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We have a main road through an old section of town here where people parallel park their cars along the street next to the curb.  The city painted a 4-foot wide bicycle lane on both sides of the street right up next to where all the cars are parked.  If you ride in that bike lane, the chances of getting doored are quite excellent.  :)

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4 hours ago, Road Runner said:

We have a main road through an old section of town here where people parallel park their cars along the street next to the curb.  The city painted a 4-foot wide bicycle lane on both sides of the street right up next to where all the cars are parked.  If you ride in that bike lane, the chances of getting doored are quite excellent.  :)

I don;t know who is worse, Murphy or Darwin!  Evil bastards, the both of them!

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3 hours ago, F_in Ray Of Sunshine said:

Or "It sucks that you need cycling lanes".

I don't.

One of the main roads that I like to use to get somewhere is a 2 lane 50 mph road with shoulders that are less than a foot wide with the occasional storm drain.....and the idiots put the drain grates parallel to the road.  Most cars are doing 60+ and there is simply no place to hide.  I got clipped, lightly, on that road once.  It cost me a mirror mount.  It was a school bus that hit me. Frankly I thought I was going to die.  Most of the time however I stay off the roads and on the trails until I get into the farm roads.  Then I'm in Nate style country.

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Here in Grand Rapids they have a lot of cycling lanes and they are growing.  I have my business here but only cycle here a couple times a year.  I believe it was last year they passed an ordinance here that parking in a bike lane would get you a ticket.  They did a great job of initially enforcing it.  There was a local church that had a bike lane right in front of it.  Lots of Sunday morning tickets.  They complained and wanted the bike lane removed or a waiver for Sunday mornings.  The city was having none of it.

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well, taking away Church parking for a bike lane is dicked up anyway. There's a lot of Churches, especially small protestant denominations that don't have parking on the grounds, they park on the street. Lots of Churches are like that because the only time they have to park cars is Sunday morning when it doesn't get in anybody's way anyway. Some of those folks have probably been parking there their whole adult lives.

 I have to say that city is screwing the people going to that church pretty hard

 

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2 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

Bike lanes are fine, but they shouldn't be manufactured if the street situation (parking, etc) is an issue.  Well meaning public servants that don't ride bikes and aren't aware of the dynamics and hazards of bike riding probably shouldn't be assigning bike lanes.

exactly. Here in Harrisburg, the city morans carved a bike lane out of Front St. Now Front Street runs the length of the Susquehanna River. Harrisburg is on the east shore. So it is scenic, right by the river and riverfront park and all, BUT....

Front street is a main artery for getting to the midtown area where the Capitol and all the state offices are. Its a narrow street to start with, so when they took the three lanes (its a one way street) and made them all narrower to make room for the bike lane. It totally pissed off everybody who has to drive in the city because NOBODY in their right mind would ride a bike in that bike lane for the very real fear of being clipped by traffic. Plus, there is an MUP running through Riverfront park not 20 yards from this stupid bike lane.

So all it accomplished was to make traffic worse and make Harrisburg drivers hate cyclists even more than they already do :(

 

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25 minutes ago, Nate said:

well, taking away Church parking for a bike lane is dicked up anyway. There's a lot of Churches, especially small protestant denominations that don't have parking on the grounds, they park on the street. Lots of Churches are like that because the only time they have to park cars is Sunday morning when it doesn't get in anybody's way anyway. Some of those folks have probably been parking there their whole adult lives.

 I have to say that city is screwing the people going to that church pretty hard

 

Think about the healthy life style they will have from walking farther.

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23 minutes ago, Road Runner said:

Bike lanes are fine, but they shouldn't be manufactured if the street situation (parking, etc) is an issue.  Well meaning public servants that don't ride bikes and aren't aware of the dynamics and hazards of bike riding probably shouldn't be assigning bike lanes.

In this case, Grand Rapids has a director position within it's streets department specifically assigned to develop plans for cycling transportation and pedestrian safety.  This person came with a ton of cycling experience as well as city planning experience and I think all those in the cycling community would agree, has done a fantastic job. 

