Not Just Bikes / r/fuckcars / Urbanists / New Urbanism / Car-Free / Anti-Car - People and grifters who hate personal transport, freedom, cars, roads, suburbs, and are obsessed with city planning and urban design

[quaawaa]

Portland is all aboard the urbanist train. They have an urban growth boundary (de facto ban on new houses), banned parking for apartment buildings (had to backtrack on that), heavily restrict commercial parking, removed car lanes for bike/bus lanes, instituted traffic calming, spent a large fortune on a small light rail system, and as mentioned before, don’t build new automotive infrastructure as the population grows. Any policy /r/fuckcars advocates for, Portland has already implemented.

They’ve somehow managed to create expensive housing in an area without massive tourist demand or ultra high-paying jobs.

 

[namvata]

Portland is all aboard the urbanist train. They have an urban growth boundary (de facto ban on new houses), banned parking for apartment buildings (had to backtrack on that), heavily restrict commercial parking, removed car lanes for bike/bus lanes, instituted traffic calming, spent a large fortune on a small light rail system, and as mentioned before, don’t build new automotive infrastructure as the population grows. Any policy /r/fuckcars advocates for, Portland has already implemented.

Ah, and here I was thinking Remy was just talking about San Fagshitco in this song

 

[Xarpho's Return]

Portland is all aboard the urbanist train. They have an urban growth boundary (de facto ban on new houses), banned parking for apartment buildings (had to backtrack on that), heavily restrict commercial parking, removed car lanes for bike/bus lanes, instituted traffic calming, spent a large fortune on a small light rail system, and as mentioned before, don’t build new automotive infrastructure as the population grows. Any policy /r/fuckcars advocates for, Portland has already implemented.

They’ve somehow managed to create expensive housing in an area without massive tourist demand or ultra high-paying jobs.

I'm not sure if their transit-related policies directly contributed to the crime/homeless problem but it comes from the same mind. It's just like how Minneapolis was already circling the drain before COVID when it came to pro-crime/anti-car measures (banning new drive-through construction for instance).

As an aside, Jason was whining about Portland wasn't "bike-friendly" enough when they reverted a bike lane project to its old lane configuration.

Remember, all this "entitled cars" business is just projection (same with "just one more lane bro")--when it comes to bike lanes, always new infrastructure, never anything taken away, and the slightest backtracking causes them to have a shitfit.

 

[quaawaa]

Saw this video shared on /r/NotJustBikes:

The hilarious thing about the video is that he has no clue where the airports are/were in Hong Kong and Houston.

Hong Kong originally had an airport in the city center, Kai Tak, which was famous for being very difficult to land at, requiring a 47 degree turn at low altitude immediately before landing. The video maker doesn’t appear to be aware of its existence or he would have bragged about how convenient it was.

They’ve since built a new airport, Chek Lap Kok, on landfill in the outskirts of the city, and according to Google, it is faster to drive than take transit to it, and it is just as far from central HK as George Bush airport is from downtown Houston (a fact the video maker points out).


He also points out that the driving times are similar between the two cities, but he doesn’t mention that the transit times are also similar.

There’s another major issue with his analysis; Houston doesn’t have only one airport. It also has a downtown airport, but unlike Kai Tak, Hobby Airport still exists.



So it takes a Houstonian 15 minutes to drive to the airport from downtown, and it takes Hong Konger 47 minutes to get to the airport via transit, which is proof that Hong Kong is superior?

For completeness, Kai Tak is around the same time away from central Hong Kong as Hobby Airport is from downtown Houston:


Looks like things are pretty similar even in cities thousands of miles apart designed in completely different ways.

The issues in the video are only an issue if you hate cars and taxis. I wouldn’t care as much about these people if they weren’t trying to tax and regulate everything that doesn’t conform to their urbanist vision out of existence.

Also, I love how a fatass is preaching that everyone is healthier in transit cities. Wikipedia says he lives in Toronto, which certainly qualifies as one. Maybe lose weight first before making that claim?
Sorry for phone screenshots and no archive.

 

[Markass the Worst]

Saw this video shared on /r/NotJustBikes:

The hilarious thing about the video is that he has no clue where the airports are/were in Hong Kong and Houston.

Hong Kong originally had an airport in the city center, Kai Tak, which was famous for being very difficult to land at, requiring a 47 degree turn at low altitude immediately before landing. The video maker doesn’t appear to be aware of its existence or he would have bragged about how convenient it was.

