Holy One Party Hegemony, Batman -- you mean a candidate for mayor can speak openly about such matters?
Chairman Adam wouldn't DREAM of allowing it here in Nawbony. The funding grandees would shut THAT mother down faster than Harvest Homecoming chokes off independent business activity on Market & Pearl.
You see, Jackie Green gets it: Public safety isn't entirely about demolishing as many houses as possible. It's also about how people get back and forth on city streets running from one vacant, weed-covered lot to the next ... but try telling that to the current regime in New Albany.
By the way, wouldn't it have been a better idea to slow those massive heavy trucks by design BEFORE diverting them from Main to Spring?
Or would that have required advance planning beyond the capability of salaried staff?
On second thought, ignore the last question.
Self-incrimination, and all.
Louisville should move beyond bike lanes, by Jackie Green (Insider Louisville)
Editor’s note: Jackie Green is a Louisville businessman who owns Bike Courier Bike Shops and is a candidate for mayor.
Louisville cannot readily change the mass of vehicles on the road. Louisville, however, can limit the velocity of vehicles traveling surface roads inside the Watterson Expressway. Slower, calmer traffic gives travelers more time to assess, more time to decide, more time to react. Slower, calmer traffic diminishes stress. Slower, calm, safe streets benefit the community of pedestrians, wheelchair users, young children in strollers, joggers, skate boarders, cyclists and motorists.Drivers are also more likely to embrace slower speeds for the benefit of the broader community than they are to embrace the loss of travel lanes to cyclists.Reducing the velocity of vehicles traveling surface roads inside the Watterson can be accomplished by eliminating one-way roads, lowering the speed limit inside the Watterson to 20 mph, and increasing speeding fees dramatically.While D.C. has instituted a $500 fine for motorists who hit a cyclist, Louisville should explore a fine for hitting a pedestrian. Cities are for people. Our common spaces should be dominated by people, not cars, not bicycles.Rather than calming traffic, current city leadership has chosen to take lanes away from motor vehicles and segregate cyclists in lanes that are not protected by big trees or bollards, are seldom cleared of debris, are covered with winter’s ice, are baked by summer’s sun, traverse treacherous pavement, do not serve destination needs, and pit cyclists against motorists and pedestrians. Louisville needs to get beyond bike lanes. We need to address the real problem in any lane: mass and velocity.
Jackie Green is as much a mayoral candidate as anyone else whose name could be written in by their friends. His insistence on removing cars from the cityscape is unrealistic idealism. Every time he mentions infrastructure it's to suggest some means of getting fewer cars on the roads by coercive means. If he would consider promoting cycling instead of limiting driving he might find more allies. Instead he rallies against surface parking lots and bike lanes. Bike lanes make cycling a viable alternative for many downtown workers. Parking lots are a bit of an eyesore, but parking garages cost a lot to build and that sort of cash doesn't come easy. If we get rid of parking lots and bike lanes we're kinda telling both cars AND bikes to stay out of downtown.
ReplyDeleteRemoving cars from the cityscape is unrealistic. Modifying the terms of engagement is not, and whatever one's feelings about Jackie Green (I've met him but never really had a conversation), it is not unrealistic to posit that speeds in lanes play a crucial role in the modification process. It's also worth noting that he discusses public transit as part of the overall picture. I've just been to Minneapolis, and enjoyed having such an option.
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