The church in question sits on a major street and routing cycling lane around them or ending and starting a bike lane because of them did not make a lot of sense.  I am all in support of the local church and I neither attend that church nor cycle in that area.  I was just using this example as one of the city being serious in the enforcement of the ordinance. 

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18 minutes ago, maddmaxx said:

Think about the healthy life style they will have from walking farther.

yea, nevermind that a lot of church goers are little old ladies

listen guys, I get it, you don't care about people who go to church

 

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59 minutes ago, Nate said:

yea, nevermind that a lot of church goers are little old ladies

listen guys, I get it, you don't care about people who go to church

 

Reading comprehension problems?  Where I went to school that was diagnosed in early elementary.

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2 hours ago, Nate said:

well, taking away Church parking for a bike lane is dicked up anyway. There's a lot of Churches, especially small protestant denominations that don't have parking on the grounds, they park on the street. Lots of Churches are like that because the only time they have to park cars is Sunday morning when it doesn't get in anybody's way anyway. Some of those folks have probably been parking there their whole adult lives.

 I have to say that city is screwing the people going to that church pretty hard

 

So the fuck what?  The good of the cyclists outweigh the convenience of churches who are too short-sighted to maintain adequate parking.  Yeah, there are a lot churches, and a cycling lane is not a parking spot because, hey, there are a lot of cyclists who will ride in those lanes because they are for the public use, not private cult action.  It truly doesn't matter if old folks have been parking that way their whole lives, let them adapt with the world, not dumb the world down to their level.

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2 hours ago, Nate said:

exactly. Here in Harrisburg, the city morans carved a bike lane out of Front St. Now Front Street runs the length of the Susquehanna River. Harrisburg is on the east shore. So it is scenic, right by the river and riverfront park and all, BUT....

Front street is a main artery for getting to the midtown area where the Capitol and all the state offices are. Its a narrow street to start with, so when they took the three lanes (its a one way street) and made them all narrower to make room for the bike lane. It totally pissed off everybody who has to drive in the city because NOBODY in their right mind would ride a bike in that bike lane for the very real fear of being clipped by traffic. Plus, there is an MUP running through Riverfront park not 20 yards from this stupid bike lane.

So all it accomplished was to make traffic worse and make Harrisburg drivers hate cyclists even more than they already do :(

 

I get uppity about the special interest groups that want to order the world for their benefit and everyone else's detriment.  There was a big shit splash out here when the orthodox jews started harassing women in bike shorts because they don't like women wearing shorts of any type, and especially wearing them while riding bikes in "their neighborhoods".  Oh really, 'your neighborhoods'?  "How many neighborhoods are you claiming for your religion?".  Anyway, they were fighting to get the bike lanes removed from logical bike routes so they wouldn't have to see chicks in bike shorts.  Yippee.  

I don't think anyone would have complained if there were several logical routes to choose from and sensibilities could be easily accommodated, but there weren't.  

I see cars and trucks parked in bike lanes here all the time, and it pisses me off.

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6 minutes ago, Goat Geddah said:

Shoulda moved to Missoula.  I doubt there are any Jews there.

I like regular jews, orthodox jews are assholes, uniformly.  They are taught to be assholes to all people not orthodox jews, so says an ex-coworker who grew up orthodox but skittered away when first possible.  My own experience backs this up, I lived in Ditmas Park, which bordered an orthodox jewish area.  Interactions where they figured I wasn't one of them were of a one-sided type.

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Just now, Randomguy said:

I like regular jews, orthodox jews are assholes, uniformly.  They are taught to be assholes to all people not orthodox jews, so says an ex-coworker who grew up orthodox but skittered away when first possible.

In addition to the absence of Orthodox Jews, you know Missoula is a very bike friendly town.

On the other hand, Missoula has the most f'ed up traffic grid in the modern world.  

 

 

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Just now, Goat Geddah said:

In addition to the absence of Orthodox Jews, you know Missoula is a very bike friendly town.

On the other hand, Missoula has the most f'ed up traffic grid in the modern world.  

 

 

Traffic was definitely weird there.  It was overcast a lot, too.  I have been checking, winter seems to be no picnic, either.

