public works projects are interesting. while the citizens of a municipality should have a say, in this situation business owners perceive an advantage to this change and are willing to more aggressively lobby for it than those citizens. this does not exactly even mean it will truly advantage them, perhaps the bike traffic does help their business more than the parking (this is the case where we live). or perhaps they are right. regardless, the typical bicyclist will have much less motivation to voice their opinion(s), as they can be encouraged to just take another route or contend with the traffic, as annoying and dangerous as it is. advocating for this stuff often requires going to meeting halls and so forth, which takes time, social effort, and the courage to disagree with very motivated business people!
still, if you want stuff to change where you live, do go to your city/county/other local meetings relating to the problems you want to provide your perspective on. it’s definitely some effort, frequently a lot of it! but its often not a case of “someone will voice this opinion in the meeting, so i don’t gotta go”, and you attending really can make a difference. different municipalities of course have their own attitudes. maybe they won’t listen to you at all, or maybe the meeting has been widely advertised and many are attending it!
regarding this proposition in particular, what we will say is that where we live, the expenses this project would result in could equate in value to the funds that our city’s fareless and very awesome bus transit system uses to maintain their fleet over the course of years! of course it’s not as simple as that, but 1.2 million dollars is still a lot of dollars.
p.s.: we bicycle everywhere if we aren’t walking or taking the bus. where we live there is one of these three lane downtown roads. it sucks. the other downtown areas are a lot better but three lanes is very uncomfortable to bike through. please support your local bicycle infrastructure!
Who cares about whether it’ll benefit the business, the business owners want a place to park their car out front of their workplace, and it doesn’t matter who pays, how much, or if it’s in blood.
Obviously it’s NOT a protected bike lane.
Can’t have a free bike lane when the city can charge 5.00 per hour for 40 spaces.
Three lanes of traffic thundering by is something I really enjoy experiencing when I’m visiting shops in the downtown area. The experience of reversing out of angled parking back into traffic is essential for me to consider shopping there!
It’s unfortunate.
Even Portland just put in a bunch of angled parking on Broadway on the east side. Granted it was a consolation in order to put in a semi-protected bike lane across the street and lower the road’s speed limit, but good god is backing out blind into multiple lanes of through traffic an atrocious idea. There’s no rationalizing it IMO.
Good old methford.
So what I’m hearing is someone needs to start painting a bike lane across the lanes, placing large bike lane stickers on every car, and the start smashing headlights and windows.
It’s fair, they destroyed something someone else relies on. Any destruction of mobility for disabled or less motive people is a personal attack on them, and deserving of defense.
Fun anecdote: my ow. City removed a bike lane only to add it back two years later. Cars that parked along the road where the lane was would often be vandalized, sometimes with a bike lane indicator drawnon the car. I don’t think anyone ever caught the people doing it, but enough people were pushing for returning the lane (and someone on city council wanting more bike lanes) but it finally came back, unprotected and needing to “share the road” for anyone who just feels like driving in the lane meant for busses to pick people up.
Many people only learn when something bad happens to them. Poor empathy and primitive moral reasoning.
Removed by mod
Apparently the mods feel that you’re allowed to advocate for violence, but I’m not allowed to point out that advocating for violence is wrong.
Driving a car is violent.
“apparently I’m not allowed to make massive assumptions and literally compare you not liking cars using space meant for people with limited mobility to genocide”
Fixed that for you.
Courtney, genocide? Really? You are comparing the loss of a bike lane, which since this is Oregon will be back after the next local elections(1$ bet) to the persecution and extermination of an entire group of people, such as what’s happening to the people in Palestine, Lebanon. Etc.
How do you expect anyone to take you seriously when you abuse and minimize the loss of life of whole entire communities by comparing it to the mere inconvenience of having to use the sidewalk, or just using the lane as a cyclist.
If you think you are helping or assisting the goal of increasing safe spaces and healthier commuting, you aren’t.
You are giving those same people who took away that bike lane a reason to ignore your position.
Stop making bad arguments for good causes or you only help those you are fighting against, sabotaging all the good work pro bike lane groups have accomplished
I think you need to read prior comment thread a little more carefully…
I am absolutely not comparing the loss of a bike lane with genocide, I suggest you go back and read things again.
Byeeee :>
Then why did call it genocide in your reply?
“apparently I’m not allowed to make massive assumptions and literally compare you not liking cars using space meant for people with limited mobility to genocide”
Fixed that for you.
They are pantomiming the other user’s comment which got deleted for doing so. Gotta read carefully.
It’s. Not deleted, the first comment to use the word genocide was the Courtney person that I accused. They are the one that initially used the term genocide. Here the text of the comment before the word genocide showed up.
Apparently the mods feel that you’re allowed to advocate for violence, but I’m not allowed to point out that advocating for violence is wrong.
I didn’t compare anything to genocide. The other user is the only person who has used that word. They are also the only person between the two of us who has advocated for violence. All I did was point out that destruction of innocent people‘s property is wrong no matter who the perpetrator is.
That’s not what I did. You can’t fix what isn’t broken.
