Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.tv
Subject: Re: [OT] Judges discover constitutional rights to bike lanes and also drug use in homeless shelters
Date: Tue, 13 May 2025 11:47:50 +1200
Organization: A noiseless patient Spider
Lines: 112
Message-ID: <vvu1b6$1c7r4$1@dont-email.me>
References: <0001HW.2DCC67CD00833A1030B68238F@news.giganews.com> <jCWdnb3k7KYUx7_1nZ2dnZfqnPqdnZ2d@giganews.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Injection-Date: Tue, 13 May 2025 01:47:52 +0200 (CEST)
Injection-Info: dont-email.me; posting-host="80f58b0e2b41036e048849433552079a";
	logging-data="1449828"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@eternal-september.org";	posting-account="U2FsdGVkX1+a5oXOqb5RTATnbP2KPXMxxKxyBIdhul0="
User-Agent: Unison/2.2
Cancel-Lock: sha1:d9njcbV6AbjQeulcM/sTZTK19HQ=

On 2025-05-12 20:30:57 +0000, Pluted Pup said:
> On 5/7/25 11:32 PM, Your Name wrote:
>> On 2025-05-08 04:17:17 +0000, Pluted Pup said:
>>> On Tue, 06 May 2025 16:33:28 -0700, BTR1701 wrote:
>>>> On May 6, 2025 at 12:28:41 PM PDT, ""Adam H. Kerman""<ahk@chinet.com>  wrote:
>>>>> Rhino<no_offline_contact@example.com> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>>> . . .
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> We used to be able to park in front of the house overnight if we 
>>>>>> wanted, for example if there was an overnight guest who'd come by car. 
>>>>>> But the city banned overnight parking many years ago.
>>>>> 
>>>>> Parking infringes upon shared use of the public way, and overnight
>>>>> parking usurps the public way for private use. There's no issue with
>>>>> short term parking but there's sure as hell an issue with long term
>>>>> parking.
>>>> 
>>>> Here's a guy who stuck it to NYC when they tried to tell him he owned the
>>>> sidewalk and the street for purposes of personal injury liability for
>>>> pedestrians and cars.
>>>> 
>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doQBGhwKVR0
>>> 
>>> I peeked at that video and comments earlier and it just seems
>>> like celebrating a scam artist. It does not seem to merit the
>>> title "Queens Man OUT SMARTS NYC Democrats".
>>> 
>>> Often enough I saw "actual justice warrior" post about something
>>> actually important and then it's just lengthy videos
>>> about other videos without even allowing ten seconds of what he's
>>> talking about to be shown or heard.
>>> 
>>> Videos of talking heads looking at the camera demanding the
>>> viewer trust what he is ranting on about are my least favorite
>>> form of mass communications. Let's get back to reading and writing!
>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> "The property is yours when ownership is inconvenient and expensive for us,
>>>> but it's ours when we want it for parking and sidewalks."
>>>> 
>>>>>> I don't remember the
>>>>>> rationale they used but I think they were worried about snow removal
>>>>>> being more difficult if cars were parked on the street. Then a few years
>>>>>> back, they put in bike lanes - bike lanes that basically only run down
>>>>>> our street but don't connect to anything else, making them esentially
>>>>>> useless for getting around town. Then they put in a cross walk which has
>>>>>> an island in the middle of the road but which is almost never used. (I
>>>>>> can see it from my kitchen window.) Because of the island, it is now
>>>>>> illegal to even STOP on our block so people actually risk a ticket even
>>>>>> for stopping for a moment to drop someone off. Progress!
>>>>> 
>>>>> That's ridiculous. The whole point of a road is to access property. Of
>>>>> course it's there for pickup and delivery, and to allow people to get
>>>>> dropped off or picked up.
>>> 
>>> I suggest that if activists want bicycles to be treated as a serious
>>> method of transportation than start doing it: require all bicycles
>>> to have side view mirrors like motorcycles have and prosecute bike theft
>>> seriously, and not as some sort of harmless practice like even car theft
>>> is often treated as. But "activists" don't want normal people to
>>> bike, they want it to have an outlaw image like "activists" have.
>> 
>> The morons in charge here in New Zealand decided a pedestrain crossing 
>> was needed on the main road near us. Instead of simple painted stripes, 
>> they made an over-complicated mess costing many hundreds of thousands 
>> of dollars ... for ONE pedestrian crossing:
>> 
>>  - For no apparent reason, they moved the bus stop
>>    on one side of the road further down.
>>  - They installed a raised area in the road creating
>>    a bump, which means traffic has to slow down to go over it.
>>  - They widened the footpath at side of the crossing.
>>  - They installed a pedestrian crossing lane with traffic lights
>>    and a push button for the pedestrains to stop the traffic,
>>    and lowered the curb (for people in wheelchairs, people with
>>    babies in strollers, etc.).
>>  - They also installed a separate "cycle crossing" lane with
>>    its own push button and its own lowered curb ...
>>  - They then installed a sign which reads "Cyclists Dismount",
>>    which means cyclists then become pedestrians, so why is
>>    there a separate crossing lane and push button!?!
>>    (I've yet to see any cyclist or scooter rider actually dismount.)
>> 
>> And, after all that, you'd be lucky if a dozen people actually use it 
>> each day! The road itself is only busy at the peak morning and 
>> afternoon times - the rest of the day it is very easy to cross anyway.
>> 
>> There are other similarly hideously expensive and over-complicated 
>> pedestrian crossing installed around the city.
> 
> Goldbrick engineering.  Attention seeking behavior.  Symbolism
> over substance.  That's the type of "bike activism" that I think
> of that's bad.  Are bicycles a serious mode of transportation or
> just another political stunt intended to annoy normal people?

Cycling will never be a serious mode of transport in most places nor 
for most people. Cycling is a bit more efficient than walking, but 
cycling is still a highly inefficient and uncomfortable form of 
transport compared to a car.

The local city council has wasted billions of dollars putting cycling 
lanes all over the place, and it is extremely rare to see anyone 
actually using them (even most of the few cyclists you do see often 
ride on the footpath, depsite it not being legal). The cycling brigade 
keep campaigning for putting a cycling and walking lane over the 
Harbour Bridge, but after the initial "wow" factor, it will again 
barely ever be used by anyone - it's simply too steep and too long, 
plus (unlike say London or Sydney) there is absolutely nothing on 
either side of the bridge because it is part of the motorway system, so 
that means an even longer cycle / walk to get anywhere useful.