Green City

[zill]

Our granola mayor wants Vancovuer to be the greenest city in the world. He rides his bike to work with his suit on and has been a huge proponent of dedicated bike lanes. So much so that we've lost a vehicle lane on one of only three bridges connecting the west side of the city to the downtown peninsula, and a number of vehicle lanes on key vehicular traffic arteries downtown.

Anyway, I'm not here to debate this particular issue. What I'm annoyed about today is that the city has virtually NO snow removal equipment or budget, and the snow is coming down today, creating a traffic nightmare. And while streets are slick and unplowed, what do I see but a specialized snow-blowing machine clearing the fucking bike lanes!!!!!!

You know, I guess because a lot of people wake up and see the snow and figure it would be a good idea to ride their mountain bikes to work in the blizzard.

[Terim]

Hilarious! Always good to hear a good Vancouver in the snow story.

And I bike to work 1/2 the year, so dedicated bike lanes seem like a (mostly) good idea.

Of course, in the forward thinking city that I live in (Ottawa), dedicated bike lanes remain a great idea for the far future, currently 2018 to 2025, while new roads & lane additions can't be build fast enough. Sigh. Maybe the post isn't all that funny after all.[:I]

[wherewereuin82]

Where the hell is Vancovuer?

In my day we used to ride our bikes in 10 ft of snow, down city streets with NO bike lanes. Hippie pansies.

[eight6]

Toronto just dumped most of it's green thinking municipal gov't for stupidity like bike lanes everywhere. TO is already choked with traffic, the last thing needed was to steal a valuable lane of traffic for the 5 cyclists that use them.

I was in Vancouver in 90/91, and they had a couple of snow storms that virtually closed the city. I had a good laugh watching people shovel with their makeshift shovels fashioned out of some plywood and a 2x4. Cars were stranded everywhere either because they got stuck or ran out of gas because none of the gas stations were plowed.

They are totally unprepared for snow there. Fun couple of days.

[SwampThing]

Read about Seattle mayor 200 miles south of Vancouver (from wiki):
Transportation
Since taking office McGinn has been criticized for conducting a "war on cars"[32][33] and described as "philosophically anti-car".[34] McGinn descibed the idea of a war on cars "silly" and stated his transportation policy is focused on reducing the number of cars in Seattle and expanding biking, walking and public transit.[35] McGinn asserts that the only way to make people change their behaivior is to make it more difficult for them to drive and park.[36] Since his time as a neighborhood activist in Greenwood, to his current position as Mayor, McGinn has pushed for the removal of car lanes and on-street parking around the city in favor of bus and bike lanes.

The Mayor's allocation of a $13 million funding increase, derived from new taxes on motorists, for bicycle and pedestrian projects in the same year he pushed for cuts to basic services, layoffs, hiring and pay freezes of police and other city employees, library and community center closings and reduced funding in road maintenance has caused debate over his budgetary priorities.[37]

McGinn's proposed surface street replacement of the viaduct calls for the reduction of cars on that portion of the Highway 99 corridor from 105,000 to 50,000 per weekday.[38] McGinn claims that the lost traffic capacity could be offset by diverteing more cars to Interstate 5, increased transit use, walking, biking and drivers staying home.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02 ... -video.php

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