You didn’t even “not like cars”. You are advocating for the destruction of innocent people’s property.
Where the hell do you think you are? Some reasonable place that doesn’t downvote and get angry at anything that doesn’t resemble “Cars. Bad. No matter what”
I did actually, I won’t make that mistake again…
🖖 easy mistake to make. Hugs mate, it’s wild out there
Good to finally find a space on the internet I feel at home 🥰
yes… let’s attack people’s property because the government decided to be assholes, again…
Lives > property.
cool… you’re still living without that bike lane and totally disregarding the point of destroying someone’s property because the government made a dumb decision.
when the bike lanes got installed… you think anyone went around and started smashing your bikes? lol no… I’m all for the bike lane, and bike infrastructure but destroying your follow citizens property because of the government is wrong… you’re fighting the wrong enemy.
No matter how much you shame individuals for property damage as retribution for institutional violence, there will always be people out there who you don’t reach or simply disagree with you who will continue reacting to that institutional violence with more property damage. A much better use of our pearl clutching fists and scolding voices would be to direct them toward the institution that decided to revoke those important services in the first place and demand they be reinstated. No bike lane and more deaths and scolding the politically frustrated to no end vs having a bike lane and less deaths and bending the institution back toward public good…
If you actually do care about property damage, that seems to me the more rational and rewarding effort to make.
Adding the bike lane took nothing from anyone. Removing the bike lane is theft of public property. Parking in the removed bike lane is an act of violence against the proletariat that has to pay to subsidize your car.
Cars specifically are violence applied against the environment. Bicycles aren’t. If you don’t want your car vandalized, don’t support ecoterrorism perpetrated by the government.
adding the bike lane took nothing from anyone
These types of statements are why normal people have a hard time engaging with these types of communities.
“normal people” voted for fascism and think brown people are objectively less in tune with God than white people.
You don’t want to ever be in the same category as ‘normal people.’
define normal…
also cite your sources else I’ll just assume you’re talking from emotion and nothing from documented facts…
your neighbours, are not your enemy…stop treating them.
right? it took from the car Infrastructure. I guess anytime a bike lane gets installed car owners should smash all the bikes and destroy them
that is afterall, what this community apparently wants to do… so stupid
Do you really not know where you are right now?
FUCK
CARS
And fuck people who simp for increases in auto bullshit.
draw bike lanes
ask people to park somewhere else, citing that the government is endangering people by removing bike lanesif they do not comply, the car drivers are the issue
asking if fine, protesting is fine…shashing your fellow citizens shit because the government is stupid and made a dumb move? nah … wrong enemy
If one is knowingly endangering people, then the government’s permission doesn’t really make much of a difference.
Won’t someone please think of the property!
wrong enemy… how’d you feel if car owners smashed all bikes they see when a bike lane gets installed?
your issue and anger is with those forcing the removal of infrastructure, not your fellow citizens… it’s a two way street, you want as many people on your side as possible and damaging their property is a sure fire way to get people to band with the government to remove more bike lanes.
stop being stupid, and learn your enemy…
Thank God, this is wonderful news! Finally, we can harness the power of 40 parked cars to transport people.
/s, if it’s needed
Medford is both the hottest place and coldest place I’ve ever been to, they have a lovely 3 days in the spring and fall though.
As usual, there is more to the story. Traffic control in downtown Medford has gotten to the point where many, including me, now actively avoid it. It is not just the parking situation, but narrow lanes, traffic cameras, 20 MPH speed limit…none of this is good for the restaurants and other businesses downtown.
That is … good? A downtown people want to be in is not one made for driving.
That’s part of making a walkable city.
Stop fucking driving through it. Ride a bike.
Who cares? It’s a fucking bike lane, and bike lanes are irritating and unsafe.
It said a protected bike lane, so relatively safe, and only irritating to people who really love sitting in car traffic. Facilitating alternative modes of transportation makes car life better by reducing traffic. Not to mention all the other benefits.
Next you’ll tell me trains are a bad idea.
I have yet to have a single interaction with a cyclist that was positive. I’m sorry but it’s completely idiotic for people to ride bikes in the road alongside multi-ton vehicles.
If every single person you run into is an asshole, you are the problem.
Could it be because you’re in the driver’s seat of a rolling multi-ton threat to cyclists’ lives?
Build better infrastructure like this separated lane that is slated to be removed in Metford, then there will be more cyclists away from car traffic rather than in the vehicle lanes.
That’s why we want to get rid of the fucking tanks you people insist on driving around!
Inefficient, polluting and ugly to boot.lol go ride your schwinn
you are right, there is no reason for a private citizen to need something so dangerous as a multi-ton vehicle. I say we go with your suggestion and outlaw cars completely, and convert existing roads into bike paths. People will be healthier, the environment will improve, tourism will increase, and people will not be afraid of their neighbors. We will no longer be plagued by man babies cowering behind the wheel of their big boy trucks trying to kill us for existing
You Bill, are a visionary.
incidentally this is the Fuck Cars dumbass
Personally, I like to drive my 🚗 at 🚲 speed.
Which cyclist taught you how to ride a bike?
