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12-11-09, 12:23 PM
The experimental bike lanes installed on Spruce and Pine streets got preliminary approval for permanent installation. Deputy Mayor Rina Cutler was pleased with how well the two month experiment went. She will present her findings to the mayor. He wants the lanes as part of his Green Intiative, so barring something unforeseen the lanes look to be a done deal.
In typical government fashion, Cutler, a career bureaucrat and cast off from Penndot, was long on praise and short on facts to support the success of the bike lanes. Which is why, if you want something done you give it to the Cutler's of the world. They will find a way.
Rina pointed out that the city's goal of reducing motor vehicle traffic on these streets was achieved without saying where that traffic went. Being that the number of cars, trucks, and buses plying city streets hasn't been reduced, safe to say it's gone someplace else. The cyclist gain is someone elses loss. Most likely those living Lombard and South Streets.
Not everyone in these neighborhoods is jumping for joy over this. Society Hill was lined up against the lane with some residents calling them a poor use of resources. And there is still an active contingent of cyclist pestering residents about blocking the bike lanes, which, by the way, is legal while loading or unloading, picking up or dropping off.
Rina was so busy patting herself on the back at delivering on of the mayor's babys she said the city would now start to look for additional east-west streets to add more lanes. Hmm, where is that traffic going to go?
Actually, the addition of north-south lanes might make sense. Problem is the distance involved.
Where i stand on the bike lanes:
I wouldn't dare stand in a bike lane!:lol
Seriously, i was for the lanes until I read about how the cyclist were treating the residents. I realize that the residents were breaking the law by blocking a bike lane, but you just don't do that. These people live here, the cyclist otoh are transient. You don't mistreat the people who live in the neighborhood. That's just wrong!
I believe that the cyclist, who could have shot themselves in the foot here by way of their bad behavior got lucky. The mayor really wants this to work. Thus the installation of a C level manager to get it done. He needed someone who would push it through and not make a career project out of it. A more competent manager might have subjected the project to a more strenuous review.
The lanes are in and will stay once the streets are repaved next year. It is my hope that the cyclist and residents will come to a place of mutual respect. One traffic patterns fully adjust, the neighborhoods will benefit from less traffic making them a more pleasant place to live.
In typical government fashion, Cutler, a career bureaucrat and cast off from Penndot, was long on praise and short on facts to support the success of the bike lanes. Which is why, if you want something done you give it to the Cutler's of the world. They will find a way.
Rina pointed out that the city's goal of reducing motor vehicle traffic on these streets was achieved without saying where that traffic went. Being that the number of cars, trucks, and buses plying city streets hasn't been reduced, safe to say it's gone someplace else. The cyclist gain is someone elses loss. Most likely those living Lombard and South Streets.
Not everyone in these neighborhoods is jumping for joy over this. Society Hill was lined up against the lane with some residents calling them a poor use of resources. And there is still an active contingent of cyclist pestering residents about blocking the bike lanes, which, by the way, is legal while loading or unloading, picking up or dropping off.
Rina was so busy patting herself on the back at delivering on of the mayor's babys she said the city would now start to look for additional east-west streets to add more lanes. Hmm, where is that traffic going to go?
Actually, the addition of north-south lanes might make sense. Problem is the distance involved.
Where i stand on the bike lanes:
I wouldn't dare stand in a bike lane!:lol
Seriously, i was for the lanes until I read about how the cyclist were treating the residents. I realize that the residents were breaking the law by blocking a bike lane, but you just don't do that. These people live here, the cyclist otoh are transient. You don't mistreat the people who live in the neighborhood. That's just wrong!
I believe that the cyclist, who could have shot themselves in the foot here by way of their bad behavior got lucky. The mayor really wants this to work. Thus the installation of a C level manager to get it done. He needed someone who would push it through and not make a career project out of it. A more competent manager might have subjected the project to a more strenuous review.
The lanes are in and will stay once the streets are repaved next year. It is my hope that the cyclist and residents will come to a place of mutual respect. One traffic patterns fully adjust, the neighborhoods will benefit from less traffic making them a more pleasant place to live.