Bike Forums - View Single Post - Seattle to install BUFFERED bikelanes downtown

06-18-10 | 09:36 AM

#32

SCROUDS

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Joined: Feb 2010

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Quote:

Originally Posted by sauerwald

I don't understand why so many people feel that on street parking is such a necessity. Public roads are built to provide transportation infrastructure. A parked car is not in any way contributing to transportation, when a road is being used as a parking place, it's function is as a private storage facility for private property. I cannot understand why providing private storage space should take precedence over transportation on a publicly funded road.

My recommendation would be to simply remove on street parking. The resulting wide outside lane would be a very bicycle friendly infrastructure, would not need any buffer zones or other ways of segregating traffic.

As much as I'd like to live in an idealized world, most people drive, and most people will drive to their destinations for the foreseeable future. Most places in the US with the exception of a few large cities, cannot support the commercial infrastructure that makes up some communities with just the people that live in walking distance.

Providing easily accessible on street parking creates living communities. I see that a good goal, and something this country needs to focus on. If I had my way, I'd take downtown orlando and narrow or 1 way half the side streets and create more street parking. It'll slow traffic, make the area more accessible to people that don't live close. I think we need more parking and less high speed travel lanes in our urban areas.

We’ve spent far too long promoting the idea in this country that businesses aren’t part of the community. That its us versus them. That you can have businesses, or you can have residential communities, but never the twain shall mix. What came out of that are people warehouses known as subdivisions and strip malls. I guess I just have a different vision of community. With shops, stores, people living there, people visiting there. Bikes, cars, transit, peds all living together. Internal streets slow enough that people can bike down it and peds don’t have to worry about being mowed down.

A place that becomes a destination. And travelers on vehicles need places to park. So yes, just like I support and encourage bike racks on sidewalks, I support parking in the street. And if you want a community, rather then something to just ride by, you should too.

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