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]

Lol apparently some bike nerd sperged out at a Baltimore city transportation meeting about bike lanes and called a city councilmember (I think) a bitch.

View attachment 5798113

I wonder if he's got an internet footprint.

Video Source Article (Archive)

That reaction is what happens when urban planners decide to build their utopia without bothering to consult the people who will live in it.

The attitude of the Baltimore planners is commonly expressed in places like /r/urbanplanning where all negative community feedback is treated as something to weasel around and ignore.

I've even seen this behavior in my city's plans, where all the comments ask for wider roads and more parking yet the planner ignores it and talks about how everyone wants bike lanes and parking maximums. Luckily they have no power because the mayor and city council are sane and because they can't deal with compromise solutions. I've heard them get real stuttery whenever someone says "We should definitely build more mixed-use apartments. We'll approve the project provided the developer builds a garage big enough for the residents and customers." and "A bike lane sounds like a great idea, we'll build an extra wide sidewalk so we don't have to take away car lanes". When the planner protests those suggestions they look crazy because they solve the problem they're supposedly complaining about (but they fail to make it difficult to drive, which is the real hidden goal). One still has to be careful though because they try to slip their stuff into regulations to get their urbanist crap implemented.

Urban planners are completely useless. All the good things that people assume they do are actually done by others like real estate developers and civil engineers. Urban planners do nothing but play Sim City in real life and they care more about getting internet dopamine points than actually meeting the needs of their constituents.

Also, there's no way that guy in the video can even balance on a bike, let alone ride one a significant distance.

 

[Xarpho's Return]

I really hope that whoever's paying him pays well, imagine doing this for free!

"I, for one, welcome our Globalist overlords."

 

[TowinKarz]

Was this guy born yesterday? The whole country imploded over fentanyl Floyd and I'm pretty sure Chauvin was stabbed in prison.

Did they miss the fact the cop who lit up his own cruiser on account of an acorn lost his job? And only avoided further prosecution because of bad aim that left his victim alive?

Or that there is an increasing movement to remove qualified immunity when cops do patently stupid/overkill shit? Like bring an APC and SWAT team to execute a search warrant for a stolen cell phone and to top it all off, they kick in the door to the wrong house?

Cops can and are prosecuted for causing deaths in their line of duty- when their actions are proven reckless and against policy. As they should be.

 

[Baraka Obama]

we'll build an extra wide sidewalk so we don't have to take away car lanes

It's definitely preferable to have multi-use pathways on the sides of major roads than a dinky sidewalk. Kids and well pretty well anyone but spandex clad losers are going to bike on the sidewalk anyway, might as well make it wide and fit for purpose.

 

[Marvin]

That reaction is what happens when urban planners decide to build their utopia without bothering to consult the people who will live in it.

The attitude of the Baltimore planners is commonly expressed in places like /r/urbanplanning where all negative community feedback is treated as something to weasel around and ignore.

Also, urban planners are completely useless. All the good things that people assume they do are actually done by others like real estate developers and civil engineers. Urban planners do nothing but play Sim City in real life and they care more about getting reddit upvotes than actually meeting the needs of their constituents.

Yeah, the class / racial differences are also pretty interesting at these meetings.

Comfortable white people push for stupid urbanist shit while black people are just wanting to get to work on time without getting robbed.

Also, there's no way that guy in the video can even balance on a bike, let alone ride one a significant distance.

Yeah, turns out he's a general urbanist faggot who weighs in on lots of stuff like this.

According to this xeet (a), this woman was claiming his name is Isaac Leal and he writes a lot of urbanist op-eds in the Baltimore Sun.

She links to a facebook (a) that's mostly empty.

The profile picture sorta looks like the guy from the video:


One of Isaac Leal's op-eds is about making Baltimore a post-automobile city (a).

Another one of his op-eds was about updating the downtown inner harbor shopping area (a). He went crazy with the thesaurus in that and it's hard for me to understand exactly what he's asking for. But I found he gave some other testimony about it:

Now we know he's the doughy white guy with the earrings and not the black guy because the original article (a) quotes each of their words paired with the name.

It seems like Isaac wants to fill the inner harbor with a bunch of hip, expensive bughive apartments. Sounds like the same guy from the transportation council meeting.

 

[quaawaa]

According to this xeet (a), this woman was claiming his name is Isaac Leal and he writes a lot of urbanist op-eds in the Baltimore Sun.

She links to a facebook (a) that's mostly empty.

The profile picture sorta looks like the guy from the video:


One of Isaac Leal's op-eds is about making Baltimore a post-automobile city (a).

Another one of his op-eds was about updating the downtown inner harbor shopping area (a). He went crazy with the thesaurus in that and it's hard for me to understand exactly what he's asking for. But I found he gave some other testimony about it:

You can't make this up, he works for the IRS:

and has only lived in Baltimore for a year and a half:

Source (Archive)

While looking up more of his articles I found these letters to the editor (archive) about one of his op-eds (archive). They're hilarious:

 

[TowinKarz]

It's definitely preferable to have multi-use pathways on the sides of major roads than a dinky sidewalk. Kids and well pretty well anyone but spandex clad losers are going to bike on the sidewalk anyway, might as well make it wide and fit for purpose.

