Re: Commuter innovation

On 4/4/2024 11:25 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Zen Cycle <funkmaster@hotmail.com> wrote:

 The issue here is in American cities. The newer cities in the
Midwest/west could certainly implement a decent infrastructure, but most
of the cities on the east coast are heavily congested with narrow roads
designed and built (if they could even be considered as 'designed') well
before the advent of cars.
>

Don’t doubt that there are narrower American roads which are more in line
with European roads. But I’d argue that on a whole seems to have more space
in general, and there are choices in terms of how much space is used for
who, for example the trend is to have less wide open junctions so
pedestrians have less distance to cross, and take less time, and motorists
have to slow down.
 Ie stuff can be done if there is the political will to do so it’s a matter
of choices.

Regarding political will and choices: Of course those are important. Local officials are up for election every few years and have to brag about what they've done and what they promise to do. Competitors spend time ragging on decisions they disagree with, and "No new taxes" of "Less government spending" is a constant theme.
Given that reality, saying "We're going to build really great facilities for people who want to bike, and maybe slow drivers down a bit to make it safer for bike riders" won't help getting elected in most American cities. It's considered a far left fringe idea.
Locally, there's been a mini-surge in bike lanes. The street shown in my recent photos is actually a state route. The state DOT designed and made those changes. I doubt the city had any input.
There are some new bike lanes in the city's old downtown and the university area. Those came as a minor part of a huge state grant program, construction still in progress, that includes things like a driverless bus to shuttle people about one mile from downtown to a hospital complex.
Will this make a difference? Doubtful. The university bike lanes have been in for a few months. I've yet to see a bike in them. Central downtown has few residents, and I don't know why someone who had to drive to get to downtown would not then drive to get to the hospital.
So we'll see. But I predict the same amount of mode change effected by most other dreamy facilities. That would be a brief bump by folks curious to try something new, followed by return to status quo after actual experience.
....
BTW, downtown Youngstown will soon have its first eBike share company. I attended the first publicity event, several months ago. It was held about five blocks from the local Metropolitan Planning Organization, the one that works to get grants for such things.
The MPO employee who is in charge of bike projects gave a little speech on how great the eBike rentals will be. He said something like "To get to this meeting from my office, I'll be able to rent an eBike instead of driving my car like I'd normally do!"
Instead of walking, he'd drive his car a distance of five blocks, less than half a mile, despite sidewalks all the way. That's what we're up against.
--
- Frank Krygowski