Additional to yesterday’s submit, this morning I took benefit of my strategic place on the fringe of town to go for a brief trip outdoors of it:
However alas, today there isn’t a escape from The Scourge Of The Motor Scooter:
Motor scooters have been taking on town’s bicycle infrastructure for the previous few years now, however at this level merely seeing them within the bike lane now appears quaint, and also you now discover them within the woods, on the subways, and peering at you excessive of the stall while you’re making an attempt to make use of the restroom.
In concept the proliferation of motor scooters in New York ought to be factor, since they’re small and environment friendly, and definitely a extra sensible alternative than a automotive in an city setting, which is why they’re so frequent in different elements of the world. Nonetheless, in observe it’s been a shitshow, since that is New York and we suck at all the things. The issue is that individuals right here usually trip motor scooters like they’re bicycles–which is to say poorly, and completely wherever they’ll presumably match them. Poor biking (and there has at all times been loads of it in New York) actually wasn’t that huge a deal within the outdated days, because the riders had been restricted by their very own meager energy output. However now that they’re assisted by electrical and gasoline engines it generally appears as if no place is secure, although the upside is individuals hate them a lot they’ve forgotten how a lot they used to hate bicyclists.
As for the broader “micromobility revolution,” that was supposed to interchange automotive journeys, however from what I can inform it largely consists of individuals rolling round languidly on numerous electrified contraptions and getting excessive in the course of the day. Additionally, I could complain about what battery-powered shifting has carried out to the fashionable street bike, however it’s nothing in comparison with what motors have carried out to the commuter bike:
Attributable to all of the e-bike battery fires, the Large Retailer Named After A River received’t ship this bike to New York Metropolis anymore:
However, at the least round these elements, that is just about the everyday non-delivery particular person e-bike. I suppose as a Jones rider I ought to admire the voluminous tires, and the fenders and rack are sensible–and to be honest it’s way more helpful than the everyday Targ-Mart bike with out being that rather more costly. So possibly that is progress? Nevertheless it additionally weighs 68lbs, I can’t assist questioning if the web impact by way of effort of driving a 68lb bike with a motor versus a 30lb bike with out one is principally a wash.
As for fireplace threat, you may after all keep away from that by choosing a extra respected model–properly, normally:
Talking of motorbike lanes, there’s a regulation that each three months newspapers should run an anti-bike lane opinion piece, and there’s the most recent from the Washington Publish:
New column: Bike lanes — a part of a “street weight loss program” that sounds wholesome and nutritious however is definitely a recipe for visitors constipation — are sometimes a stealthy option to push wholesale class and racial change https://t.co/SxsXRFFzCx
— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) November 20, 2024
I couldn’t learn it as a result of I don’t have a subscription, however I’ve a reasonably good thought of the place it’s going:
Regardless of its popularity as a liberal enclave, D.C. will not be and can by no means be Amsterdam, Portland or a type of school cities the place the streets teem with extra bicycles than automobiles.
However generally, it’s not for a scarcity of making an attempt.
The District’s planners are intent on placing lots of the metropolis’s most necessary streets on what’s referred to as a “street weight loss program,” which sounds wholesome and nutritious however is definitely a recipe for visitors constipation and commuter complications — and possibly a stealth mechanism for encouraging a wholesale shift in race and sophistication in sure neighborhoods.
Bike lanes or no bike lanes, the individuals who don’t like them are usually unwilling to confess that the explanation for visitors is…too many automobiles. Toronto is eradicating its bike lanes, and it’s a reasonably secure wager that their visitors isn’t going to go away in consequence:
On the identical time, the opinion author is true that bike lanes are sometimes “Not concerning the bikes”–not within the sense it’s a conspiracy to make you reside in a 15-minute metropolis and eat bugs (although I’m not ruling it out), however within the sense that what designers need to accomplish with the bike lanes is commonly secondary (at finest) to their utility for bicyclists. Designers are usually up entrance about utilizing bike lanes to calm visitors and create shorter crossings for pedestrians and enhance visibility and all that stuff, and it may possibly definitely work, however the expertise of truly utilizing the lane on a motorcycle might be quite fraught, like once they run them proper previous freeway on-ramps
Typically the bike lanes in New York lull you right into a false sense of safety, which ends very abruptly on the first intersection, and also you generally get the sense they constructed them absolutely anticipating that no person would use them.
Or that they’d say “fuck it” and begin utilizing motor scooters as a substitute. You possibly can trip these dangerous boys wherever.