That's the only solution, as long as mine goes unimplemented..... (I wanted to give every pedestrian a free poleaxe)

 

[Atypical Dog]

The attitude of the Baltimore planners is commonly expressed in places like /r/urbanplanning where all negative community feedback is treated as something to weasel around and ignore.

I've even seen this behavior in my city's plans, where all the comments ask for wider roads and more parking yet the planner ignores it and talks about how everyone wants bike lanes and parking maximums. Luckily they have no power because the mayor and city council are sane and because they can't deal with compromise solutions. I've heard them get real stuttery whenever someone says "We should definitely build more mixed-use apartments. We'll approve the project provided the developer builds a garage big enough for the residents and customers." and "A bike lane sounds like a great idea, we'll build an extra wide sidewalk so we don't have to take away car lanes". When the planner protests those suggestions they look crazy because they solve the problem they're supposedly complaining about (but they fail to make it difficult to drive, which is the real hidden goal). One still has to be careful though because they try to slip their stuff into regulations to get their urbanist crap implemented.

Suddenly because you have the fancy diploma you don't have to listen to the people who will actually deal with your decisions. College was a mistake.

One thing I do agree with the urbanists on is that the US doesn't have great public transportation. Because public transportation (particularly high fixed cost methods like rails) works best with places with high population density and long-term habitation so that ridership is guaranteed. As a relatively young nation with a lot of land per capita, the US just doesn't have these things, meaning cars, roads, and taxis are still a good solution in all but the most crowded areas.

Contrast Europe, which has cities that have been around longer than people have even known that the American continent existed.

 

[Marvin]

You can't make this up, he works for the IRS:

and has only lived in Baltimore for a year and a half:

Source (Archive)

Huh. I wonder if the IRS is letting him work remotely or if he's hauling his fat ass down to DC every day. I know the SSA is headquartered in the Baltimore metro area but I don't know of any IRS offices in the area.

Edit: Or actually, I see one IRS office downtown. Actually not too far from harborplace he's screeching about.

While looking up more of his articles I found these letters to the editor (archive) about one of his op-eds (archive). They're hilarious:

Lol. I like the Agnew quotes. Before he was Nixon's Vice President, Spiro Agnew was born in Baltimore and he served as Maryland's governor.

Kids and well pretty well anyone but spandex clad losers are going to bike on the sidewalk anyway, might as well make it wide and fit for purpose.

The problem with riding on the sidewalk is that, in urban areas, statistically it's less safe than riding in the street. Every time you exit onto the roadway from the sidewalk, you are basically just zooming into someone's blind spot and have a high chance of getting sideswiped.

Ideally you should ride on the street to make yourself seen, but hug the side of the road, let the cars pass you when they approach, and don't hog the street and piss people off.

One thing I do agree with the urbanists on is that the US doesn't have great public transportation. Because public transportation (particularly high fixed cost methods like rails) works best with places with high population density and long-term habitation so that ridership is guaranteed. As a relatively young nation with a lot of land per capita, the US just doesn't have these things, meaning cars, roads, and taxis are still a good solution in all but the most crowded areas.

It's not so terrible on the east coast. And there's improvements that I agree with some of the local urbanists here about, like the proposed red line in Baltimore. (I know there's things to criticize about it too, but I think it'd offer a nice east-west counterpart to the existing north-south light rail.)

Where I disagree with the doughball above, I think we can achieve some of these improvements to public transit here without making all the drivers completely miserable, like sacrificing several lanes of traffic for bike lanes no one uses.

 

[Atypical Dog]

It's not so terrible on the east coast. And there's improvements that I agree with some of the local urbanists here about, like the proposed red line in Baltimore. (I know there's things to criticize about it too, but I think it'd offer a nice east-west counterpart to the existing north-south light rail.)

East Coast is the longest-settled part of the US so it makes sense to me. As for the rail line, a quick Wikipedia shows the red line cutting along the coast to the ring road, across where I assume the old parts of town next to the old port are. Likely no lack of ridership there. Looks like a good pick in theory.

And yes. Appropriating the language of our wokepressors, roads are for everyone. All methods of transportation matter. All Fanatic Urbanists are Bastards.

 

[Flaming Insignias]

Ideally you should ride on the street to make yourself seen, but hug the side of the road, let the cars pass you when they approach, and don't hog the street and piss people off.

I work near Amish Country, so I see a lot of horse buggies on the road during my commute. They're slow as shit, but they also seem to be generally easy to get used to since they usually have flashing lamps and reflectors to make them noticeable while they drive on the edge of the road to make them reasonably easy to pass. If the Amish know how to share the road even when having to deal with the variability of a horse, then those bikefags can learn how to share the road and not throw a tantrum when their awful habits get them hit.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

One thing I do agree with the urbanists on is that the US doesn't have great public transportation.

It actually does in quite a few cities. What the US completely lacks is any form of integration or connection between all the spread out cities (so things like SEATAC, the eastern seaboard, socal have stuff, but nothing between because the country is so big).

