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lestermagnum t1_j1vgg5h wrote

Reply to comment by hellionlord in Brett Smiley looks to change / eliminate bicycle lane on South Water Street by Locksmith-Pitiful

Came here to say this. Most people and businesses are against widespread installation of bike lanes. A very vocal minority of people in online forums shouldn’t dictate this sort of policy, especially when they’ve admitted in the past to not giving two shits what the neighborhood residents think.

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Locksmith-Pitiful OP t1_j1vh896 wrote

> when they’ve admitted in the past to not giving two shits what the neighborhood residents think.

Why should more vocal, wealthy residents dictate what the rest of the community should do? You bet your ass students and low income workers are too busy to attend meetings or send emails to voice their support for it.

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hellionlord t1_j1we9xr wrote

And all this being said, I was out on Election Day canvassing for Gonzalo in the rain as I had other days as well. Where TF were y’all?

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lightningbolt1987 t1_j1yi5jh wrote

It’s not about what people on Reddit want. Installing these protected bike lanes is basic, competent, modern city planning. Most if not every dynamic American city are installing such lanes with great success. Like with south water, there is always backlash when proposed, and like south water there’s basically no negative impact after installed. Usually, at that point, the detractors just forget about it and move on when they realize their fears haven’t materialized. For some reason people here just can’t let this one go.

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lestermagnum t1_j1ylawp wrote

There is a precedent of removing them. It happened on Eaton St a few years ago. Same thing with temporary bike lanes in East Providence that barely lasted a week. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Especially when it was pushed through with very little input from the local community, which was the case with the South Water St lanes. Its been a huge controversy since they first started building it, but the city plowed ahead over the objections and did it anyway.

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lightningbolt1987 t1_j1yvb6e wrote

But what would be the point of removing south water street lane? It clearly does work. There’s been in depth traffic studies showing that there is not even remotely a traffic issue on the street. No parking spaces were lost. Local businesses are doing well. Is there ANY basis for removing the south water lane other than the detractors having too big of an ego to admit they were wrong?

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Proof-Variation7005 t1_j1zzdnu wrote

>But what would be the point of removing south water street lane?

I think people are maybe overstating that possibility and the incoming Mayor's intent here.

I don't really frequent the area but if it's causing significant traffic issues all around, it'd probably worth looking into maybe not taking up 15 feet of road width, especially since you have the ability to use open land right next to the road for a large chunk of that area.

As for a point for or against removing it, I think how much or little it gets used would probably be consideration too.

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lightningbolt1987 t1_j20dcww wrote

It’s not causing any traffic, that’s one of the reasons it’s time to let it be.

With regards to use, I hear you, but we have an issue currently with proving out these bike lanes, in that they were built in disconnected fragments. Until they connect and you can actually safely and seamlessly bike through the city it’s hard to measure impact because they aren’t that useable. Generally, in other cities, widespread connected bike infrastructure has led to a major increase in biking. There’s no reason to believe Providence (a sense, compact city) would be any different in this regard.

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lightningbolt1987 t1_j1yvjc6 wrote

Also, businesses ALWAYS oppose bike lane when they are proposed, whether they are good locations for them or not. You can’t take “businesses objections” at face value. You need to parse out what’s an insightful objection and what’s just fear. On south water it’s become apparent objections were pure fear. There’s been no negative outcomes from the bike lanes installation—so if the city had listened to the 4 businesses that were against it then the city would have made the wrong choice and not built the bike lane here.

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