Stridently declaring that “Cars come first!”, WTDY Progressive Talk host John ‘Sly’ Sylvester issued a litany of unfounded justifications for treating bike path users as second-class citizens, while questioning the motives of city traffic engineers and city workers in general as being part of a conspiracy to deliver poor service for automobile enthusiasts.
Sly’s key argument is that cars deserve priority treatment because “those of us that drive cars are actually paying for the roads, unlike the bicyclists that are getting a great big fat freebie.”
But in Wisconsin only 17% of local road costs are paid via the state tax on gasoline (which is not subject to local or state sales taxes).
Sly also appeared to argue that traffic engineers are deprioritizing things like a left turn signal on Mineral Point Road at Midvale. Madison Traffic engineering told me that the very-well-studied Mineral Point intersection does not have room for a left-turn pocket that would make a left-turn light effective and safe. The main obstacle to providing turn pockets is neighborhood resistance to widening Midvale road, not traffic engineering.
Sly also suggested that the value of bicycle paths is recreational only, apparently unaware that bike paths often provide critical and safe links to daily needs for those who are unable to walk. According to Sylvester, bicycle volumes of less than 3,000 trips a day do not warrant street lighting, even though most local streets in Madison with less than this volume of traffic have street lighting.
Finally, Sly suggested that bicyclists themselves were not really progressives, citing an incident when he was part of a group protesting Scott Walker that was standing in a bike path. Sly claimed that bicyclists did not stop or try to participate in the event, and that proves they are not progressives. Sly might want to take that issue up with Aaron Crandall, former Bike Fed Board Member, Ped-Bicycle-Motor Vehicle commissioner, and Transportation policy specialist for PROGRESSIVE Dane.
The full audio of the program can be found here.
What would be useful if all travelers showed respect for the other. For instance during rush hour pedestrians could give cars and bikes a break instead of opting to dying in the right as they cross on cross walks causing traffic halts.
I think that the lights on this path are disrespectful to the neighbors and to the vegetation that lives there.
I am someone who slows down and goes out of the way for bikers, and I have seen the self righteous biker not show manners and I have also seen polite bikers.
There is a tone in this piece that bikers are superior and that they are victims. You are preaching to your choir.
I am disgusted that they are putting lights in nature.
Yes, more respect from all people would be a good thing, and there are certainly many more opportunities to do so than simply asking pedestrians to yield more at rush hour. We could also ask all road users to make an effort to avoid participating in rush our in the first place.
In terms of the lights being disrespectful, are you aware that the city has designed a light for the path with very little leakage upward or toward adjacent property owners?
I don’t believe that bikers are superior, but I do believe that for 75 years, automobile enthusiasts have been lavished with a superior level of service at the expense of all other modes of transportation.
so where are all the lic plates that are suppose to be on bicycles?? Its just amazing how I was raised and taught all the way through drivers ed that Bike must obey the same rules of the road………but yet they run red likes,dont signel turns,dont display a lic plate but when ever one gets hit by a car or truck IT IS NEVER THEIR FAULT.
For starters, there is no requirement that bicycles have license plates. Some municipalities require residents to register their bicycles, and the compliance rate is not that high. Yes, bicyclists bend the rules when they feel doing so causes no harm – just like most drivers do. I’ve been chatting with drivers on c3k who criticize me for obeying the resonable and prudent speed limit law when I drive, so the lawlessness is hardly exclusive to bicyclists. It might interest you to know that when bikes and cars crash, the driver of the car is cited more than 2x as much as the bicyclists:
http://bit.ly/JNT1A5
See pg 21 under: “crashes Involving Citations”