They’ve since built a new airport, Chek Lap Kok, on landfill in the outskirts of the city, and according to Google, it is faster to drive than take transit to it, and it is just as far from central HK as George Bush airport is from downtown Houston (a fact the video maker points out).

View attachment 4156182View attachment 4156191
He also points out that the driving times are similar between the two cities, but he doesn’t mention that the transit times are also similar.

There’s another major issue with his analysis; Houston doesn’t have only one airport. It also has a downtown airport, but unlike Kai Tak, Hobby Airport still exists.

View attachment 4156188

So it takes a Houstonian 15 minutes to drive to the airport from downtown, and it takes Hong Konger 47 minutes to get to the airport via transit, which is proof that Hong Kong is superior?

For completeness, Kai Tak is around the same time away from central Hong Kong as Hobby Airport is from downtown Houston:
View attachment 4156200

Looks like things are pretty similar even in cities thousands of miles apart designed in completely different ways.

The issues in the video are only an issue if you hate cars and taxis. I wouldn’t care as much about these people if they weren’t trying to tax and regulate everything that doesn’t conform to their urbanist vision out of existence.

Spoiler: video archive

Hilarious how towards the end he dismisses the green space argument for low density and says clusters of high density like Hong Kong is better because it leaves green space untouched for parks and stuff and you can't walk through people's backyards. Do urbanists just collectively forget suburbs have parks too?

Also I'm pretty sure urbanists hate the Google Maps argument of comparing travel times between modes on navigation app. They'll mumble something about how ackshually drivers are slowed by traffic so it's not representative, or ignore it entirely and switch to arguing about driving being unpleasant or polluting the environment or whatever. It baffles me they always play up alternatives to driving as faster than driving ("on a bicycle you'll just fly past traffic!") when often times that's simply not the case (unless you're traveling a long distance by airport, high speed rail, or you live close to your destination). If I was an urbanist the last thing I'd argue is that not driving is faster than driving.

Also, I love how a fatass is preaching that everyone is healthier in transit cities. Wikipedia says he lives in Toronto, which certainly qualifies as one. Maybe lose weight first before making that claim?

Maybe he was repeating the NJB "Gym of Life" argument that says a city that makes you walk or bike everywhere is good for your health (also the personal responsibility option of simply going to the gym is dismissed and handwaved away) and if we want to seriously address the obesity crisis we need to ban cars. Except he forgot that if you're using transit everywhere, you're not really walking. Knowing urbanists though it's probably something dumber than that.

 

[MS Paint Gigachad]

For some reason or another, American malls never got into what other malls did worldwide, keeping one sort of food-focused anchor (grocery, hypermarket)...and I have all sorts of thoughts of malls and American retail but a lot of that is both powerleveling and off-topic.

I mean, somebody once said something about being able to find ammo, food, toys etc in a wal-mart. If you think about it, functionally a wal-mart is the same as half a dozen smaller shops and a grocery store put together. Now if you could convince a walmart to share its building with some restaurants or something... well, that's kinda like a mall with a grocery store anchor

 

[Amber the Hedgehog]

Also I'm pretty sure urbanists hate the Google Maps argument of comparing travel times between modes on navigation app. They'll mumble something about how ackshually drivers are slowed by traffic so it's not representative, or ignore it entirely and switch to arguing about driving being unpleasant or polluting the environment or whatever. It baffles me they always play up alternatives to driving as faster than driving ("on a bicycle you'll just fly past traffic!") when often times that's simply not the case (unless you're traveling a long distance by airport, high speed rail, or you live close to your destination). If I was an urbanist the last thing I'd argue is that not driving is faster than driving.

If the travel time from door to door is under 15 minutes by an alternative (walking, biking or public transportation) then that alternative is probably faster than a car. Cars take while to get going and stopped. Walking to your car, strapping yourself in, starting the motor, getting out of a parking spot, parking, waliking to you your destination and so on. That stuff easily takes multiple minutes so short distances cars are in disadvantage. This is where that whole 15 minutes neighborhood idea comes from.

Thing is think about how far that 15 minutes takes you. Most trips most people make are longer than that witch is why cars tend to rule over them all. When you add there the carrying capacity, more options do faster traveling and weather protection the car supremacy makes complete sense. It makes so much sense that even car haters know it and they hate it so so much. They know they have inferior product even if they hate the alternative. I'm pretty sure if they could they would choose only they have cars, preferably driven by someone else, so they could have all the befits of car free environment and car transportation.

