I'm at work and can't watch the video yet but I am an avid biker and I think a lot about biking infrastructure and urban design/planning. I also try not to be cynical, try to be realistic with...
I'm at work and can't watch the video yet but I am an avid biker and I think a lot about biking infrastructure and urban design/planning. I also try not to be cynical, try to be realistic with expectations/outcomes, and am vaguely unpopular amongst other cyclists for a litany of my viewpoints.
Yeah, cycling in the American suburbs is a lost cause. Suburbs are poorly designed shitholes that are resistant at best, openly hostile at worst, to redesign and openly unsafe to all commuters, regardless of commute method (including cars). Additionally, I don't think this is just a design problem but a mindset problem both in coming to terms with the realities of cycling and with the realities of what a more mobile population would mean. Additionally, I don't think that a mindset problem is a specifically suburban problem. I live in a dense, urban environment and my neighbors and neighborhood friends can't fathom riding their bikes to work regularly and my neighborhood has every bell and whistle that cycling organizations lobby for, from protected bike lanes to additional signage.
Even Portland, the cycling land of milk and honey, peaked at 7% of daily commutes being by bike and that was a decade ago with declines year over year until this year, where there was a whopping 5% increase.
Additionally, and this is more my personal feeling, I'm tired of talking about the suburbs. I'm tired of disproportionately funding the suburbs. I'm tired of catering to the whims of suburbanites.
I don't disagree with any of this really, but I want to add that in my own suburb I see a focus on planning for slower traffic (including cyclists) while in my county, there's been an increasingly...
I don't disagree with any of this really, but I want to add that in my own suburb I see a focus on planning for slower traffic (including cyclists) while in my county, there's been an increasingly useful network of trails and paths to be able to navigate the area by foot or bike very easily. I myself use my bike more than my car, and live in a townhome in a moderately small suburb.
Do I need a car? Yes. I prefer my bike. It's hard to move a lot of people as a family on two wheels though!
The suburbs were always a crime against humanity. They started as racist enclaves for white Americans and through capitalist endeavor devolved even further into the shitshow we see today. They are...
The suburbs were always a crime against humanity. They started as racist enclaves for white Americans and through capitalist endeavor devolved even further into the shitshow we see today. They are unlivable to a huge degree, any positive they purport to have is offset with a litany of downsides to the individual, the family, the community, the environment and thus the world as a whole.
I know we can't just tear everything up and go full central planning on this problem but holy shit do we need to rethink the manner in which we are organizing our country. Desperately.
I totally hear and agree with everyone commenting, suburbs are frustrating and they get an outsized portion of infrastructure budgets. But I'm still here for the optimism in the video. We're...
I totally hear and agree with everyone commenting, suburbs are frustrating and they get an outsized portion of infrastructure budgets.
But I'm still here for the optimism in the video. We're looking to increase safety and expand infrastructure in across the country, and that means cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Freedom of movement doesn't need to be everywhere, but it needs to cover a much larger portion of US than it currently does. Over half of US population lives in the suburbs (52%), and changing infrastructure networks to include and eventually center around public transit and bikeways can systematically change how our cities, towns, and villages function. High growth, and with it high density housing, follows access to transit. So unless we start making those changes in places like suburbs, they will forever remain the domain of the car.
I'm at work and can't watch the video yet but I am an avid biker and I think a lot about biking infrastructure and urban design/planning. I also try not to be cynical, try to be realistic with expectations/outcomes, and am vaguely unpopular amongst other cyclists for a litany of my viewpoints.
Yeah, cycling in the American suburbs is a lost cause. Suburbs are poorly designed shitholes that are resistant at best, openly hostile at worst, to redesign and openly unsafe to all commuters, regardless of commute method (including cars). Additionally, I don't think this is just a design problem but a mindset problem both in coming to terms with the realities of cycling and with the realities of what a more mobile population would mean. Additionally, I don't think that a mindset problem is a specifically suburban problem. I live in a dense, urban environment and my neighbors and neighborhood friends can't fathom riding their bikes to work regularly and my neighborhood has every bell and whistle that cycling organizations lobby for, from protected bike lanes to additional signage.
Even Portland, the cycling land of milk and honey, peaked at 7% of daily commutes being by bike and that was a decade ago with declines year over year until this year, where there was a whopping 5% increase.
Additionally, and this is more my personal feeling, I'm tired of talking about the suburbs. I'm tired of disproportionately funding the suburbs. I'm tired of catering to the whims of suburbanites.
I don't disagree with any of this really, but I want to add that in my own suburb I see a focus on planning for slower traffic (including cyclists) while in my county, there's been an increasingly useful network of trails and paths to be able to navigate the area by foot or bike very easily. I myself use my bike more than my car, and live in a townhome in a moderately small suburb.
Do I need a car? Yes. I prefer my bike. It's hard to move a lot of people as a family on two wheels though!
The suburbs were always a crime against humanity. They started as racist enclaves for white Americans and through capitalist endeavor devolved even further into the shitshow we see today. They are unlivable to a huge degree, any positive they purport to have is offset with a litany of downsides to the individual, the family, the community, the environment and thus the world as a whole.
I know we can't just tear everything up and go full central planning on this problem but holy shit do we need to rethink the manner in which we are organizing our country. Desperately.
I thought this video from About Here on non-urban bike infrastructure might be of interest after the recent discussion on bike and public transit use.
I totally hear and agree with everyone commenting, suburbs are frustrating and they get an outsized portion of infrastructure budgets.
But I'm still here for the optimism in the video. We're looking to increase safety and expand infrastructure in across the country, and that means cities, suburbs, and rural areas. Freedom of movement doesn't need to be everywhere, but it needs to cover a much larger portion of US than it currently does. Over half of US population lives in the suburbs (52%), and changing infrastructure networks to include and eventually center around public transit and bikeways can systematically change how our cities, towns, and villages function. High growth, and with it high density housing, follows access to transit. So unless we start making those changes in places like suburbs, they will forever remain the domain of the car.