No Escape

Additional to yesterday’s put up, this morning I took benefit of my strategic place on the fringe of town to go for a brief journey outdoors of it:

However alas, as of late there isn’t any escape from The Scourge Of The Motor Scooter:

Motor scooters have been taking on town’s bicycle infrastructure for the previous few years now, however at this level merely seeing them within the bike lane now appears quaint, and also you now discover them within the woods, on the subways, and peering at you excessive of the stall whenever you’re making an attempt to make use of the restroom.

In principle the proliferation of motor scooters in New York ought to be an excellent factor, since they’re small and environment friendly, and positively a extra sensible selection than a automotive in an city setting, which is why they’re so frequent in different components of the world. Nevertheless, in follow it’s been a shitshow, since that is New York and we suck at all the pieces. The issue is that individuals right here usually journey motor scooters like they’re bicycles–which is to say poorly, and completely anyplace they will probably match them. Poor biking (and there has all the time been loads of it in New York) actually wasn’t that massive a deal within the previous days, because the riders have been restricted by their very own meager energy output. However now that they’re assisted by electrical and gasoline engines it generally appears as if no place is protected, although the upside is individuals hate them a lot they’ve forgotten how a lot they used to hate bicyclists.

As for the broader “micromobility revolution,” that was supposed to exchange automotive journeys, however from what I can inform it largely consists of individuals rolling round languidly on varied electrified contraptions and getting excessive in the course of the day. Additionally, I’ll complain about what battery-powered shifting has achieved to the fashionable highway bike, however it’s nothing in comparison with what motors have achieved to the commuter bike:

Attributable to all of the e-bike battery fires, the Large Retailer Named After A River received’t ship this bike to New York Metropolis anymore:

However, not less than round these components, that is just about the standard non-delivery individual e-bike. I assume as a Jones rider I ought to respect the voluminous tires, and the fenders and rack are sensible–and to be honest it’s much more helpful than the standard Targ-Mart bike with out being that rather more costly. So perhaps that is progress? Nevertheless it additionally weighs 68lbs, I can’t assist questioning if the web impact when it comes to effort of using a 68lb bike with a motor versus a 30lb bike with out one is principally a wash.

As for hearth threat, you may in fact keep away from that by choosing a extra respected model–effectively, often:

Talking of motorcycle lanes, there’s a regulation that each three months newspapers should run an anti-bike lane opinion piece, and there’s the newest from the Washington Publish:

New column: Bike lanes — a part of a “highway food regimen” that sounds wholesome and nutritious however is definitely a recipe for visitors constipation — are sometimes a stealthy strategy to push wholesale class and racial change https://t.co/SxsXRFFzCx

— Marc Fisher (@mffisher) November 20, 2024

I couldn’t learn it as a result of I don’t have a subscription, however I’ve a reasonably good thought of the place it’s going:

Regardless of its repute as a liberal enclave, D.C. just isn’t and can by no means be Amsterdam, Portland or a type of faculty cities the place the streets teem with extra bicycles than vehicles.

However generally, it’s not for an absence of making an attempt.

The District’s planners are intent on placing lots of the metropolis’s most essential streets on what’s known as a “highway food regimen,” which sounds wholesome and nutritious however is definitely a recipe for visitors constipation and commuter complications — and perhaps a stealth mechanism for encouraging a wholesale shift in race and sophistication in sure neighborhoods.

Bike lanes or no bike lanes, the individuals who don’t like them are usually unwilling to confess that the explanation for visitors is…too many vehicles. Toronto is eradicating its bike lanes, and it’s a reasonably protected wager that their visitors isn’t going to go away because of this:

On the similar time, the opinion author is correct that bike lanes are sometimes “Not concerning the bikes”–not within the sense it’s a conspiracy to make you reside in a 15-minute metropolis and eat bugs (although I’m not ruling it out), however within the sense that what designers need to accomplish with the bike lanes is commonly secondary (at finest) to their utility for bicyclists. Designers are usually up entrance about utilizing bike lanes to calm visitors and create shorter crossings for pedestrians and improve visibility and all that stuff, and it will probably actually work, however the expertise of really utilizing the lane on a motorcycle may be reasonably fraught, like once they run them proper previous freeway on-ramps

Typically the bike lanes in New York lull you right into a false sense of safety, which ends very abruptly on the first intersection, and also you generally get the sense they constructed them absolutely anticipating that no one would use them.

Or that they’d say “fuck it” and begin utilizing motor scooters as an alternative. You may journey these dangerous boys anyplace.