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41 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

I get uppity about the special interest groups that want to order the world for their benefit and everyone else's detriment.

you mean like cycling advocates running bike lanes through neighborhoods where the residents don't want them? :P

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5 minutes ago, Nate said:

you mean like cycling advocates running bike lanes through neighborhoods where the residents don't want them? :P

It depends on the area.  Old people tend to fight every change, there was a 5 or 6 year fight for/against a bike lane near Prospect Park.  The real issue was that old rich people would have to look at the bike lane in both directions before crossing, something they felt was onerous.  They lost after a long and costly battle.

With all the traffic here, anything that prevents more road crowding is a good thing, something that leads to benefits for drivers and cyclists.  You can't stop progress because progress is displeasing to some.  Getting rid of slavery was displeasing to some, you see.

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48 minutes ago, Goat Geddah said:

In addition to the absence of Orthodox Jews, you know Missoula is a very bike friendly town.

On the other hand, Missoula has the most f'ed up traffic grid in the modern world.  

 

 

Ever been to Branson Missouri?  My daughter lived there for about 10 months.  Not sure if it counts as modern world, but for a small town, traffic is ridiculous.

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9 minutes ago, Randomguy said:

It depends on the area.  Old people tend to fight every change, there was a 5 or 6 year fight for/against a bike lane near Prospect Park.  The real issue was that old rich people would have to look at the bike lane in both directions before crossing, something they felt was onerous.  They lost after a long and costly battle.

With all the traffic here, anything that prevents more road crowding is a good thing, something that leads to benefits for drivers and cyclists.  You can't stop progress because progress is displeasing to some.  Getting rid of slavery was displeasing to some, you see.

this is exactly what I fear about growing old in this country.

young people want to tell everybody how to live, and they don't care if you don't like it or not

you know why old people don't like changes? because it fucks up the way they have always done things, its that simple. Have a heart. I don't use cell phones, gps, online bill pay, touchscreen devices, there I a litany of things I don't want anything to do with that young people think that I should have. They think I am afraid of technology. No, I just don't want to live like you do.  You can live your way. that's fine. I am going to live mine.

Out here in the country I have less pressure on how I chose to live, but I don't want some millennial POS deciding that I have to pay all my bills online (for example)

I am a free man and I still understand  what freedom is

 

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4 minutes ago, BuffJim said:

Ever been to Branson Missouri?  My daughter lived there for about 10 months.  Not sure if it counts as modern world, but for a small town, traffic is ridiculous.

probably because half the drivers are tourists from out of state

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2 hours ago, Nate said:

this is exactly what I fear about growing old in this country.

young people want to tell everybody how to live, and they don't care if you don't like it or not

you know why old people don't like changes? because it fucks up the way they have always done things, its that simple. Have a heart. I don't use cell phones, gps, online bill pay, touchscreen devices, there I a litany of things I don't want anything to do with that young people think that I should have. They think I am afraid of technology. No, I just don't want to live like you do.  You can live your way. that's fine. I am going to live mine.

Out here in the country I have less pressure on how I chose to live, but I don't want some millennial POS deciding that I have to pay all my bills online (for example)

I am a free man and I still understand  what freedom is

 

So you have paper checks?:o

 

it isn't young people vs. old people, it is societal change for the greater good.   Tell me that the "do not call" registry didn't enhance the lives of literally everyone who wasn't connected to telemarketing in some way.  

Some change is good, some not so good, but change is inevitable.  

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2 hours ago, Nate said:

this is exactly what I fear about growing old in this country.

young people want to tell everybody how to live, and they don't care if you don't like it or not

you know why old people don't like changes? because it fucks up the way they have always done things, its that simple. Have a heart. I don't use cell phones, gps, online bill pay, touchscreen devices, there I a litany of things I don't want anything to do with that young people think that I should have. They think I am afraid of technology. No, I just don't want to live like you do.  You can live your way. that's fine. I am going to live mine.

Out here in the country I have less pressure on how I chose to live, but I don't want some millennial POS deciding that I have to pay all my bills online (for example)

I am a free man and I still understand  what freedom is

 

Get off my lawn there freebee.

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