 

[2lolis1cup]

NJB decided to try out a tesla "auto pilot" beta CAR and it turned out about how you would expect.


He then goes on a rant about how much Toronto's public transit sucks. Here is a nice summary.

 

[S.C.U.D.]

Maybe he was repeating the NJB "Gym of Life" argument that says a city that makes you walk or bike everywhere is good for your health (also the personal responsibility option of simply going to the gym is dismissed and handwaved away) and if we want to seriously address the obesity crisis we need to ban cars.

I see way too many fat fucks taking the bus to ever believe that.

 

[quaawaa]

If the travel time from door to door is under 15 minutes by an alternative (walking, biking or public transportation) then that alternative is probably faster than a car. Cars take while to get going and stopped. Walking to your car, strapping yourself in, starting the motor, getting out of a parking spot, parking, waliking to you your destination and so on. That stuff easily takes multiple minutes so short distances cars are in disadvantage. This is where that whole 15 minutes neighborhood idea comes from.

That’s true, but “15 minute city” advocates never count the time it takes to get out of/back into a multi-story building, which also can be several minutes, especially if an elevator is required.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

I mean, somebody once said something about being able to find ammo, food, toys etc in a wal-mart. If you think about it, functionally a wal-mart is the same as half a dozen smaller shops and a grocery store put together. Now if you could convince a walmart to share its building with some restaurants or something... well, that's kinda like a mall with a grocery store anchor

Some Walmarts have Starbucks or subway or even McDonald inside them (and sometimes eye doctors and once I see an actual clinic).

Mallmarts is real and it WILL get you!

(The Walmart with a mcdees also had one in the Parking lot not 500 ft away so I mean I could entertain SOME carbrain ideas lol)

As to Canada transit and shit - I have had relatively little trouble driving in unfamiliar cities ever - but ONLY new yawk had easy to understand transit the time I’ve visited. Every other city I’ve been to without a car has had moderately incomprehensible transit. I figured it out well enough but I’m sure it was suboptimal.

Rome lol is so small in the interesting part you just walk.

 

[quaawaa]

He then goes on a rant about how much Toronto's public transit sucks.

That rant shows he has no consistent definition of a “stroad”:


Source (Archive)

That photo is taken from Union Station and is of the intersection between York St, University Ave, and Front Street W.

Front St is only a single lane wide excluding the taxi lanes:

I’ve circled where he took the photo from. He was on the gasp pedestrian bridge.

York St is one way and only has two lanes:

University Ave has more than two lanes, but it has a subway line running beneath it and turns into a boulevard with memorials and parks in the median:


Toronto is indistinguishable from Breezewood!

He’s holding Toronto to an impossible standard and once again, the word “stroad” is revealed to have nothing to do with strip malls or parking lots. It literally just means a road with more than two lanes. NJB is anti-car, not pro-transit or pro-bike, and definitely not pro-human.

On a related note, Toronto urbanists constantly complain about the Gardiner Expressway ”cutting off” access to the waterfront, but they never mention the rail lines which do the same thing and are wider:

 

[Sargon's wife's son]

Yes Jason, we don't like to bike in winter because 90% of our prairie cities, which have pretty good trails and bike paths already, get brutally cold, with an even more brutal windchill. Cherry picking then finns, who have to work a lot harder to get a license, and since they're a smaller country, its easier to enforce traffic laws. In my cold prairie land, licenses and vehicles are both easier to get, and much more useful than a bike ever could be.

Ask a finn if they would rather a bike or car, and they'd probably say car, ask a northern canuck, they'd think you're retarded for entertaining that. -35 isn't something you want to bike in at the best of times.

Where I live we just got 9 ft of snow I'd like you to try and bike through that you f****** urbanite scumbags these people do realize that everything of value you produced in the United States in Europe is produced in the countryside you know not to quote Paul pot but he really is right about urbanite

If every American city and every European city was nuked from orbit that would be a marked improvement in the quality of life of all the Europeans and Americans

 

[WelperHelper99]

Some Walmarts have Starbucks or subway or even McDonald inside them (and sometimes eye doctors and once I see an actual clinic).

Mallmarts is real and it WILL get you!

