Originally Posted by bostontrevor
Look, it's pointless to argue this anymore. Bill's just being contrarian to be a pain in the ass.
His response to the pothole issue is to say, yes, that's a problem, but you should get the city to fix it.
In a nutshell: we can start a priori with a mandatory bike lane law. Any problem that might ever rear its head becomes a problem that we as cyclists must expect the city or responsible party to fix.
Yes, Bill, you're right. If every bike lane is perfectly designed and installed; constantly maintained; never obstructed; well shielded from straying birds, squirrels, and dogs; striped only on roads where one would have no need of left turns; deiced any time the temperature dips below freezing; scrubbed clean of any automobile tail pipe drippings; grade separated from automobile turns; and essentially every unforseen circumstance forseen and corrected for...well then yes, mandatory bike lane laws might be feasible.
Me, I occupy a little state called "reality". You should come visit sometime.
It's not unreasonable to ask a municipality to fix a pothole. There was a nasty pothole on a downhill section of road maintained by St Louis County Highways and Traffic. There was also a grate with a bar missing. I visited the STL County web page. Filled out the complaint form and both the pothole and grate were fixed within two weeks. No problem. I'm sorry if your city is not so responsive but that has little bearing on legislation.