Bike Store Owner Opposes Bike Lanes Outside His Shop

[FlashUNC]

Originally Posted by Heisenberg

my paranoia is amplified by the four chop shops in spitting distance of where i'm sitting. sigh.

also, this demands pics of said landshark.

You should see his other bikes. He does not kid around.

[jtakeda]

Originally Posted by ibis

Ha. I always looked for the owner when I was out getting coffee (I used to work a block away). I might have hovered over it once or twice. One of the nicest city bikes I've ever seen.

It was kind of an accident. It didn’t have the original fork so I rode it as kind of a beater and then I cracked the headtube so I got it repaired and it was definitely a beater and then I found a matching fork and it’s kind of nice now but it’s always been identified as a beater.

I don’t like riding a crappy bike if I’m gonna be on 40 hours a week

But this is all off topic.

The negative publicity VC is getting over this statement from the owner might be worse than losing the parking spots.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by CNY rider

I have friends that expect to find street parking spots in Manhattan when they drive into the city.
I tell them next time I come down I want to bring our piano and have the city provide a place for me to store it while we visit.
To me it's simple: Your car, your private object. Why should the city or town provide you with "free" storage for your private possessions?
There are Manhattan studio apartments that are barely bigger than a parking spot and they sure aren't free.

I don't know but what's so free about car ownership when one has to pay excise tax yet our nation's infrastructure is still crumbling. Surely this tax lends a bit of slack when it comes to parking on a street's shoulder to do some business downtown?

OTOH who needs a stupid LBS anyways when bicycles are as simple as the wagon wheel and one can order their bikes, repair tools and parts online. LBS BE DAMMED YEEHAA!

[gemship]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

All I’m trying to say is if having customers park at your business is paramount to you business staying open then you should have a parking lot.

Why does every other bike shop in sf have no parking lot and still manage to stay open?

Huckleberry? Warm planet? Box dog?

Customers are primarily city folk who probably don't drive or think driving a couple city blocks for no parking a nuisance. So that sounds sensible for me.

Note to myself, most of the folks on here are probably living in some heavily congested city where main st. is the main event and real estate is heavily valued in terms that there really isn't any to spare. That dump known as NYC comes to mind.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by merlinmurph

We have a similar situation in my small town of 13000. There is an initiative to do a makeover of the small, downtown area and one of the elements is removing some parking and installing segregated bike lanes. The businesses that are there and various town residents are crying about the lost parking. Realistically, there is enough parking in the area, you may just have to walk a few hundred yards. Horrors. It really is a battle. The redesign was passed by town meeting awhile ago, and a special vote was just held (unprecedented) to vote on it again.

As an aside, the proposed design of the bike lanes is being panned by cycling advocates. Our local advocate, Ed Harrow (some Boston locals know him), has written number of letters explaining why the current design is unsafe. Of course, his views fall on deaf ears. I find it amazing how things such as bike lanes are designed by people that will never use them.

This has been talked about as you probably know right on this forum. I live in Gloucester, Ma. and we have a few bike lanes beside shoulders of road with parking spaces. So those bike lanes pushed like a decade or so ago by the cycling advocates around here kinda got what they wanted but no way was the city gonna lose those long standing parking spaces. I can recall many a times I would ride by parked cars with a fear being "doored". To that effect I think bike lanes are great but only if the parking spaces to the right disappear. Otherwise bike lanes are just a feel good thing waiting to invite an accidental dooring or some other horror story.

[fiamme red]

One of the comments here:

"Actually I bike down Valencia often and don’t feel the need for protected bike lanes. The timing of the lights means that bikes and cars go about the same pace. So if you are a patient and defensive rider, there aren’t that many conflicts with cars, even those turning right in front of you. I think the loss of parking will make it even harder for businesses to survive, and they are what make Valencia feel thriving."

[jtakeda]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

One of the comments here:

"Actually I bike down Valencia often and don’t feel the need for protected bike lanes. The timing of the lights means that bikes and cars go about the same pace. So if you are a patient and defensive rider, there aren’t that many conflicts with cars, even those turning right in front of you. I think the loss of parking will make it even harder for businesses to survive, and they are what make Valencia feel thriving."

