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Three Wishes

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Living Car Free Do you live car free or car light? Do you prefer to use alternative transportation (bicycles, walking, other human-powered or public transportation) for everyday activities whenever possible? Discuss your lifestyle here.

Three Wishes

Old 10-21-09, 07:10 AM
  #51  
ndbiker
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1) I would eliminate all freeways within city limits - have them skirt the edges of the town, with one or two exits to get into/out of the city but use the highway system as a network to get between cities, allowing the cities themselves to become much more friendly to bicycles and pedestrians.


The more I think about it the more this idea becomes intriguing. Some of the masses of parking garages located in the city could be relocated at train stations along the outerbelt which would go directly to the city. Upon arriving in the city one could use the local mass transit system. Travel to the outer suburbs would remain unchanged. You could always take the regular streets, but the traffic generated would discourage car travel to the city. Since the system would be set up to encourage mass transit use more people would actually use the trains/buses etc., no longer making them merely superfluously government subsidized entities. The big downside would be that people could just quit going to the city deciding that it's too expensive and a hassle. Some cities especially here in the midwest don't need any reason to discourage people from going into the cities.
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Old 10-21-09, 08:54 PM
  #52  
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Originally Posted by ndbiker
Since the system would be set up to encourage mass transit use more people would actually use the trains/buses etc., no longer making them merely superfluously government subsidized entities. The big downside would be that people could just quit going to the city deciding that it's too expensive and a hassle. Some cities especially here in the midwest don't need any reason to discourage people from going into the cities.
Would they be more likely to go to the city center if it was jammed with traffic? Park and ride would be a great way to get a good rate on parking (probably cost a lot more in the center) and it would save a lot of hassle in getting to the center.

I don't know what midwestern city you are talking about, but I believe this to be true for Chicago. Other midwest cities seem to be a little less congested. Problem with some of them is this: who wants to go to a city center if all you get to experience is a traffic jam and bad air?
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Old 10-13-18, 06:35 AM
  #53  
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Originally Posted by Machka
If the government could wave a magic wand and make three improvements to your cycling facilities, what would they be?



Here are mine:
  • I want wider roads in the cities and towns .... not bike lanes, just wider roads ... and shoulders on all the highways.
  • I want secure bicycle locking facilities at shopping centres, malls, schools, offices, etc. Strasbourg had some good ones.
  • I want more public transportation, specifically trains on which bicycles would be allowed.
Still.
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Old 10-13-18, 07:02 PM
  #54  
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I’d like enforcement of the “no texting while driving/hands free phone use only” law we have here in Rhode Island.

Half (maybe a SLIGHT exaggeration) the automobile operators I encounter on my commute in the city (Providence) are using their phones. I don’t know how the law could be better enforced, but if the wand exists that’s my first wish.

About 1 in 15 driver I am passed by/I pass on my commute home are trailing marijuana smoke. Who knows what scent-free drugs other people are using while driving. My second wand wave enforces substance-use laws while driving.

I love riding my bike. I’d like it to be easier to ride it in the winter (from a transportation/infrastructure standpoint).
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Old 10-14-18, 10:17 AM
  #55  
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Tree-shaded bike paths/lanes and sidewalks everywhere so that I could walk or bike anywhere without having to sweat and/or burn due to sunlight.

Too many other wishes/hopes to compress into two more list items.
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Old 10-14-18, 11:50 AM
  #56  
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Originally Posted by mtb_addict
I want gov't to give anual $7,500 tax break to anyone who don't own a automobile.
And additional $2,500 tax break to anyone who don't have a drivers license.
I would wish the same except in reverse, for government to put a 50% tax on fuel and spend that money on public transport and bicycle paths... I believe the city of Vancouver is kind of doing that for the last few years, (10% ?) as of yesterday it's $1.64 per Litre of gas, that's $6.23 US gallon, $7.44 Canadian gallon.

EDIT; If I lived in Vancouver it would cost me $210. to fill up my truck, Here in PG it costs me $157... That's 33% more in Vancouver than here, and that would make me drive 33% less...

Last edited by 350htrr; 10-14-18 at 12:12 PM.
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Old 10-15-18, 03:20 AM
  #57  
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Originally Posted by I-Like-To-Bike
Sorry, Roody, you are on a different page.
Please enlighten about which of these Monderman scheme references involve making motorists feel less safe when traveling at high speeds, or high speed road traffic at all. You might also enlighten about how many communities have adapted the Monderman scheme for anything beyond a few isolated trial applications in a few isolated locations.
A lot of traffic calming measures are about the perception of speed. If you make the two painted cycle lanes a bit wider and the part for cars a bit narrower, drivers will slow down like it's a narrow road, despite the fact that they are allowed to cross the line that marks the cycle lane.

