Some bicycling nut in London has proposed 135-mile “skycycle,” meaning a three-story tall exclusive bikeway, around the city. The headlines to the story say it will cost £220 million, but that’s just for the first four miles. At that rate, the entire 135-mile system would cost nearly £8 billion, or some $12.2 billion.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports that most American states are increasingly controlled either by people who think this would be a good idea or those who think it would be a bad idea. Red states are doing better economically, argues Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, but Illinois Governor Pat Quinn argues that red states leave too many people behind.
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This is typical of the fuzzy thinking on the part of the left. First, they make housing artificially expensive. Then they substitute expensive transportation for cheap transportation. Then they increase other consumer costs through more regulation. Then they accuse anyone who opposes the higher taxes that their plans will require of lacking sympathy for the poor.
But the leaders of the blue states don’t care about the poor. They care about the elites, including people who ride bicycles. They’ll spend millions on bike paths while leaving streets in poor and congested conditions because poor people aren’t supposed to drive anyway. But maybe the reason they are poor is that they don’t drive.
The Antiplanner would like to believe that the red/blue divide is only temporary. If Republicans can find candidates who focus on the fiscal issues without getting bogged down by the social issues–perhaps even candidates who take a liberal view on social issues–they are likely to turn many blue states red. That can only be good for the economy, for low-income people, and for personal freedom.
This post is a grand example of the really fuzzy thinking of the so-called “right.” The last President I recall that had a balanced budget was Bill Clinton, a “blue” Democrat. And the State of California’s budget is currently running a surplus, even discounting some minor tax increases approved by voters in 2012.
Randal, you’re capable of much better work than this sloppy, half-baked, proof-less slander of liberals and progressives.
The State of California has a budget surplus? Just because California has a little money this year means nothing. They do exactly what they do when they’ve had surpluses; They blow through it.
I have to second what msetty posted. I will add that those in my circle, people mostly identifiable as “the left” and many of whom are planners, would scoff at the ridiculousness of the massive elevated bikeway. Even if it could be done at a low price it is still unreasonable and bad planning.
As for “But the leaders of the blue states don’t care about the poor. They care about the elites…” Maybe some of the political leaders in blue states fit this description. But in the grand scheme of the culture wars (which Mr. O’Toole has so uneloquently fanned the flames today) I’m not sure the leaders on the right have a leg to stand on. Sure they have a whimsical theory regarding the poor involving markets, invisible hands, boot straps and libertarian magic dust, but that theory never matches up to practice… for the poor. For the elites on the other hand…
“… they make housing artificially expensive. …Then they increase other consumer costs through more regulation. ”
Housing prices have increased as the money supply increased. Inflation in the housing market is primarily due to monetary policy that artificially lowers rates and encourages speculation. This is not a left/right issue.
Other consumer costs are arguably more heavily affected through monetary policy than through regulation. Using the 1980 method for calculating CPI, current inflation is near 8%. That’s not due to regulation and this is not a left/right issue.
There is no fundamental difference between the left and right. Falling into the left/right dichotomy trap distracts from the real problem: the statist system and monetary policy that benefits first users of FRNs.
…and to expand upon what bennett wrote, it is not the blue states preventing the poor from getting health care and from voting. Nor is it blue states that poison their poor residents (or blow them up) via deregulation and fail to do anything to correct the conditions that degrade their commonweal.
It is true, however, that the bankers that are among those dismantling the country live in blue states, and much of the dark money affecting policy and redistributing wealth upward has the tentacles reaching from blue states.
That is: the politics of division can only be overcome by asking ‘does the economy serve us, or do we serve the economy’? That’s not a red or blue, that’s a brain wiring function. Most of us know the answer and hopefully soon we’ll wake up and work together (hipsters need rural guns, after all ;o) ).
DS
Would people be willing to pay for it? I doubt enough cyclists would at the rates it would take to cover a major portion of it’s costs. But do something similar only with tunnels for cars may be able to cover a large portion of it’s costs by users and have the added benefit of making the streets safer for cyclists in London.
Getting back to the bicycle highway. It is an interesting concept.
Several issues:
1. To build something similar to what is pictured in a city like New York or Boston would cost a lot, lot more than $12.2 billion for 135 miles.
2. Will bicyclists be required to use it and open up the streets to cars/trucks?
3. I couldn’t imagine being up there on a windy day. Rain/snow will also be challenging (life threatening).
4. Laws will have to be passed eliminating liability claims – as this looks like a lot of accidents waiting to happen.
5. Etc.
“Getting back to the bicycle highway.”
Sorry, but there is no “getting back” to it. Today’s post is not about an extravagant bikeway. The ridiculous bikeway is a foil used to demonize an ideology (that ironically would likely oppose such a project). The Washington Post article Mr. O’Toole references as an example of polarizing politics in which people think [the bikeway] is either a good or bad idea, has no mention of the bikeway. The “skycycle” is used by saying “Look at this stupid idea. Liberals love it.” Of course none of the links back up this ridiculous claim, but today that didn’t stop Mr. O’Toole. His usual fastidious style must be on Christmas vacation.
The correct phrase would be “Getting back to bashing liberals…”
p.s. Frank said: “This is not a left/right issue.”
I agree. I chomped down hard on the bait today. I can be such a stupid liberal sometimes 😉
Hi bennett,
we can agree that are is such a thing as a bad government planner, correct?
After all, voracious agencies such as Portland’s Metro are in fact run by unaccountable planners who just do whatever the heck they like.
Metrosucks spaketh:
Hi bennett,
we can agree that are is such a thing as a bad government planner, correct?
After all, voracious agencies such as Portland’s Metro are in fact run by unaccountable planners who just do whatever the heck they like.