It’s a different story during rush hour or the weekend when Valencia is a long parking lot for Uber and Lyft.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by tuscanyswe

No vehicle is actually fantastic. You just have to adjust your lifestyle to a different norm. A better one if you ask me (i have a car i just dont use it)

True at that. Nothing quite like having two legs and walking. they even make these two wheeled carts to put things in you need to pull stuff. Relatively simple vehicles that even make a bicycle seemingly complex. The truth is they aren't but the cycling industry has a way of sticking to you with broken spokes, flat tires and rust and corrosion issues. Even bicycles need some kinda attention and you gotta keep em somewhere safe cause god forbid they get stolen.

Oh well, cars don't take well to sitting either so there's that.

[gemship]

Originally Posted by jtakeda

It’s a different story during rush hour or the weekend when Valencia is a long parking lot for Uber and Lyft.

I don't doubt it. That's the issue with this conversation. Depending on where one of us lives there perceptions of the issue vary. An example, Uber and Lyft are not even viable businesses where I live. It's not exactly rural but there is great distance between homes, cities, and work places. Most folks own cars and bicycles are largely used as enjoyable sports equipment. To that effect what is the point of this thread where most of the forum members seem to ride out of sport and basically know a thing or two about what it takes to stay on a bicycle?

[jtakeda]

Originally Posted by gemship

I don't doubt it. That's the issue with this conversation. Depending on where one of us lives there perceptions of the issue vary. An example, Uber and Lyft are not even viable businesses where I live. It's not exactly rural but there is great distance between homes, cities, and work places. Most folks own cars and bicycles are largely used as enjoyable sports equipment. To that effect what is the point of this thread where most of the forum members seem to ride out of sport and basically know a thing or two about what it takes to stay on a bicycle?

Yup. When I see those lanes I try to imagine what types of people it benefits. Look at the researcher at UCSF who was killed on Howard st in a bike lane because someone opened their door, she swerved, and got run over.

This type of reform is designed to benefit that type of rider. Not people like most of us who are jamming down flats at 20mph no problem and bunny hopping obstacles

[jamesdak]

Originally Posted by redir

I hear ya. After growing up in the NYC MEtro area, ten years in Washington DC, a short stint in Louisville, I'm done with city life

You are so very, very wise!

[colker]

Originally Posted by fiamme red

Normally I ride down 2nd Ave in Manhattan in the bus lane, but I was riding one Sunday a few weeks ago with a novice cyclist, so I took the segregated bike lane instead. Every two blocks we had a conflict with a vehicle turning left across the bike lane. No wonder, because the drivers couldn't see us until they were already in the middle of the intersection, their view being blocked by the row of parked cars "protecting" us. I don't have conflicts with turning vehicles when I'm in the bus lane on the right side of the avenue.

Advocates of cyclist segregation who are honest would have to admit that segregated lanes don't make cycling safer, they just make novice cyclists (who are mainly afraid of getting hit from behind) less fearful. This, they would argue, increases the number of cyclists, which makes everyone safer, due to the "safety in numbers" effect. However, I'd argue that "safety in numbers" is for the most part a myth, although cycling advocates treat it as unshakable dogma.

I feel safer in traffic than on bike lanes. You have people doing all kinds of silly things on bike lanes. On traffic everyone is somehow paying attention and if it´s not too fast i can move along fine w/ cars and buses.

[Seramount]

a popular cycling route near me has just had segregated, siamesed bike lanes installed.

really dislike the change for a variety of reasons.

riding facing on-coming traffic (even with concrete turtle bumps and vertical stakes) is unnerving. have already seen drivers looking at phones contact these separator devices.

motorists backing out of driveways are NOT looking for cyclists coming from a direction that they previously weren't.

and it makes cyclists a 'sub-species.' formerly, we were part of the traffic, now we're just some odd annoyance that interferes with the 'flow' at the most inconvenient times.

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by Seramount

and it makes cyclists a 'sub-species.' formerly, we were part of the traffic, now we're just some odd annoyance that interferes with the 'flow' at the most inconvenient times.

This is primarily what makes me seriously opposed to most bike lanes/MUTs that only go on one side of the roadway.

M

[Blue Jays]

In my experience, bicycle lanes are typically potholed afterthoughts filled with gravel, broken glass, and debris.
In terms of this LBS concern, perhaps many of their clients transport their bicycles via car for repair?