as a lifelong cyclist who was at one point a full-time pizza deliverer in my car, I feel this.
as long as you and your fares don’t “door” me, I’m pretty amenable to the reality of the situation. as the parties least affected, the fares will probably never alter their summoning you to an expected double-park, leaving it up to the cyclists and the drivers to make concessions for their dumb-assery.
I do not disagree with anything you wrote, either, @subextraordinaire, but if you’re out there trying to check a buck, I’ve been there as a driver and I’ve been there as a cyclist (full-time bike messenger for a few years, too.) capitalism’s a bitch, but if you’re driving for uber etc, you’re a victim of capitalism. the summoning protocol could be made more inconvenient for the fares [pop-up: "you’re summoning from a location with a bike lane. please meet your driver on the next corner. continue to accept or cancel] or the city could invest in better infra or mitigate parking better. but none of these are gonna happen, which leaves @Ron_Fancy pressured on all sides while he’s the party making the least money of anyone in the scenario.
It’s illegal in Boston too, but you have to. There are too many cars and not enough parking for certain industries to function (taxis included) without breaking they law on the regular. It’s just the way it is. If your city wants Uber and, which believe me is an important source of money for a largely underprivileged group of people, it’s UNAVOIDABLE. I live in a capital city and I’ve bicycled cross country, so I completely understand these dangers and how frustrating they are, but the only thing you can do is mitigate the problem. At least until self driving cars are normal and money isn’t a thing.
It’s a bit more nuanced than this. It’s not just the like limit, it’s that she (and others of us) feels like she can’t really engage properly if she (us) can’t always acknowledge really good comments that have evolved from her (our) original posts.
Some of us participate on different threads a lot and then run out. This forces us to limit our discussion because we feel uncomfortable when you can’t give someone credit, agreement, or support. You can’t acknowledge a good comment/argument with a like, but you can keep on posting the same comments over and over (as some of us have been illustrating)?
Personally, I like give likes for new users and members to encourage participation. But I shouldn’t have worry that I can’t appreciate some regulars’ pithy or pensive commentary. I shouldn’t have to choose who’s commentary is more worthy because some days there’s a lot of good stuff.
Liked for breaking it down even better than I could have done.
On the topic, our country’s entire road infrastructure is a mess; ideally there should be enough room for both bikes and vehicles not to mention pedestrians… but this is not and has never been the case, at least so far as I know.
But of course. Then you just fork a new thread. That limit actually has some technical reasoning behind it. (I’m going to leave that discussion for elsewhere so as not to derail further,)
It’s most frustrating for me, not because cyclists are “in my way” but because I do think that sharing the road is important and doing so safely. I try hard to pay attention to people on bikes when I see them and I will certainly go around if they signal me to do so. When I’m slow behind one, it’s more the situation I’m frustrated with, because it puts people in danger. It’s, as you point out, the city infrastructure that’s largely at fault. I’m really not frustrated with cyclists, then, but with the roads that we have. [quote=“noahdjango, post:56, topic:81557”]
Though I will say, the fact that there’s bike lanes on Ponce now fucking flabbergasted me the first time I saw them. Having cycled here since moving in '02, I honestly never thought I’d see the day something like that would happen.
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I know, right! Progress!
I tend to assume this, since as you point out, cyclists are the one likely to end up in traction with a collision between a car and a bike. Happened to a friend of mine, actually.
But I think the real answer here are better streets for everyone, even sections of town where cars aren’t allowed to drive. but of course, as you note, we have lots of crumbling infrastructure…
This strikes me as an issue where how our cities are structured are no longer working well for how we live… from @noahdjango’s getting around on his bike, or you working as an uber driver…
Sure, yeah, ok. Clearly. But there’s no way to change that that’s good for everyone and will cost an amount of money anyone is willing to spend. Self driving cars and busses (that work) are the only way to give people the transportation they need while making the streets safer for bicycles (largely by freeing up space), but then I nor taxi drivers will have a job, womp womp.
liked!
Liked!
That limit actually has some technical reasoning behind it. (I’m going to leave that discussion for elsewhere so as not to derail further,)
