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A comment on In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Building Them. Parent comment

Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by ohmyiv on Saturday June 01, 2024 @09:31PM (#40550658)
A city next to me (L.A. area) has some dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes. Unfortunately, they dont have one of the other benefits that you mention, like banning cars in some areas. There are also connections to the train to go farther, but the buses are still mostly empty except for students and laborers who live outside the city. The buses themselves are typically faster and decent, as I ride them a lot. Meanwhile, the other traffic lanes are jam packed during rush hours. It is the L.A. area, so there's just a ton of people/drivers anyway.

The last time I went through there driving, it took almost 20 mins to go 2-3 miles due to traffic (and stop lights), obviously during rush hour. The buses were still nearly empty (I wished I didnt have to drive that day). At a non-rush hour time, it takes me maybe 20 mins for my whole trip home which is about 9 miles.

My point, I guess, is it's not always just having a free bus lane. There are a lot of people that need convincing to take buses and alternative transportation. A few of my coworkers wish they could take the bus/train, but having kids in school and other things make it a bit harder for them.

Maybe one day...

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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by angmarsbane on Saturday June 01, 2024 @09:40PM (#40550682)
Culver City?
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by ohmyiv on Saturday June 01, 2024 @10:03PM (#40550752)
Yes, exactly! Lol I take it you've been or live there? Afternoon traffic is ridiculous and even in surrounding areas like Palms and Mar Vista, which I think are people avoiding Culver City. Just way too many drivers here in general.
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by CalRobert on Sunday June 02, 2024 @01:00AM (#40551503)
You are not wrong - this is where personal, private, transportation excels. And why Culver city desperately needs a quality network of safe, protected, bike infrastructure. Cars don't scale, but bikes do.
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by ohmyiv on Sunday June 02, 2024 @01:53AM (#40551708)
I wholeheartedly agree with you. If there was safe and protected infrastructure, I feel a lot more people, including myself, would bike, especially with all the new e-bikes available. I will give Culver City some credit because they do have some dedicated bike lanes but they're not really protected.
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by CalRobert on Sunday June 02, 2024 @11:08AM (#40554787)
When I lived in Santa Monica it was supposedly building a great network of bike lanes. That was twelve years ago…
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by kjkjadksj on Sunday June 02, 2024 @01:12PM (#40555680)
Santa monica has the best bike network in socal honestly
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by CalRobert on Sunday June 02, 2024 @02:10PM (#40556116)
Well the bar is pretty damn low. There's nowhere I'd really feel safe letting an 8 year old bike to school.
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Re:In Colorado, an Ambitious New Highway Policy Is Not Build... by Karrot_Kream on Sunday June 02, 2024 @05:59PM (#40557489)
> but the buses are still mostly empty except for students and laborers who live outside the city.

You take the bus so this goes without saying but, let's say a bus is mostly empty and has 8 people inside. If you were to put those 8 people into individual cars, you'd make the road a lot more crowded. I think a lot of folks look at these mostly-empty buses and don't realize that most cars are mostly-empty also (average 1.5 occupants / car in most of the US, honestly probably lower in the LA area due to its sheer car centricity.) But of course if you're in a car you're more likely to view another driver as "someone like you" while you look at the bus and think of it as a waste of space and taxpayer money.

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