend who turned into a dick, I’d have a whole bunch of nickels. Sharrows, as with many of life’s subtleties, anger the simple-minded, and always will. Don’t worry about it.
You know a great way to gain enemies? Delineate a group of people and “declare war” on them. Works like a charm.
I hope your friend doesn’t hit hard times that force him to sell his car and rely on getting around by bicycle. It would truly be a tragedy.
What 2 said. Being a smug fuck helps too.
Perhaps it would be less of an ideological divide if there wasn’t an insistence on terms like “War on Cars”.
As a pedestrian and occasional reluctant driver, I’d like to see a city that’s more accommodating of bikes. Ideally, I’d also like to see bicyclists admit that their lifestyle isn’t still dependent on motor vehicle usage in so many indirect ways, and that they therefore don’t get license to become elitist dicks about their vehicle choice.
“isn’t still dependent” -> “is still dependent”
@2: I agree. And keep in mind that the “war on cars” meme was started by the anti-cyclist crowd.
For almost 100 years we have been heavily marketed to by the auto industry, and a large amount of dim-witted people bought into it. They buy cars that tell other dim-witted people how smart, or successful, or sexy they think they are. Trillions of dollars have been spent over the years on this effort. No wonder those people get threatened when they believe the main indicator of their self-worth might be slipping away.
@7 Even if you accept that as fact (which I don’t), it still doesn’t explain why so many cyclists have embraced it so wholeheartedly. Or forgive it, ftm.
I was talking to a few tourists today, and they were saying they wished there were more bike paths here.
why doesn’t anyone actually ask, “why are auto drivers so angry at cyclists?”
@9: Here’s the local genesis of the phrase “war on cars”. I’ve seized it out of irony, because with the deep-bore tunnel, 520 widening and other auto-centric local mega-projects the phrase is ridiculous on its face.
Ride in the sharrows
Ride in the sharrows
In your golden years . . .
I still find it hard to believe how douchy so many lardass drivers are. Each biker is one fewer car that they have to compete with while they drive 1/2 mile to the store to get their cancer sticks, or whatever. Fucking fed up with this bike-hating meme.
So, @15, A) Drivers are fat, B) Drivers are douchy, C) Fat people suck, D) Drivers and not bicyclists smoke. And, of course, drivers and bicyclists never overlap – two different species, like dogs and cats. Got it
@12, thanks for the reminder. Isn’t it odd that the phrase originated with tunnel foe Elizabeth Campbell, who hates the tunnel because it will reduce vehicle capacity on that highway. Everyone likes to suppose it was probably some nemesis of McGinn who started it, rather than a woman who urged the mayor on while part of his anti-tunnel coalition. We’ll do anything to make our stories simple, don’t we?
What I don’t understand is:
If a bike rider is unsafe as a bike rider, why would anyone encourage them to drive instead? This is a good thought when a biker runs a light.
That also applies to a minority of bus riders. There is a group there I am VERY glad don’t drive. It helps to reflect on that when they sit next to you.
@ 14, after your horrible loss of face yesterday, I’m surprised to see you still here. At least, without registering a new account anyway…
@19: Ha! That made for some delicious reading. So glad you pointed it out to those of us who left the thread prematurely.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but that is _not_ a bike path. All it is is a big-ass bike stenciled on a street in back of useless “sharrows.” Sharrows are a big helping of fail. All they do is provide “make” work for the DOT. They sure don’t make it any safer for anyone riding a bicycle.
Raindrop has no shame; lIke many (most?) conservatives it revels in it’s ignorance.
Sharrows are a fucking joke. Nobody knows or cares what they mean — and really, they don’t mean shit.
If meaningless symbols painted on the road makes you feel like you’re “winning” whatever war you’re fighting, good luck to you.
Yeah but 10x sharrows are kind of tight
@19 – I quite literally LOL’ed.
Good form, sir.
“Trillions of dollars have been spent over the years on this effort.”
And to think, we could be living in mud huts, living in a “cycling economy” that never got cars instead.
Apparently the role of productivity in making America so wealthy has escaped the resident drag queen.
Well, enjoy ’em while you can. McGinn’s successor will not be so bike friendly.
Who paid for those bike lanes to be painted? They must have been paid for by those bicycle tab fees, right?
I would gladly ride a bike if it meant I didn’t look like a wet harried mess everywhere I went. How exactly do you carry groceries, work projects etc. on a bike? How do you not look like a lame hipster loser riding one? How do you avoid helmet head and not have a giant dirty wet stain on your ass when it is raining? Bikes are not a real solution to our transportation crisis.
Instead of wasting all this money painting bike lanes that no one (including cyclists) are going to pay attention to, why don’t we invest in some real public transportation like a real city does.
