Your comment is rooted so far into car centrism it's hard for me to read through such a different lens. We see the world, very, very differently. That makes for an interesting conversation I guess. I have cars, I am a car enthusiast even. I use roads. But I also know there's people in the city who don't drive, and for them life is still dominated by cars. Sometimes that's me, sometimes I'm in my car.
Every sliver of spare space in our cities has been claimed by car infrastructure, and that's not fair to every other possible way to live. I'm not suggesting we remove roads, but we can do better than this for everyone else in cities.
> Arguing that cyclists pay taxes which are used to fund roads and so should have this major infrastructure project funded just for them
I only drive on a handful of roads, but I'm happy to fund all the others because other people do. That's exactly the same position cycle/pedestrians are in, they pay taxes too so why can't the community cater a little bit to them as well? People far and away pay for more car roads they'll never use than they ever will bike lanes they don't use.
My taxes go to many things I don't use and that's fine, because that's how communities work. I'm even glad we're building a car super-highway project because it'll improve commutes for people who do drive. It's fine to drive, I'm not against it.
I get it, we're not going to be paying for bike highways in suburbia where there aren't even footpaths for walking, because it's so far entrenched that no-one is even trying to walk or ride. But there are so many places in our cities that with just a bit of planning we could have catered to both cars and peds/cyclists at the same time.
Every sliver of spare space in our cities has been claimed by car infrastructure, and that's not fair to every other possible way to live. I'm not suggesting we remove roads, but we can do better than this for everyone else in cities.
> Arguing that cyclists pay taxes which are used to fund roads and so should have this major infrastructure project funded just for them
I only drive on a handful of roads, but I'm happy to fund all the others because other people do. That's exactly the same position cycle/pedestrians are in, they pay taxes too so why can't the community cater a little bit to them as well? People far and away pay for more car roads they'll never use than they ever will bike lanes they don't use.
My taxes go to many things I don't use and that's fine, because that's how communities work. I'm even glad we're building a car super-highway project because it'll improve commutes for people who do drive. It's fine to drive, I'm not against it.
I get it, we're not going to be paying for bike highways in suburbia where there aren't even footpaths for walking, because it's so far entrenched that no-one is even trying to walk or ride. But there are so many places in our cities that with just a bit of planning we could have catered to both cars and peds/cyclists at the same time.