Today's one-liner: "The shortest way to the distinguishing excellence of any writer is through his hostile critics." Richard LeGallienne
Local Government TV
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Monday, March 15, 2010
Waste 102 Hones in on Queen City
Above is the video excerpt from Sean Hannity's Waste 102, focusing on a perceived waste of stimulus dollars in Allentown.
Molovinsky and Dr. Romancheck will be signing autographs this weekend at Stabler Center, $10 a pop.
Ironically, any avid cyclist will tell you that the worst thing a city can do is create bike lanes. They are ignored by drivers and cyclists, and more cyclists end up being injured or killed.
30 comments:
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I'm not as upset over $100,000 spent on bike racks in Allentown. (By the way, more people ride biked during the Spring and Summer than during a snowy winter) as a I am about the Sept. 2008 $700 billion bailout that Bush shoved down everyone's throats. What happened to all the W bumperstickers anyway?
ReplyDeleteThat bailout had a lot of bipartisan support, including Obama. Not to defend W, but we really had no choice.
ReplyDeleteYou know, building bike lanes and bike paths might actually be a way to quietly cull the herd.
ReplyDeleteGive the bike nuts what they want, and let them kill themselves off.
I am not the first to write this but these newly paved trails will be dangerous for walkers and maintance costs will be very high. Where will that money come from? Allentown is broke. It is my guess Allentown will get another federal grant in a few years to make the existing paved bike trails more environmentally friendly.
ReplyDeleteScott Armstrong
Scott as usual you are talking out the wrong end of your body - paved trails are messed up for a lot of reasons, but maintenance costs are not one of them.
ReplyDeleteAnd Bernie, not "any avid bicyclist" will tell you that bike lanes are dangerous. Steve Schmitt will tell you that, but many, many long-time cyclists disagree with that assessment.
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteThanks for highlighting this broadcast. We didn't see it and suspect others may not have either.
Here's a troubling question and perhaps one of your regulars can answer.
Why would Weitzel refuse to be interviewed if he is proud as punch of his plan to create
bike paths and blacktop large
portions of Allentown's Rose Garden landscape?
Also, did Allentown reveal to its residents that it pursued Stimulus dollars for this project
and if so, was city council notified? Did council need to vote their approval for Stumulus dollar applications?
If Stimulus dollars have apparently been "accepted" for
this plan, doesn't city hall have to reveal where the dollars are going and how much and when they are being spent? After all, aren't Stimulus funds actually taxpayers' hard-earned dollars?
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteSorry for that double post. Could you delete the second?
Bernie,
ReplyDeleteUntil Allentown curbs violence, all the bike paths in the world will not encouarge new business relocation. How many shootings have there been this past week?
FROM CHANNEL 69
One Injured In Allentown ShootingPosted: 4:13 am EDT March 15,2010 -- One person was taken to the hospital early this morning after a shooting in Allentown. It happened around 2 o'clock at a house in the 800 block of West Green Street.
Even as a kid, I never rode my bike in the winter. You see, when water freezes, it becomes ice and ice is slippery and rubber tires can slide on the ice.
ReplyDeleteAnon 7:31,
ReplyDeleteAny discussion comment that starts with an insult reveals an intention to impugn rather than enlighten or inform.
Asphalt is costly to maintain. I didn’t make this up, it just is.
Scott Armstrong
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"I'm not as upset over $100,000 spent on bike racks in Allentown. (By the way, more people ride biked during the Spring and Summer than during a snowy winter) as a I am about the Sept. 2008 $700 billion bailout that Bush shoved down everyone's throats. What happened to all the W bumperstickers anyway?"
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Wasn't that when the Democrats already controlled Congress? If I remember correctly, Bush met with Treasury Secretary Paulsen, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and then-candidates Obama and McCain to come up with something that 1)would make it through the Democrat Congress, and 2) be acceptable to either of Bush's successors.
Bush's error was knuckling under the pressure to sign something quickly to "avoid a crisis" (sound familiar) and going along with something the Democrats came up with.
Bush was a screw-up, but Geithner is the real criminal here. Watch a video of last night's 60 Minutes interview of Michael Lewis.
ReplyDelete"Ironically, any avid cyclist will tell you that the worst thing a city can do is create bike lanes. They are ignored by drivers and cyclists, and more cyclists end up being injured or killed."
ReplyDeleteI'm a cyclist, but not an avid one by any stretch. Still, this was news to me. Curious, I emailed a friend--definitely an avid (and urban) cyclist and Allentown resident. Here's his reply:
"Asinine. Bike lanes are part of a comprehensive approach to bicycle traffic planning. They are inappropriate in certain places, but wholly appropriate in others. The bulk of the 105k will go to creating shared lane markings, which are another creature entirely."