Oh, and cyclists, when you start paying for the privilege of using the roads, you can get all uppity about cars.
@2 Ahhhhhh, cars are not people. Should be obvious.
Raibdrop dear, Mr. Vel-DuRay drives a 2007 Prius, and I hae a 1989 Volvo wagon. I am fully aware that makes us a stereotype.
@19 hee hee – ah raindrop – I almost think he’s a democrat working behind the scenes to discredit the conservatives.
Troll, I know critical thinking is not your forte, but you should really strive to not be so analog in your mental proccesses. If we didn’t have the 20th century car culture exactly as it happened, we wouldn’t be productive or wealthy? Really?
And I’m a mannequin dear, not a drag queen. You’ve been told that repeatedly. Are you on drugs?
@ 28, cyclists don’t pay for the roads? How do you figure that? They almost all own cars and pay taxes.
@15
Most cyclists, even those well mannered, are a much larger obstruction to normal traffic than other vehicles. In most roads, neither can they maintain the speed necessary for normal traffic, but they are utterly prey to whims of other drivers, and a careful driver must take extra consideration and caution whenever spotting a cyclist.
As regards such terms as “lardass,” go fuck yourself, asshole. But, nevertheless, I won’t label every cyclist a vegan-hippy-douchebag merely because of the presence of such pointed outliers such as yourself.
I just spent the week in Fort Collins, CO…noted as one of the nation’s leading cities for bicyclists.
Bike paths are everywhere…even on side streets in “the suburbs”.
And people actually use their bikes! Fort Collins is home to CSU (Colorado State University) and of course around the campus streets there are lots of cyclists…but it doesn’t stop there…there were scores of cyclists even miles out of town into the outer areas that gave way to the rural towns. (Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the landscape is nearly flat, and extends in all four directions for miles).
I did a hike along a natural formation called the Devil’s Backbone because of a ridge of red rocks that resemble vertebrae. Even there, I had to move off the trail to let no fewer than 10 mountain bikers go by!!
No bicycles don’t pay for shit, even incidentally (my car tabs don’t pay for my scooter, I have to pay for both). If you all would pony up money for the luxury of having a ridiculous lane (that no one pays attention to) maybe the money used for that could have gone to save bus service (instead of yet another car tab fee).
Pay up or shut up!
You know what? A bike path is a slab of asphalt on a few inches of gravel. A road made to accommodate thousands of two- to ten-ton vehicles is a whole hell of a lot more. And that doesn’t even get into the maintenance question. Here in Spokane the Centennial Trail, which was created to celebrate our state’s centennial in 1989, hasn’t even been sealed. But you’d hardly know it, even after 22 years of hard use by that terrible scourge of the earth: bicyclists.
Furthermore it makes obvious economic sense to transition to a less petroleum-dependent society. The savings to everyone is clear to all semi-reasonable people. If we’re going to make that transition we absolutely have to invest in the infrastructure. Currently it is only the most determined people who ride bikes because our infrastructure is so shitty. Anyone who objects to investing in better infrastructure for cyclists on economic grounds, especially the utterly specious “they’re not paying for it” argument, is a fool who clearly understands not even basic economics.
Finally, why aren’t people griping about the ghastly amount of money we pay for sidewalks? At $18 a foot (at least in Spokane) it’s a terrible expense to install them on both sides of every street! And all to accommodate a group of people who don’t pay gas taxes, those awful, awful pedestrians! They should walk in the street where they’ll be easier to run over.
Oh yeah, I think the most recent National Household Transportation Survey showed that 46% of all trips people make are three miles or less. Three miles. Imagine the difference in our carbon footprint, our foreign policy, our obesity epidemic and even our collective mental health (exercise has been proven to treat depression in a high percentage of cases) if we rode our bikes on those trips. But few of us will so long as the infrastructure makes it deadly to do so.
#36- Today your car tabs pay for state roads and freeways, property taxes (that bicyclists also pay) fund most of local roads including bike lanes. Even if the $60 city car tab passes, a disproportionate amount of city transportation funds will be going to car infrastructure, not bikes or pedestrians.
If you want to make taxes “fair”, bicyclists should get a property tax rebate check.
Seattle’s roads are paid for primarily via sales and property taxes, which every resident pays. And since bikes do nearly no damage to roadways, it is cyclists who subsidize automobile drivers in Seattle. You’re welcome.
“If we didn’t have the 20th century car culture exactly as it happened, we wouldn’t be productive or wealthy? “
Can you name another American industry that created so much wealth and so many jobs from 1900-2000? That allowed so many Americans the freedom to travel, work and be so productive?
Our elevators broke at work and so I used the stairwell. Blocked by some bike douche! It’s like a $2,000 fine to park bicycles in a fire exit. Not to mention what happens if there is like an actual, I don’t know… fire?
