You own two cars?
Why? How?

Lol, sure, I'll send them money, as soon as they stop printing idiotic biased tripe like this. So, never.

I mean YOU, Ansel?
You own TWO cars?
Do they run?
What's the story?

@1 he has a job, you should try it.

The two cars thing is a red herring that distracts the weak of mind.

I have a degree in Civil Engineering, which includes several courses on water (hydraulics, flow dynamics, etc.), and several courses on traffic/transportation. I also worked as a traffic analyst for a while. The very first property of water that you learn, that's the basis of all calculations, is that it is non-compressible. Which is why, "You can cut it off or divert it, but it will go somewhere". Traffic, however, is wonderfully compressible! All those stupid buses, light rail, even bike lanes this guy thinks are in his way, do exactly this. Unless he wants to start tearing down buildings and paving giant swaths of land for more lanes, "compressing" traffic is literally the only way. In fact, it would be in his best interest as a driver, to encourage everyone he knows to switch to transit, and vote for every transit measure, so more of the road is left for him and those that do need to drive.

@3

But of course he does. It's the Ansel Herziest thing I've heard yet.

@5

If you relaxed that big strong tightly clenched mind of yours for a moment, though, you might get a good laugh out of it. Or is laughing for the weak of mind, too?

@2 you realize this is a guest op-ed, yes?

Not everyone can afford to live close enough to their office to ride a bike to work like the handful of elitist white guys who bike to work downtown. Buses are great for some situations but for others, cars are necessary unless you have 2 hours to spend doing transfers, etc. What percentage of the city actually rides a bike to work and is that in proportion to the amount of money being spent on all things bike? Seattle seems to be infatuated with the idea of being a bike mecca more so than the reality of how practical bikes are on a utilitarian level. "But Portland has bike stuff so we need bike stuff!"

@2 you do realize this is a guest op-ed, yes?

@8 - They are under no obligation to publish every op-ed someone brings to them. This was still an editorial decision by the Times.

@9 - Show me where anybody has seriously advocated for getting rid of all cars everywhere. Cars are needed, but not all of them are. By having transit and increased bike options, we can reduce the number of cars on the road, making things easier on everyone, including (especially, even) the people for whom transit or bikes are not an option for whatever reason.

Or was this just an excuse to take an easy swing at Portland? If so, you forgot to call us all "libtards".

I see Trump getting a vote from this fucktard.

I feel like the Stranger lost the right to criticize other publications over their choice of traffic-related articles when they embedded a tweet from @BicycleLobby in the Morning News, that said, in its entirety:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Cars are murder machines.

Ansel's propensity to get absolutely apoplectic when a delivery vehicle has the temerity to block a bike lane for ten minutes while they make a delivery (even when there's literally no other option), means he's also not the most reasonable person to be reporting on it, either.

@10, they made the decision to print it. They don't HAVE to give ridiculous ideas a massive bullhorn, but that's exactly what they did.

@13, *literally* no other option? So it's absolutely impossible for them to use a different (smaller) vehicle, or park on a side street and do the last hundred feet delivery using something else?

I don't buy it. There's a ton of other options to make deliveries without blocking bike lanes, and companies in other places do it all the time. You didn't actually mean "literally no other option." What you meant was, "it's cheaper/more convenient to risk the lives of people on bikes than have to change the way we do deliveries." Which is utter bullshit.

@15: I meant that if a UPS driver wants to keep their job, there are sometimes not any other viable options.

Have you ever been to Capitol Hill? There's never any open parking, and some of the alleys behind shops are far too narrow to get a UPS truck in there (assuming they can even receive deliveries through anything but the front door).

Only completing half your deliveries for the day, and providing the excuse of " some bicyclists might be upset if I blocked the bike lane, so I had to park six blocks away on a residential street and walk them over" ends in a pink slip, and rightly so. To say "they should just use smaller vehicles" is naive.

@16, Note that in the case of the UPS driver, the company was emailed to ask drivers not to block bike lanes. In other words, this isn't about the drivers. Many drivers are trying to make the best of a bad situation (although certainly some are just jerks). However, company management should recognize that this is a problem and figure something out. Either different delivery vehicles for areas like Capitol Hill, or giving drivers more time/leeway when they are doing deliveries there and are forced to park a few blocks away, or.. any number of other options. But right now, company management doesn't give a fuck, and that's not okay (or even legal). Ansel, Doug, and others are right to be outraged by this.

@2, You said you were done with SLOG too.

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/20…\

I rode a bike around this city for years and never needed a bike line the side streets were great. Every once in awhile I needed to on the arterial to cross a bridge ect. and I never had a problem. But trying to integrate cars and bike together has and always will be a bad idea. It just takes a little commen since to navigate this fairly simple town, and that's the problem everyone feels they have an entitlement to the roads. It worked a lot better the way it was for years, and like the times piece said " all the fixes have made it worse for everyone" and the DOT need to think overhaul and look at what is best for everyone and not just the special interest groups.

Mass transit is social engineering run amok. I remember when the great Washington State patriot Tim Eyman ran an initiative that would have gutted mass transit and earmarked its funding for road building.

There is nothing more American than the freedom to get in your car and go wherever you. The fact that mass transit advocates want you out of your car tells you all you need to know about them - that they are fascist liberals who want to control your every move.

This is why the framers included the 2nd Amendment into the constitution. They foresaw the fascism inherent in liberal Marxist thinking.

I bet you wouldn't be saying this, if they were sleeping on your doorstep. If they decided to sleep on your doorstep. Or, in front of your apartment door. You'd call 911 real quick.

" Now, go read the Times' wrenching look at how the city evicts homeless people from where they've decided to sleep."

Breathe people! The traffic is horrid. And not everyone who works in the city can afford to live in the city. If I took public transportation to work it would take three buses and a 3/4 mile walk. You first.

Old white men shouldn't be allowed to voice their opinions unless they have been vetted by a younger relative first.

people are being forced out of the city due to the fucked up rental situation, including me and my partner. but even before we moved to Lynnwood the bus system was best used if you were a nine to fiver, Monday through Friday. you work at a bar, or any other job where you're not finished until the wee hours? you're going to be spending a lot of time waiting for the sparse and limited "night owl" runs. and fuck you if you don't live close to a route that goes directly downtown because connections are iffy at best. same for any trip that takes more than one transfer.

when still in Ballard we put up with months of construction mess on the main arterial to our home while the bike path was put in. and then the rest of the time until we moved following bicycles who were poking along in the middle of the car lane while the bike path remained empty. meantime Metro removed half the bus stops along the road.

you want to increase ridership? make the transit match up with real life.