He's obviously a supporter of the plan, but still: bike lanes as cyclist killer? There are better arguments than that...
"Asinine. Bike lanes are part of a comprehensive approach to bicycle traffic planning. They are inappropriate in certain places, but wholly appropriate in others. The bulk of the 105k will go to creating shared lane markings, which are another creature entirely."
ReplyDeleteAnd what's going to happen
when bicylists come upon vehicles double parked in the bike lanes.
Jeff Pooley, Not all that long ago, I rode a bike daily to get to work. I lovred the bike racks on buses bc I could slap my bike on a bus and avoid riding in heavily congested areas or just give myself a break.
ReplyDeleteDuring this time, I took courses from Steve Schmitt, who heads up the local CAT (coaltion for alternate transportation). Schmitt is of the view that bike lanes are dangerous.
They are disregarded by both cyclists and motorists, create a new "blind zone" for moptorists and create a false sense of security among cyclists. The bike lanes are often just a berm full of glass and debris, and the cyclist is exposed to car doors that suddenly open. People driving cars get the notion that the obly place bikes belong is in that lane, and get downright hostile to bikes outside that area.
He believes you're much better off on the road.
I rode in Philly along some of the bike lanes, and my experience is that Schmitt is absolutely right. This is a waste of money. The better approach is to simply learn to share the road.
Having said that, I'll concede that there are some avid cyclists ewho feel bike lanes are a good idea. I should have been more clear.
Fair enough, Bernie. I'm sure there's some genuine disagreement, but you make a good point.
ReplyDeleteJeff,
ReplyDeleteWhat is the danger of paved park trails is the very high likelihood of collisions between fast moving bikes and unsuspecting pedestrians. Years ago this happened in Trexler Park with tragic results. I will be less likely to take in the parks from these paved paths and I would definitely not take small children for a walk on any as I did so often in the past.
Scott Armstrong
Scott: The paved park trails danger makes sense to me. I was talking, though, about bike lanes on actual streets. Bernie has convinced me that people who know more about this than me disagree on bike lanes (and of course placement and other factors matter). I am pretty sure that the plan intends to use the "Complete Streets" concept (see Wikipedia for overview) for the main east-west bike lane(s).
ReplyDeleteJeff, I never even thought about it until Steve Schmitt addressed the subject. He may not know much about Hamilton Street merchants, but is more knowledgable than anyone in the LV concerning bikes and alternative transportation, and that is his view, as best as I remember it.
ReplyDeleteI should have recognized that there are cyclists who have different views, but it strikes me that Schmitts comncerns, relating as they do to personal safety, are well-founded.
People seem to think bike riding is safer on those park paths. Actually, they are far more dangerous thasn the open road. That's somethingg else I learned from Schmitt.
Park paths are not engineered for traffic safety and usually have a lot of blind spots. A cyclist could easily run into a pedestrian or another cyclist.
In Bethlehem, along the Sand Island trail, there are 5 daily visits to the St. Luke's ER by people riding their parks along that trail. And those folks usually don't have helmets.
What Schmitt states correspons with my own experience. I've had some nasty spills along the trails and bike baths. People ride along there like crazy. I always felt much safer on the open road, believe it or not.
The ER visits I mention take place in the summer, not year round.
ReplyDeleteBernie, This all makes sense about park paths. Obviously cyclists have a right to use public parks in some fashion, but shared paths are pretty harrowing.
ReplyDeleteNow if we can get Team Pawlowski to agree we have something.Bike lanes on roads, works for me, loved them in Oregon.
ReplyDeleteScott Armstrong
Sean Hannity is a waste 102.
ReplyDeletebernie, per your comment on my blog; yes the producer, g. ledebur, did a great job. but i would like to thank you, for your time and effort in reproducing the allentown segment of waste 102.
ReplyDeleteHe did a fantastic job.
ReplyDeleteWinter does not stop the Allentonian from walking along MacArthur Road. Where are the Stimulus dollars for safe pedestrian access there? Should we prioritize making existing pedestrian corridors safe before we build new paths in areas where there currently are no pedestrians.
ReplyDeleteThat's an excellent point. It seems the pedestrian is often forgotten.
ReplyDeletecase in point - that stretch of road is not within the City of Allentown, its in Whitehall.
ReplyDeleteAh, now I understand. Once again, if your not a 3rd Class City, you do not matter. Just like the distribution of the Gaming Revenue.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
ReplyDelete"case in point - that stretch of road is not within the City of Allentown, its in Whitehall."
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Then drive along Lehigh Street near I-78. No sidewalks, just well-worn trails in the grass where some people walk. Others just use the roadway, particularly during when the grass is covered in snow.