(The Walmart with a mcdees also had one in the Parking lot not 500 ft away so I mean I could entertain SOME carbrain ideas lol)

Walmart's not just have all that, they have *gasp* a automotive section, including a repair garage in most. I not only can get snacks, a new TV, a bike (lol), ammo for my gun, camping supplies, a toy helicopter for the nephews, but I can get the tires checked on my car if I really want to. Also McDonald's in store is the shit. Usually slower than a big restaurant, but you don't have to drive over, which can speed up your trip if you're rushing to work and need lunch. And they do DoorDash too from my observations.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

That rant shows he has no consistent definition of a “stroad”:
View attachment 4157064
View attachment 4156920
Source (Archive)

That photo is taken from Union Station and is of the intersection between York St, University Ave, and Front Street W.

Front St is only a single lane wide excluding the taxi lanes:
View attachment 4156995
I’ve circled where he took the photo from. He was on the gasp pedestrian bridge.

York St is one way and only has two lanes:
View attachment 4157043
University Ave has more than two lanes, but it has a subway line running beneath it and turns into a boulevard with memorials and parks in the median:
View attachment 4157085

Toronto is indistinguishable from Breezewood!

He’s holding Toronto to an impossible standard and once again, the word “stroad” is revealed to have nothing to do with strip malls or parking lots. It literally just means a road with more than two lanes. NJB is anti-car, not pro-transit or pro-bike, and definitely not pro-human.

On a related note, Toronto urbanists constantly complain about the Gardiner Expressway ”cutting off” access to the waterfront, but they never mention the rail lines which do the same thing and are wider:
View attachment 4157061

They never mention rail lines because I bet the fuckers just walk across them without any regard for a train barreling down on them.

 

[WelperHelper99]

They never mention rail lines because I bet the fuckers just walk across them without any regard for a train barreling down on them.

Walking across a rail line is asking for trouble. It already will turn a pickup truck into dust with no damage to itself, a person is nothing. That and they don't talk about them I bet because they're the answer that  they want, and they can't just admit efforts have been made both through heavy and light rail. Light rail through my experiences have been useful at times, but i still want a car ultimately. The versatility of being able to change course on the fly and not risking getting on the wrong line is worth bad parking in my book.

 

[Box Tie]

NotJustBikes and his ilk are beyond cringe. While they have some good points in stroads being hot garbage, the all encompassing, uncompromising smugly superior worldview reminds me all too much of vegans. Then there's the creeping socialist/communist angle that seeps into the margins when you ask them "so what do you want, then?".

Communal travel, communal living, communal standards for what each individual needs or should expect out of life, decided by unelected technocrats who'll determine what is in the common good, while personally not subject to the limitations they'd impose on the masses because they have important things to do.

It wouldn't be quite so irritating if they werent so aggressively ignorant. Anyone with a bit of driving experience on either side of the Atlantic will quickly discover that driving the speed limit is liable to cause accidents as much as excessive speeding does itself, it is entirely situational when you can tack on 10/20% speed and Tesla is no more than sensible to make allowances for it.

I don't have to belabor the point for those who know what they're talking about, NJB is just another example of some wannabe technocrat with a head full of "good ideas" that he'll try to push through for the greater good, even if he has to lie or fuck people over to make it happen.

 

[Return of the Freaker]

Maybe he was repeating the NJB "Gym of Life" argument that says a city that makes you walk or bike everywhere is good for your health (also the personal responsibility option of simply going to the gym is dismissed and handwaved away) and if we want to seriously address the obesity crisis we need to ban cars. Except he forgot that if you're using transit everywhere, you're not really walking. Knowing urbanists though it's probably something dumber than that.

Knowing the types of people you'd be dealing with, the gym is toxic masculinity and/or a white supremacist breeding ground

 

[quaawaa]

They never mention rail lines because I bet the fuckers just walk across them without any regard for a train barreling down on them.

They aren’t walking across them, they’re taking bridges and tunnels. The hypocrisy is that they complain about having to use bridges/tunnels to cross highways but they are silent when they have to do the same for rails or canals. Somehow “dividing the city” isn’t a big deal if the thing dividing it is something they like.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

They aren’t walking across them, they’re taking bridges and tunnels. The hypocrisy is that they complain about having to use bridges/tunnels to cross highways but they are silent when they have to do the same for rails or canals. Somehow “dividing the city” isn’t a big deal if the thing dividing it is something they like.

The white ones maybe. The rail lines I’ve seen have idiots walking across or along pretty often.

(And this is how you tell these fucks don’t even bike, because real spandex ass bikers hate crossing rail lines especially when at a caddywompis angle to the road)

Single Bicycle Crashes at Skewed Rail Crossing

This video is the result of a research effort by faculty and students at the University of Tennessee to document and study the hazards associated with railwa...

youtu.be