Bicyclists don’t give a shit about anybody else. Look in your stairwell if you don’t believe me.
@28: You get a bike with wide tires so it won’t slip easily (“road bikes” are for racing, not actual daily use in real weather over streets with potholes), and has a rear rack and 2 saddle bags (Each one can carry a full bag of groceries easily). You also want a bike with good brakes and actual gears to use on hills, not a hipster “fixie.” Get a good headlight with a rechargeable battery. Bike fenders prevent that “racing stripe” on your ass when it rains. Make sure your hair is dry before you put the helmet on.
Really, big chunks of Europe manage to use bikes to get to work every day. No, biking is not quite as fast as a car, but you’ll save a heap of money on gas and parking to go to work, you won’t have to buy a new car as often, and it’s often faster than a bus. You will also lose a few pounds over the course of a year in comparison to driving, and maybe save money and time of a gym membership, too. As a plus, you may actually find that you enjoy driving a car more when you do it for the freedom to travel rather than having to do it every day to get to work.
-stuff learned long ago in Madison, WI, with real winter and no student parking allowed on campus.
28, you took the words right out of my mouth.
I drive. I have to. No choice.
I really wish Seattle bicyclists had more of a clue, because frankly 50% of them are all over the map — on the sidewalk, on the road, oncoming lane , all of the above within a single block, , you name it.
I learned to ride a bike in the 60’s and for chrissakes, at least we used hand signals! Come on, Seattle bicyclists! Help us out and puhleeze drop the arrogance.
Oh troll, poor troll, such a bitter thing……When was the last time you had an orgasm?
You know, you are right on one thing. The heavy marketing of automobiles, along with government social engineering (suburbs, interstate highways, etc) gave a lot of work to people who lack the skills to do other things (and I’m not talking about machinists or manufacturing employees. I’m talking about your gene pool, which no doubt consisted of clerks, salespeople and marketing types).
But onto your bigger issue: Yes, cars are important. The development of mechanized personal transportation really did open up a lot of economic opportunity. But those same dim-witted people who believed the hype about how the Malibu makes you look sexy, or how the Oldsmobile was the correct choice for an upcoming professional, are the same ones who are now threatened by the idea that they might have to find another object to identify them.
So you’re too fat to ride a bike. So am I. That doesn’t mean we can’t all share the road. Don’t worry. No ones going to take your T-Bird away. Enjoy your car payments and insurance. You wouldn’t know what to do with that extra money anyway.
people say sharrows are useles. i dunno, when i’m driving and i see that big bike painted in the road i kinda start paying more attention. i look around for bikes. and if they get in front of me, i don’t get quite as annoyed as i would have without the reminder. the big painted bike reminds me that they belong there too and that i must SHARE.
but that’s just me.
and when i’m on a bike (thinking about the sharrow on the Ave in the Udist, for one) i swear i notice that the cars are more likely to slow down and let me use the road. and that they are more likely to give me space when they go around me.
man, i wish i could ride a bike to work but my commute is too long. it looks like so much fun! red light? not for me! pedestrian crossing? fuck ’em, they can wait for me! long line at the stop sign (that i’ll blow through without stopping anyway)? i’ll just weave my way up to the front. no waiting for me! but hey, wait a minute. that car there just broke a rule. well, i’m gonna yell at them very loudly and let them know. yes i am!
why doesn’t anyone actually ask, “why are auto drivers so angry at cyclists?”
Auto drivers are just…angry. Driving a car is frequently a pain in the ass, full of frustrations as every red light, pedestrian, cyclist, other car, no-left-turn-lane and speed limit sign denies the marketing message that cars=freedom and convenience. Plus, in the back of their mind, every driver knows that every second they sit in the car, their wallet empties at an ever increasing rate as the price of gasoline goes up, up, up.
I’d be more impressed if SDOT only painted bike lanes & sharrows on streets with adequately smooth pavement, streets that are actually bikeable.
And in the meantime, divert all available transportation resources into resurfacing all the streets that need it — you know, what we thought we were getting with Bridging The Gap.
Too many pols, and SDOT, don’t realize that bikes and buses operate on street pavement, and resurfacing that pavement is not just a Pro-Cars move.
Ugh. Truth is, most bicyclists are upper-middle class white males. How many poor single parents do you see on a bike? You want a tax rebate? How about a tax on your stupid bike shorts? You think you are saving the world? Truth is, where do you think the fancy free-range meal you get from Whole Foods comes from? It isn’t beamed in. It comes by way of large diesel trucks. You are all a bunch of self-absorbed fucktards who expect everyone to marvel at your junk through unwashed spandex while you save the world. You are the reason I am proud to be a woman, a mother and not a fucktard like you.
Good day sir.
i just ate an entire salmon