Advocacy & Safety - Odd Juxtaposition of Washington Post Articles

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
Poguemahone
11-17-03, 07:56 AM
Interesting pair of articles on the Washington Post Metro page today. Thought I'd pass them along for your consideration.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49689-2003Nov16.html

and:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49785-2003Nov16_2.html

which contains the memorable quote:
"I think we need to focus on making sure that we have adequate parking for the cars we do have and not worry so much about trying to get more people out of [cars]."

Thought you folks might enjoy this.

closetbiker
11-17-03, 10:02 AM
It is an interesting pair.

Yesterday, our local paper started a 10 part report on transportation in our area and it mentioned comments from urban planners about "Braess' paradox"

"German mathematician Dietrich Braess studied 23 US cities that added the most new roads per person during to 90's and found congestion rose there by more than 70%.
But not building roads won't help congestion either.
'In practical terms, what is being proposed would give people more options to travel, such as better transit, passenger ferries and new bike and pedestrian routes.'"
oscaregg
11-17-03, 12:12 PM
Take it from an ex-Los Angeleno--there is no good purpose in expanding facilities for private car users; it feeds an appetite that can never be sated. We do need sidewalks, mass transit, and to declare null and void any zoning that encourages car-dependent development.

closetbiker
11-17-03, 01:35 PM
I've also seen articles citing lack of fitness of citizens and funding cuts for PE classes in schools, right next to "dangers of cycling" articles.