Lane Envy
By now I’m sorta tired of reading about how great bike infrastructure is in a place like the Netherlands.
But slowly the U.S. is getting a little better at building those ordinary bike paths. Reading about new things happening in each city gets me wondering if the bike lanes are greener on the other side.
And as I follow for every bit of news about improving infrastructure it’s frustrating to learn about ridiculous places that are way ahead of my own locale.
Sometimes it seems to make more sense to move rather than wait for slow incremental change around me.
I know the feeling, we have more than 3000 miles of streets here in Garland and 1.3 LANE MILES of bike lanes, counting both directions. I think the pictures of the bike lanes in the PROK are photoshopped, because I noticed that all the bicycle riders were caucasians, not Koreans.
Nothing’s perfect. I’ve been commuting by bicycle for thirty years, equally divided between west coast, east coast, and now midwest. All have their nuances and issues, and so far, so good. I love bikes and riding. It grounds me. But if given the choice, I’d choose the city with best art museum and put up with the bicycling options. Ultimately, I think biking will get better but, man, finding good art in some parts of the country is not easy!
In my city, they put a while line along the city streets….you know, the zone that has the hazardous drain grates, cars parked over them, broken glass, potholes, etc? Then they put green signs with a bicycle on them up and down these streets and call them “bike paths”. Then the city leaders and the over 60 crowd complains because we ride apparently according to them “up the middle of the street”……can you blame us? I had a guy who yelled at me one day that we have sidewalks for a reason….yet there’s a city ordinance that prohibits bicycles on sidewalks. If I had a pail full of bricks for each of these knuckleheads, haha!!!!
Hold on there young ‘un. I am the “over sixty crowd ” and I AM traffic. I use the full lane because all the “bike lanes” are door zones.
And all the complaints I get are from the under 40 crowd so …
I live just outside New Haven. I happened to be in Boston yesterday for my son’s birthday, and as much as I like the cycling in New Haven, Boston is waaaaay ahead of us. *Sigh*.