I Went to an Anti-Bike-Lane Revolt And Here’s What I Learned

Decades of pandering to drivers has resulted in feelings of massive entitlement, where any move towards equality of transport is seen as an attack on their fundamental rights. It's going to be difficult (if not impossible) to shift. Round here the prospect of lowering speed limits causes such angst and wailing and anger that you would think they were being asked to poke their eyes out with a stick, rather than add an extra 30 seconds on to their journey time. When you take a step back and view it with open eyes, it's utterly ridiculous.

I guess we'll continue having these sorts of battles over transport infrastructure until the generation with this panicky car-centric entitlement dies out.

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I think if the city council and government stick to this plan and not reverting it, people will sooner or later adapt to it as they grow. Or at least majority of people will. Kinda like when the city decided to change the road and people will whine initially, then sooner or later they will stop. For bike path, people will eventually see how not having to overtake a bicycle do make their commute smoother, and people who join bike commuter will take off car from the road. It does take time for those bitchy attitude to drop though.

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- Exactly. The main reason behind so many U.S. states not taking advantage of the medicaid expansion was simply "People will like it, and once they get used to it, they won't want to go back." People growing up with safe cycling... will continue to want it. Easier to nip it in the bud before people realize that bicycling is healthy, fun and a great replacement for short car trips!
  
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What I find perhaps the most worrisome about this whole 'revolt' and that these people believe it's some sort of conspiracy that brought about these bike lines, is that this is a result of them never having chatted with the parents of Jimmy from three doors down the road, who are worried about their son biking to school.

If they had any connection to Jimmy's family, that alone would override any mild concerns they might have about being inconvenienced. They don't have that connection, because they walk out the door, climb into their car and then emerge from it 3 miles later. You don't meet anyone living on your road that way.

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I'd argue it's more than a lack of block party attendance.

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- I considered that, too, but I do not think this is it, at least not generally, because of how many people showed up to that 'revolt', despite it only affecting relatively few people.
  I guess, it could be, though, that just the speakers were conspiracy nuts and the audience then just went along with it due to the lack of block party attendance.
  
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I never heard the argument "have bike path is discriminatory to elders", and the guy in the video rightfully say "Not having bike path is discriminatory to children" (because they can't drive and put themself in danger in shared road)

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There are some scenarios, where biking can have negative effects on elderly people: Those cases where there is no explicit cycling infrastructure and foot and bike traffic is squeezed together. Or when elderly people are in need of a parking spot near to their homes and have no possibilities to park on their own property. But the real problem in those cases is bad planning.

But those dickheads in the video had clearly no interest to speak about real problems.

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My area's mall is pretty nice and like most malls it's got plenty of area to walk, stores to explore, enough security to deter people from doing anything too crazy. It's a great spot for middle school and high school kids! But if you don't have a car how do you even get there?

There's suburbs all around so it should be in easy biking distance and moderate walking distance. But it's surrounded by 4 lane roads without a single crosswalk or even sidewalks. Busses don't run there either.

So thanks to decades of car only design best non motorized way to get there is to take a kayak....yes a kayak.....and use a creek to get to the area behind the mall and walk in from there. I only know that because my parents did it once to see if it could be done.

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Here in Vancouver, I see wheelchairs use the bike lane every so often, but car-free share use paths are great for people using strollers, wheelchairs, canes and walkers, rollerblades, bicycles, and everything! Bright idea, ban cars in the path in front of the school to shared use and move the drop off elsewhere!

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The ageist bit was funny to me. My cycling group is around half retirees on any given meetup.

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Even with this edited version that tears down each argument as it came by, I still felt like my brain cells were dying.

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