re: Bike lane controversy on Glenmore Ave in BR

These strawman arguments that cyclist haters always trot out are hilarious. If everyone rode a bike, do you know how much road maintenance there would be? Zero. Cars cause the damage to our roads not bikes. Taxes would be slashed significantly.

Other strawman argument is the cyclists not obeying traffic laws. Which is freaking hilarious with the way people drive their vehicles.

Bike insurance is even funnier. Do pedestrians get hit by cyclist? Sure occassionally. You know who kills pedestrians and cyclists at a rate much higher than cyclists, drivers.

Why don't you guys just come out and say you hate cyclist for the simple fact that they are on a bike? They cause you a rare inconvenience of 30 seconds. At least we would respect your honesty. All these fake outrages are old and tired.

Don't know it all, just a civil engineer who designs roads for a living. Bad soil below the road only effects the road if there is a load. Bicycle load is basically non existent and the load of the road itself is not significant enough to cause failure. I guess my statement would have been a little more correct with "effectively zero" maintenance. Every 40-50 years some minor maintenence would need to be done due to weather's effects on the road.

The ones that don't own cars and mostly Middleton Librarians for some reason. I guess one guy did it and it caught on.

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What do you mean ACTUALLY have jobs?

Most of them have jobs that probably pay a hell of a lot more than yours. It ain't a cheap hobby.

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You got me. Although they looked homeless and unemployable, several of the bikers at the meeting Monday night were drinking from $45 water bottles.

Besides buying a bike initially, what is so expensive about biking? Batteries for your little flashing lights?

After all this discussion I look at the facebook page for my neighborhood this morning and someone's proposing to put a bike lane on my street... People park on both sides of this one-way street, it will never work

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I just saw a guy riding his bike about 10mph down Veterans Hwy in Metairie. No lights or reflectors or anything. A G35 pulled into the lane and almost smoked him, and the dude starts going irate.

I wanted to mow him down just because he was a tPOS

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This is the kind of stuff I understand, but at the same time don't like the way it's addressed.

Is it daylight? In that case not only are reflectors not required, they are obviously useless. Is it stupid of the cyclist to ride down a busy road like Vets? 100%. Is it something that you can be annoyed and complain about? 110%. Should he expect stupid stuff like that to happen? definitely. If the car was truly at fault, the cyclist has the right to be a little angry. I mean, you can be annoyed that he's there, but he has the right to be. You can't just decide you are going to put his life at risk because you don't like it. Then anti-cycling people are going to make it out like the cyclist is "acting entitled". He's not acting entitled, he is in fact entitled to the right of using the road. Hate him for making a poor decision, but don't persecute the whole community as if they want special treatment. They don't want anything more than what they already have.

Now this particular situation may have had other factors, just using it to build an example. I just see people spout off so many opinions that are laughable.

I don't think people actually care if a cyclist pays any fees, is licensed, or is insured. They just use that as a debate talking point. At the base, they are just annoyed at situations like above. Man up and say that. There's nothing wrong with it. That cyclist sounds like a dumbass.

And the true meat of the conversation in this thread has nothing to do with a lot of this argument. I'll admit to getting off topic with that debate. This has to do with whether it is a good idea to have a bike lane on this particular street. Sound like a horrible idea and screws over residents from parking. I can only say that if it is a bike lane, it's not the cyclist themselves screwing the homeowners though. It's the fact that the lane exists in the first place. Parking in the bike lane only makes the whole situation worse.

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Sound like a horrible idea and screws over residents from parking.

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Why is the city supposed to provide you a parking spot?

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Besides buying a bike initially, what is so expensive about biking? Batteries for your little flashing lights?

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Well the "lance armstrong" types people love to bitch about, usually own several bikes. Which on average cost around $4000 each if they're serious about it. Then there's the gear which isn't exactly cheap either. Plus roof racks, etc. These people, on average, make a frick ton of money.

I'm not talking about some hipster with a craigslist bike.

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It's not, but as a homeowner it's likely in your best interest to have the availability if the space is there. By putting in a bike lane, you take that away.

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Homeowner or streetowner?

ETA: you're levelheaded it appears. My response could be interpreted as snark.