Prospect Park West Bike Lane Supporters Outnumber Foes 4 to 1 on Facebook
It may not be totally representative since Facebook users tend to skew younger, but membership in the pro-bike lane group is dominating that in the anti-bike lane camp. More details on Streetsblog.
It may not be totally representative since Facebook users tend to skew younger, but membership in the pro-bike lane group is dominating that in the anti-bike lane camp. More details on Streetsblog.
The PPW bike lanes are aestheticly ugly and have taken the property value of PPW and surrounding homes down a notch! I have seen continuous infractions by bikers, who still ride bikes on the sidewalk, who do not abide by traffic rules, such as red lights, crossing at corners, etc., and there are traffic jams on 9th St. and PPW all the time! I have the pictures to prove it. The community board did not do a very good job on letting the neighborhood know about this topic and did not give all residence a chance to voice their opinions on the subject!!! We opposed the 9th Street bike lanes and were shot down. The bike lanes were installed. How about registering bikes, for a fee, just like the cars do that they share the road with, to keep up the roads they are riding. How about making bikers carry liability insurance for when the do damage to the cars that they share the road with or when they collide with humans. This city has a financial deficit but yet the city found the money to install the lanes, and the lights, signs and all other paraphernalia that go along with installing the lanes. We seem to have money for what the politicians want but not for the people of this city. How about raises for teachers instead of bike lanes. That seems like a novel idea!!!
And to go with the school analogy… No one is denied access to the schools, but they may choose not to take advantage of them (perhaps they have no children or choose to send their children to private school). And the access is EQUAL to all. In NYC that happen to be equal access to mediocrity… but it’s still equal access. There’s no financial threshold.
In your argument, only those that have enough wealth to own a car should be allowed on the street… or at least, the roads should be most suitable for cars. Bikes can use the streets, but no accommodations should be made.
Rich kids are what public education is for… poor kids can go to school too, but they have to sit in the back of the room or only go on Tuesdays.
and to be very explicit… Property Taxes, Sales Taxes, Income Taxes and Business Taxes are what pay for the roads in New York City. None of these taxes explicitly related to you driving your (or my) private car…..
fsrq — It was called sarcasm!
Now… remember, we’re talking about city streets, not state highways and the tunnels and bridges (all of these ban bicycles, pedestrians, horses and skateboards.) Of course what I’m about to say also applies, just slightly mitigated due to tolls on some roads.
The taxes on gas and registration fees pay for a *tiny* portion of the costs of maintaining and building roads!!!!! This is a socialized expense for (presumably) a socialized benefit. Personal vehicles (or any sort) are NOT the rationale for socializing the expense of roads… the social benefits are COMMERCE, HEALTH and SAFETY.
However, public use of these roads is also included in the mix. If you give certain vehicles (cars) priority over other vehicles (bicycles), then you are unfairly denying the socialized benefit to those who are paying a portion of the socialized costs. This would be like saying “Everyone must pay for schools and libraries, but only 30% of the population will be allowed to use them!”
The vehicle with the lowest financial barriers for ownership is a bicycle… i.e, available to most of the people *paying* for the roads — but only cars should be allowed to use the roads? Or priority given to cars? (i.e., the vehicles with the *highest* financial barriers)
Now — if you said, commercial, public/mass transportation, and health and safety vehicles should have priority… well, I agree with that. But I think you meant all cars including private vehicles. Well, that’s would be privatizing the benefits while socializing the costs. And I’m pretty sure that’s bad.
Wait, so only people who drive cars pay taxes to maintain the roads in NYC? I’m confused.
Gas tax, Registration fees, tolls, tickets, parkng taxes, sales tax….
Yeah I’d say that automobile drivers pay for the roads (they may not pay for the pollution and other detrimental effects of driving but yeah Auto and truck drivers PAY for the roads.
“DH — Didn’t you know, that $90 or so we pay the STATE every two years for our car registration pays for all of the roads in the city? I thought everyone knew that. Oh, and the MTA is operated by Metro Cards only….
It’s actually quite beautiful how the city has been able to avoid socializing any of the costs.”
NO! I didn’t know that. Perhaps FSRQ is right then. We need to pay our way if we want to use the streets like the awesome car drivers!! **makes jackoff hand motion**
DH — Didn’t you know, that $90 or so we pay the STATE every two years for our car registration pays for all of the roads in the city? I thought everyone knew that. Oh, and the MTA is operated by Metro Cards only….
It’s actually quite beautiful how the city has been able to avoid socializing any of the costs.
Oh, and fsrq — Your accusation of a lack of objectivity is amusing.
Wait, so only people who drive cars pay taxes to maintain the roads in NYC? I’m confused.