1. "the more bike lanes we build, the more bikes will appear on them magically out of thin air, so let's just build as much as possible"
2. "further narrowing bottlenecks of a city (like bridges) by assigning lanes to bikes, bike sharing stations, planters, or anything else you can think of, is a very logical and natural thing to do"
3. "if we take away parking spots on streets, cars will just vanish into thin air, and we will be more green"
4. "if we allow high density towers yet do not require them to build underground parking accordingly, people will still move in and just won't own cars since they won't have spots"
5. "if we make it as expensive, slow, inconvenient and frustrating as possible to drive to places in Vancouver, people will embrace bikes and we will be more green... businesses won't hurt or anything either"
6. "it is completely conceivable for a mother to take her 2 children to school every morning on a bike, or shop at Costco and bring home the 4 huge boxes on a bike, specially in the rain"
7. "people will ride their bikes to work from suburbs and still show up to work in a suit and tie, oh sure we will have showers in every office building and everyone will have 2 sets of clothes and shower at work again every morning, and if you are wondering, no we don't care about the extra water usage, lowered work productivity, practicality of ten/hundred of people all showering at an office at once in the AM, etc."
8. "it's just fine not requiring identifying plates on bicycles, it's not like if a cyclist gets into any situation or accident we'd need to be able to identify him on scene or anything like that"
9. "it's perfectly fine for cyclists not to require any operating lessons to obey the rules of the road, and they can pretend to be pedestrians, cars, and anything in between as it pleases them"
10. "it's perfectly fine for the police to not reprimand cyclists for gross infractions of traffic rules they witness, because after all how do you follow, identify or stop a cyclist if you're in a police car in traffic because the street has only 1.5 lanes left and the cyclist is still on the road for some reason and maneuvering between cars stuck in traffic?"
11. "who needs insurance for cyclists? it's not like they're ever the ones at fault in any collision or damage caused to property, or a person on foot, in a car, etc. - they're always the victim"
Some are your points are well-taken but some are definitely not. I consider myself a semi-serious cyclist and have been competitively and non-competitively biking for about 20 yrs.
1. Bike lanes truly do need to be constructed where it makes sense. For some areas, a separate lane may be best. In others, painted lines are appropriate (for example, a road that's already fairly busy & slow moving doesn't warrant a physically separate lane; cyclists will come close to matching the speeds of the cars).
2. Point taken. Not every road needs a separate lane/station.
3, 4, 5, 6 - I'm in agreement. I drive most of the time because of work & personal requirements. Sufficient parking affects everybody (except the people living next door to the store). On the flip side, have you ever lived in NYC/London/Europe? Parking is worse there; friends I know who live in NYC don't own a car at all (but they DO have the public transportation to support that choice! And the money they save daily allows them to pay for occasional trips or deliveries when needed)
7. COMPLETELY bogus! Its done in Europe (where the weather is just as shitty), it can be done here! When I do commute, I might shower half the time (due to time constraints). If I can't shower, I close the door to my office, wet a towel to wipe off, wash my face in the bathroom sink, and have a change of clothes. All you need is a stall and it takes <5min.
Lowered work productivity? You haven't biked to work then - I come in far more energized, I've planned out my day or worked thru problems while riding, no need for a starter-coffee (tho I never turn one down!). Also, MOST cyclists probably don't smoke (THERE is a loss of productivity) and are likely healthier (along with other folks who exercise) than those who don't exercise, getting sick less. I look around the office at the 15 or so folks who (predominanty) don't exercise at all and they have FAR more sick days than those who do and are constantly complaining about aches & pains.
8. That's common sense (ID should be on the cyclist, not the bike). iPhones have a feature for EMTs to activate personal information on the phone and everyone should have ID (same goes for runners, kayakers, hikers, pedestrians, etc etc.)
9. Cyclists should act like cars, period. (OK, I'll admit, I don't 100% always, but like anyone who does a rolling stop or goes thru a yellow in a car, its a calculated risk based on what else is going on around me).
10. I have found police tend to side AGAINST the cyclist more often than not. Besides the videos & anecdotes online, I've seen it myself in the US and here. The width of a lane should not preclude police from doing the right thing (they'd pull over a car in the same spot, would they not? Or direct them to a safer spot if warranted; at least a cyclist can pull onto the sidewalk).
11. Every cyclist should have insurance (if you ride in a organized club/group rides, you're required to have a license which includes insurance). Sadly, even if the cyclist IS at fault, its small consolation when you're going against a 4000lb vehicle... The average cyclist of average intelligence and self-preservation knows this and will ride defensively.
The ones that probably catch your attention may be: homeless, young adults (who are bulletproof, as we all know), completely oblivious (we used to learn the rules of the road in school but don't think they do anymore), or simply self-righteous, etc etc. Trust me, they annoy me and other responsible cyclists just as much as they annoy you and any other non-cyclist.
