Editor,
I ride my bike more than two times a week, but most often, motorized transportation is the only realistic option. Bike lanes are a nice-to-have, but realities often speak against them, and force-fitting them on existing roads demands justice for those who suffer as a result.
Around 200 parking spaces were canceled along Humboldt Street and Poplar Avenue by the San Mateo City Council and reinforced by the commissioners, to the dismay of residents. How many councilmembers and “vocal” commissioners, so anxious to spend our tax dollars, actually live on the affected corridor? Probably zero.
Curious about how many bikers and drivers are affected, I did a rush-hour count on a non-rainy day (did the officials also do this?). Results: for 100 cars on Humboldt, and 100 on Poplar, there were zero bicyclists. Zero. Not even 1/200. Residents and visitors are bearing the weight of PC rulings based upon ... zero. Besides inconvenience, property values will be impacted. Do you want to buy a home where parking is a daily struggle, and visitors must park blocks away? Numerous signs in residents’ yards say “No!” At minimum, justice demands that “we,” the officials’ employers, must compensate for lost property values, which certainly exceed the federal grant that funded this oppressive move. As if to flaunt power, prominent signs have been placed, declaring that cyclists may occupy the full lane, notwithstanding the already over-generous bike lanes.
Based upon traffic evidence and popular response, the officials involved should resign or be fired, and the parking spaces restored.
Walter Crompton
San Mateo
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(2) comments
Thanks for your letter, Mr. Crompton, and your rush-hour data. Seems to me that you’ve collected the only data we can use to make decisions. Let’s hope the city stops dragging their feet and instead restores all of the lost parking spaces. Union workers will be glad to be paid to fill the hole they first dug up, so to speak. And everyone who lives in the area will be happy. For those who are not, they can refrain from the street parking they've likely helped to pay for. Easy-peasy!
Here is the core issue:
- Before: according to everyone "free" private car storage was an issue in this neighborhood long before the bike lanes.
- taking away the bike lanes would mean they would have wasted some $4M to achieve the same result that "free" private car storage is still a problem.
And in the end the city would have wasted $4M to make things worse for everybody.
That is a lot of money wasted to solve no one's problem and create even some more.
Those bike lanes solved a huge EQUITY issue San Mateo had. Taking them away brings back that EQUITY issue and adds on an ETHICS issue for YIMBY-Mayor Adam Lorraine and weed-promoting Nicole Fernandez.
Not a good look for the YIMBY movement!
Political careers became doomed for less.
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