Monderman's ideas are also partly based on drivers slowing down when they come across a situation with little overview and predictability. The influence is not that there are many whole cities or villages that follow the principles, but that councils retreat as rulemakers and let cyclists, pedestrians and the occasional car work it out.
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Old 10-16-18, 09:22 PM
  #58  
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Protected and separated car, bike, and pedestrian lanes. I've been to a lot of cities and hands-down the best street I've ever been on is the Karl Marx Alley in Berlin, with is absurdly wide lanes and tall apartment complexes and storefronts. We're talking about having playgrounds in the area between the lanes.

1. Make a town whereby the sidewalk and the street is reversed; that is, the pedestrians walk in the center of the street, stopping at lights, while the cars use the sidewalks (very wide sidewalks of course). There might or might not be bicycle lanes. You wouldn't have to make the center street for pedestrians wide, but it's the pedestrians that get the lights while the cars have to use the cross(walk?).

2. Subsidize electric bicycles and scooters instead of these huge construction projects.
Example 1: my old town St Louis recently built a 2.2 mile trolley at the cost of over 65 million dollars. This trolley ludicrously runs parallel to a light rail trolley from the same station to the terminus.
Example 2: my new town Montgomery just put in a 140 million dollar overpass that serves 800 houses, essentially costing about 175,000 per house. I've never seen a single car on these two overpasses. Not once. It's completely deserted; to actually use these two overpasses you'd have to drive out of your way to get to them if you were in those 800 houses, as those houses are already being served by two north/south and one east-west arterial road.

3. Place speed limitators in all vehicles that set themselves via GPS to the road speed limit.
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Old 10-17-18, 08:19 AM
  #59  
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Tax break says the guy who is at least looking to buy a car, if he doesn't already own one?
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Old 10-17-18, 09:36 AM
  #60  
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Of the three wishes Machka listed theft deterrence in the form of dedicated lockups would be the one that most effects my current riding experience. we have a terrible bike theft problem and I often make decisions about riding (or not) to certain venues based on the ability to secure my bike and if I could depend on better security I would ride it more often.

Other than that, all I need/want are roads with decent shoulders and I'm good. I don't need to re engineer society to fit my personal lifestyle
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Old 10-17-18, 11:03 AM
  #61  
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Originally Posted by mtb_addict
And you're living car free?
Hellz no. About to hit 6,000 miles since the beginning of July, 2016.

How's your bike-free lifestyle treating you? Must be easy on your butte.
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Old 10-17-18, 10:31 PM
  #62  
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Long life for my cats

Me too

A woman crazy enough to follow me home, because the cat can't dial 911
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Old 10-18-18, 06:40 PM
  #63  
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Old thread but good topic! My wishes:

(1) Space to ride on main roads. A bike lane would be fine. So would a really wide right lane, like I experienced in southern California.

(2) Traffic lights that sense bicycles, especially at intersections crossing main roads.

(3) Maintenance of infrastructure - including the actual pavement on the roads we share with motor vehicles as well as shoulders/bike lanes/parking lanes, which become a dumping ground for leaves and snow during a good part of the year.
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Old 10-25-18, 11:17 PM
  #64  
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1. Separated bike lanes on all major routes.
2. Add cycling related questions to the state driving test (so drivers must learn about "taking the lane" etc.)
3. optional stops for cyclists at intersections with stop signs if no vehicles are present (no bull**** tickets)
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Old 10-30-18, 05:16 PM
  #65  
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Originally Posted by wipekitty
(2) Traffic lights that sense bicycles, especially at intersections crossing main roads.
+1
If only we could trigger advanced left-turn arrows on bikes.

There was a youtube video a few years ago claiming you could trigger the light sensor by standing on a metal circle on the intersection, but I think it might have been a prank to sucker people into thinking manhole covers were traffic light sensors.
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Old 10-30-18, 06:18 PM
  #66  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
+1
If only we could trigger advanced left-turn arrows on bikes.

There was a youtube video a few years ago claiming you could trigger the light sensor by standing on a metal circle on the intersection, but I think it might have been a prank to sucker people into thinking manhole covers were traffic light sensors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj-mNB6dLkk
In theory traffic light sensors can be triggered by bikes but in my experience they don't work very well, so if I am alone at an intersection I usually scoot over and press the pedestrian button. One problem is that they use magnetic sensors which don't register aluminum bikes. As it happens, mine are steel, but even so they don't seem to activate the sensor.
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Old 10-30-18, 09:29 PM
  #67  
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Originally Posted by tandempower
+1
If only we could trigger advanced left-turn arrows on bikes.

There was a youtube video a few years ago claiming you could trigger the light sensor by standing on a metal circle on the intersection, but I think it might have been a prank to sucker people into thinking manhole covers were traffic light sensors.
In my experience, it works with steel bikes - but only if you get the sensor just right.

I had quite a bit of luck doing this with my steel bikes in Mobile, AL - where the streets were pretty run down and you could actually see the sensor through cracks in the pavement.
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