BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Yeah, if only all the people who drove cars would read it, that would be a good start...

BTW, weren't we supposed to have some sort of book club discussion of this book?

There is the rub. Getting drivers to read it and read it with at least some degree of objectivity.

There is a book discussion group?

I read that book, but it was a while ago. Can you refresh my memory about what some of the theories were on "I didn't see him"?

unless you want to save it for the book club.

I read bits and pieces of the book and have been meaning to give it more attention. I like his blog:

http://www.howwedrive.com/

Sadly, I have done A LOT of car commuting in the past seven months. In a few weeks I will trade 40 miles RT in the car for 12 miles RT on my bike. I couldn't be happier about this.

Did I gain any great insight from the experience? The only thing that stays with me is the general resignation to driving everywhere. The idea that there's just no other way to get where you're going, so why even bring it up? And, in fact, where I've been working (Robinson Township) that's largely true.

It's easy to vilify drivers, but a lot of people are living and/or working in places shaped by horrible land-use and transportation policies.

I'm not justifying the "I didn't see him" excuse, or the deplorable behavior of a lot of drivers. I'm not making excuses for the people I've seen pounding their fists on their steering wheels in traffic. I'm just saying that not all drivers necessarily want to be in their cars as much as they are.

I brought up having a book club discussion on this book a few months ago but it seemed like most people who were interested were too busy to do it during the nice weather and thought it might be better for the winter.

Bikefind; the theory (or hypothesis if you prefer) that struck me was that we look for what we "expect" to see because of the amount of information presented as we drive. As speeds increase this amount of information multiplies so we subconciously "simplify" the data to what is expected. There would seem to be some support for this where cyclists are encouraged to make eye contact (author discusses this as well). By making eye contact we force (not the best choice of words) to recognize us. ** I may not have stated this exactly as the author presented it. I tend to skim books the first time and than (if I'm interested) I'll reread it more carefully.

"It's easy to vilify drivers, but a lot of people are living and/or working in places shaped by horrible land-use and transportation policies."

Maybe I'm wrong, but don't people choose to live in these places?

People choose where to live, but sometimes there aren't alternatives, so what choice does it really leave.

Everyone has to weight their own criteria- if someone's looking for a newer home with a modern layout, good school district and a yard large enough for entertaining...well I certainly know they won't be ending up in my pre-war neighborhood.

There aren't a lot of options (yet) for new/renovated, urban, safe, affordable, mixed use places to live.

Bad land use and transportation policies lock people into the system of developments and strip malls. And honestly the vast majority of people are just going to go with the flow and not stop to consider if there's a different way of doing things.

I do get what you're saying, timito. We need more people to keep making the choices to live in urban centers and go carfree/car lite. And we also need to see more logical development policies, like the city ordinance that makes installing bike parking mandatory in new construction. There is a strong trend in this direction, it will just take time and continued effort.

"It's easy to vilify drivers, but a lot of people are living and/or working in places shaped by horrible land-use and transportation policies."

One of the reasons I bought my current home is because there was a bus stop less than two blocks away that had good service into the city. Well it use to until this last round of bus changes. Now I have to walk almost a mile (including one very big hill) to get to a bus. And I live four houses away from the Pgh. city limits.

Yes, people choose where to live and work. We chose to live in the city for reasons that (I imagine) make a lot of sense to the people participating in this conversation. We have one car, and we bike/bus/walk as much as possible.

And yes, I chose to take a long-term contract in Robinson Township. At the time my choice was work v. no work. I don't think my situation was all that unusual.

At the time I chose my suburban house, I was living in the city in an extremely walkable area with tons of bus service - that all pointed down town, when my job (the only one I could find after 8 months of searching and living off family charity) was in Monroeville. I chose a house that halved my commute from 8 miles (including tunnel of DOOM) to 4 miles (all back roads).

Fast forward 5 years, I had to get a different job for mental sanity, and of all the jobs advertized in my field in the past 4 years, NONE have been in the city. Well, not Pittsburgh (Allentown there were some, New Stanton some). Changing fields would either incur a minimum of 50k additional debt, or result in the bank forclosing on my house because nothing requiring no additional schooling will pay the mortgage I currently have. I can't rent out my house to pay the mortgage either, it's in a state of construction that isn't rentable.

Yep, I made my choices. I bought a house instead of rented. I chose the field to work in, I chose the city (Pgh) to try and do that work in. I chose to stay employed. Some I regret (field, house). Some I don't (employment, on occasion Pgh).

Doesn't change the fact that my municipality won't put paint on roads in a manner that would make my life safer as a cyclist and won't put in sidewalks for children to walk three blocks from the new school to the new library.

The city proper doesn't currently contain enough housing or businesses for everybody to all move within the limits and live and work along existing and popular buslines and bike routes. We could fix that, or we could try and get the communities we currently pay taxes to to put down some goddamned paint stripes in a logical manner and stop planning like we're in the 1950s.

+1 ejwme.

Any serious discussion of change has to include accommodation for the current state of affairs; we don't have the luxury of hand-waving away the mistakes of the past and pretending we've got a blank slate.

I think homeownership is a big trap, combined with large transfer taxes that limit mobility and convincing people to leverage themselves to the hilt for the purpose.

I don't see how renting would solve the problems. You're not always going to move just because you change jobs. You may still want to stay because you chose the area for its schools, social scene and shopping. When forced to choose I would rather be close to friends and fun than work.

Also, homeowners are more likely to care about the infrastructure improvements made to their roads than sort term renters. ++Pets, painting, decorating, landscaping...lots of good reasons to own. As far as buying too much house, buying for the short term or buying a home as an investment, well yeah that's a trap.