The US also has quite a few absolutely batshit insane pubic transport attempts, but there are quite a few that are successful at least by ridership.

In September, Metro had 24,671,730 boardings on its bus and rail services. An average of 938,167 rides were taken each weekday, the first time since February 2020 that weekday Metro ridership has surpassed 900,000 boardings.

LA, fabled car hellhole, has half a million people using transit each weekday. Half a million!

 

[DavidS877]

LA, fabled car hellhole, has half a million people using transit each weekday. Half a million!

I suspect that's a little high. As I think boardings are a single leg of transit, so if you take the bus to the train that's 2. Maybe even changing busses. You did factor in the round trip but I'm guessing the unique rider count is lower.

But then you have things like this

The agency’s heightened focus on safety, which has resulted in a 32 percent decrease in serious crimes across the system since June,

If there's a 32 percent decrease that still likely means too many.

 

[Atypical Dog]

It actually does in quite a few cities. What the US completely lacks is any form of integration or connection between all the spread out cities (so things like SEATAC, the eastern seaboard, socal have stuff, but nothing between because the country is so big).

Simply shrink the rest of the country so that the rails slap together. Just bust out a few hundred Cryocopters on alt fire mode and we'll have the US the size of Singapore in no time!

https://cnc.fandom.com/wiki/Cryocopter#Abilities

Use the main gun to fix global warming while you're at it, just freeze all the tiny wildfires that start happening.

 

[Bonesjones]

One thing I do agree with the urbanists on is that the US doesn't have great public transportation. Because public transportation (particularly high fixed cost methods like rails) works best with places with high population density and long-term habitation so that ridership is guaranteed. As a relatively young nation with a lot of land per capita, the US just doesn't have these things, meaning cars, roads, and taxis are still a good solution in all but the most crowded areas.

Contrast Europe, which has cities that have been around longer than people have even known that the American continent existed.

We do have great public transit, where it counts. It's just in the form of airplanes. The problem is they want trains in USA where they don't work because the terrain is different and it's much too large. They think you can just eminent domain express trains to major cities so their dreams of free travel can exist. Any form of train is going to stop frequently just like every long distance train and bus in existence, but that's not a sexy romantic idea, it's reality. Passenger trains suck in every way compared to airplanes, except for the post 9/11 security theater.

The truth is the whole reason passenger trains worked was for the reason mass transit only works, large populations of predictable travel. You know factory workers. Unfortunately they combo killed them with outsourcing from environmental laws and union labor demands. It's funny because you can look at a map of the eastern united states and about every 30 miles is a small town, that's the distance a steam locomotive could travel on a single tank of water.

 

[2 Faces 2 Colours]

Punishing criminals doesn't stop crime:

That is unless a chud does a heckin transphobia, then put him in jail and throw away the key.

 

[Atypical Dog]

We do have great public transit, where it counts. It's just in the form of airplanes. The problem is they want trains in USA where they don't work because the terrain is different and it's much too large. They think you can just eminent domain express trains to major cities so their dreams of free travel can exist. Any form of train is going to stop frequently just like every long distance train and bus in existence, but that's not a sexy romantic idea, it's reality. Passenger trains suck in every way compared to airplanes, except for the post 9/11 security theater.

The truth is the whole reason passenger trains worked was for the reason mass transit only works, large populations of predictable travel. You know factory workers. Unfortunately they combo killed them with outsourcing from environmental laws and union labor demands. It's funny because you can look at a map of the eastern united states and about every 30 miles is a small town, that's the distance a steam locomotive could travel on a single tank of water.

True! Trains are just buses that are fast, expensive, and don't need roads or rails to get anywhere. That way you don't have to deal with the bother of predicting demand when you can just point the plane at another airport.

 

[SocialDislocationAuto]

Are those things even fun to drive, asking for a friend. Can't help but think anyone using them looks like a massive faggot on the occasion I see one in public.

I think I heard them most aptly compared to fat girls, "fun to ride until someone sees you." Really anything motorcycle adjacent is a blast, I remember old Vespas having a little learning curve because the engine and gearbox is all basically slung hard off one side, weight bias makes you need to lean a bit harder following curves one way than the other.

 

[S.C.U.D.]

There are bike lanes on my route to and from work and despite being there morning and evening 5 days a week for years I have never seen a single solitary cyclist actually using the bike lane. Here's what I have seen:

• Buses stopping in the bike lane to embark/disembark passengers
• People whose houses are on the street using the bike lanes as parking spots
• Cyclists riding on the sidewalk (extremely rare)
• Cyclists using the walking/cycling trail 30 feet away from the bike lane that's been there for decades (extremely common)
• Motorists using the bike lane as a cheat lane to get around in traffic (and in one case, cut me off on a turn nearly causing an accident)
• People walking in the bike lane despite a sidewalk being right there (unprotected bike lane btw)

Luckily they didn't delete any car lanes for it, I'd hate to be a driver in Baltimore who has to deal with that shit.

 

[indomitable snowman]

>you don’t solve crime rates with enforcement

That’s so spectacularly retarded I don’t even know how to respond

Real 'if you kill your enemies, they win' energy