Don’t you mean ELECTED OFFICIALS who let the “unaccountable planners” do their bidding? Last time I checked, Portland Metro was run by an ELECTED board.
If those opposed to what Metro is doing and the entire “Portland Model” (sic) were able to do the work to ELECT folks who agreed with you, I’d have a bit more respect for your side. But electing one or more board members is actual “work.”
In the meantime, it is easier and more fun to whine and moan rather than do the hard work of putting aside the negativity, organizing and electing those who agree with you.
What could be more fun than loading the kids into the child carrier and little bikes and peddling them up steep 50 foot high ramps onto an elevated cycling lane in the wonderful London fog? Of course the ride down the ramps in the London would be more fun!
They could always just run the ramps through the front lawns of houses, like they did in Eugene, Oregon.
http://eugenebicyclist.com/2010/11/17/up-and-over-the-new-bridge-to-somebodys-house-we-go/
For 1% of that, London could have more skateboard parks that the US. Why do old people barely peddling some beach cruiser pretending they are exercising deserve all the free stuff? How about an artificial reef to create a surfing zone. With purported global warming, Londoners could learn to surf for far less.
Don’t you mean ELECTED OFFICIALS who let the “unaccountable planners” do their bidding? Last time I checked, Portland Metro was run by an ELECTED board.
If those opposed to what Metro is doing and the entire “Portland Model” (sic) were able to do the work to ELECT folks who agreed with you, I’d have a bit more respect for your side. But electing one or more board members is actual “work.”
Trying to get elected to the sort of agency Metro represents with the idea of changing its agenda is pretty much the same like trying to get elected to office in Nazi Germany with the idea of heading off the government’s plans: absolutely nothing will come out of the effort. The organization has an agenda that supersedes any of its officers.
What’s a pro-freedom Metro Counciler, in the unlikely event such a person would be elected (one conveniently forgets how much lying, which the planners happily admitted to, they did to get various measures passed or defeated) going to do, say we are shutting the whole thing down tomorrow? That’s the only moral solution to Metro. Such a person would surely find themselves dead within an hour.
Frank will agree with me here that we are arguing with people who simply find nothing wrong with some all-powerful government agency arbitrarily telling people what they can do with their land, based on invisible, arbitrary borders and arbitrary planning that has no basis in reality. The fact that such an agency is the only one of its kind in the whole country doesn’t lead them to pause and think that maybe there is something wrong with the idea of Metro itself.
“Frank will agree with me here”
You’re just my sock puppet. Get back in line!
Oh, and for planners who love living in density but are stuck in suburbs (ahem, Dan), here’s your chance to move to the Pearl! 530 sq ft studio for $1500! Or a one-bedroom for over $2k! 100 Walkscore! Do it! Live the density dream! First beer at Bridgeport’s on me!
As far as being able to “communicate effectively with diverse communities,” well, hopefully they won’t Google you…
Well, Metrosucks, if modern Portland is like Nazi Germany, your best chance of survival would be to turn yourself in ASAP to the local FEMA office, so you can get first choice of accommodations at the nearest FEMACamp. You may even be able to become a Kapo since you and several others on this blog have the temperament.
Seriously, I doubt your side would have sufficient votes anyway, but I could be wrong…Hillsboro and Clackamas Counties have 60%+/- of the Portland Metro population, so theoretically the two together should be able to outvote Portland/Multnomah. Your side has had some victories when Lake Oswego said “no” to the streetcar extension proposal, and when Clackamas voted narrowly against County funding for the Milwaukee LRT extension.
Rather than continuing to whine and moan and make stupid analogies that Portland is like Nazi Germany (an observation that will win you no allies, BTW), I suggest going to Amazon and buying a copy of The Dictators Handbook to learn how politics really works. Initially I thought it would be depressing, but rather it was realistic and hopeful in the sense that democracy can be made to work, but only if you can build a powerful enough coalition to keep your politicians in line.
Of course, such is generally hopeless if the general population cannot be persuaded to your cause, which is how it should be in a democracy. As a friend of mine pointed out in a related venue, in terms of the walkable urbanism/Smart Growth, transit, etc., people like Wendell Cox, The Antiplanner, CATO, “Reason” (sic) and others are the reactionaries that, well, react to genuine revolutions which I think the whole thing is turning out to be, despite the best efforts of the Teabaggers, Agenda 21 conspiracy nutcases, Alex Jones, your whining and moaning, etc.
The reason msetty advocates for the “democratic” method is because his side (big government) has permanently captured democracy and uses it to delude the population into thinking they have a say in how things turn out.
Like it’s said, if voting actually changed anything, they’d make it illegal.
The Great Default will take care of all the frenzied transit and New Urban/smart growth fantasies, btw. Because despite msetty’s protestations that there is some sort of new urbanism “revolution” going on, it’s just the same old corruption at work; all these great density marvels are highly subsidized by the rest of us, with the numbers available for all to see. The highly vaunted Pearl District in Portland received nearly a billion dollars in subsidies, including infrastucture, transit boondoggles, property tax waivers, urban renewal, and more. The South Waterfront district similarly allowed corrupt developers and their city government pawns to chow down on hundreds of millions in subsidies.
When was the last time you heard of a new suburban development requiring 600 million in subsidies and property tax waivers and urban renewal?
Revolution my ass, msetty, the only revolution will be when government runs out of money and you actually to WORK for a living.
Holy Godwins Law! That didn’t take long.
http://www.earthtechling.com/2014/01/skycycle-network-turns-london-into-a-biking-utopia/
“Early studies of a SkyCycle system indicate that it provides capacity at a much lower cost than building new roads and tunnels.”