Kinda perturbed….not because bike lanes will not be happening. If all factors are interrelated, ACHD should of required a Jefferson vacation with the development agreement . The Warmsprings/Broadway intersection was also not part of St.Luke development agreement when St. Luke could be the biggest factor in traffic patterns at that intersection. While bikes are an easy target, somehow St.Lukes seems to be getting a fast pass.

The roads are literally crumbling throughout the county. Children walking in the roadways because there are no sidewalks and the shoulders are muddy. Meanwhile this bunch of nincompoops is dithering away money to screw up the perfectly good roads in Bieter’s kingdom.

We do get the last laugh however. Sausage stuffer bike seats cause sexual dysfunction in men and women.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB0aFPXr4n4

Strong but appropriate language concerning Boise’s drive for bike lanes

Some see things as they could be and ask “why not?”
Wouldn’t it be great if we could all cycle among the cars? Why, it would be wonderful!

As a cyclist for 50 some years and victim of two life threatening encounters with vehicles, let me say the first rule of cycling is not to assert your legal rights to the road….IT IS TO SURVIVE!! Most cyclists I see around town are examples of Darwin at work.

Idaho has little or no rules of the road for cycling and the public has little knowledge of what rules we have and there is no mechanism for teaching them…no test…no license.

Placing a child on some appendage of a bicycle and rolling down Main or Idaho streets would represent child endangerment, and yet, that’s what the City would invite.

ACHD just saved some lives. Administrative mixing vehicles and bicycles is a recipe for disaster.

Perhaps we need a new Boise Gaurdian story titled…
Curmudgeon Car Cultist Crybabies Criticize Cycling
It could including valuable information about how God created cars on the 8th day, that bicycles are actually the work of Satan, and how incredibly dangerous bicycles are to God fearing motorists.

The bike and peds are organizing again! This time with the help of ACHD. http://www.achdidaho.org/Projects/PublicProject.aspx?ProjectID=383

The USA was developed as a car-centric habitat as soon as cars became the dominant form of transportation, led by the efforts of people like Robert Moses. The wide and open land mass afforded us the opportunity to build out rapidly. For a long time until 1970, the USA was the chief oil producer of cheap crude. It seemed to be in our DNA to create this motorcar haven. Europe is a much more pedestrian/bike/rail oriented habitat. Their own landscapes and limited national sizes and urban cultures required them to be that way. This works for them and their bike friendly facilities are appropriate. I can enjoy bike facilities if they get built or continue to navigate the streets without them. Asphalt is asphalt.

It is difficult for planners to try and adopt these facilities into a built out infrastructure that is car-centric. It has become a cultural division and technical issues nightmare for road engineers. Some people believe that bikes represent a social engineering attack on their way of life. The climate debate enters the picture rapidly at this point. I don’t want to hash out that here. I would point out this simple fact…my own strong libertarian motive is to choose my OWN forms of transportation that suit my needs. I walk to the local shopping center all of the time. I bike to most of my destinations beyond that. I log about 1000 motor vehicle miles a year because I can. I do it for several reasons. I’m not here to tell others what to do.

The ultimate decider of what transportation we choose is affordability and feasibility. Right now, gas prices are driven very low by this Saudi campaign to drive the shale producers out of business (and stick it to the Russians et al). The economically sound price of oil is about $80/bll+ for shale. My neighbor who worked oil rigs in ND just lost his job that he did for 4 years. At some point, we will see prices rise again. So cars will be enjoying a windfall for a while. But, many people have discovered biking is very healthy, liberating and inexpensive. Bikes offer a different choice, and that’s a personal freedom. We still own our cars, but we also choose our bikes or to walk. Isn’t that American?

Downtown solution:
One way streets on ALL streets between Broadway and 16th; State Street and Myrtle.

20mph limits in the same zones, with traffic lights timed for 20mph

No bicycle riding on sidewalks, no skates, no skateboards in the wheels up zone of downtown. If the street is too dangerous for your slow brain, fine get off the bike and walk it on the sidewalk.

Right lane of the street is for bicycles either as a dedicated bike lane or a sharrow- with appropriate signs for infrequent users.

40 feet clearance of no parking on downstream side of intersection (enhances visibility for all).

Simple.
Consistent.
Compromises for all parties.

Unfortunately simple and consistent are NOT terms known to ACHD.

@Easterner: some good ideas, but the police will never really enforce the no bikes, skateboards, etc on sidewalks and wheels down zones, they think such small infractions are a waste of their time.

Almost 20 years of walking, driving and riding my bike in Boise… never seen a police officer giving a citation to a cyclist, pedestrian, or leash laws, but I see the infractions daily. I don’t deny it happens, just never seen it.

Some police jurisdictions realize this (tendency for police to not enforce minor infractions) and they hire lower paid Police Aides, or other similar title, these unarmed non-POST positions are allowed to enforce vehicle registrations on parked cars, parking citations, pedestrian/bicycle infractions, leash laws, littering etc. This position has more authority and training than a security officer, but not the high cost of additional police.

If we are going to have these laws on the books, there should be enforcement. Whether or not these laws are on the books is a second and different question.

Eagle Writer; “…City streets are for autos…” Actually, city streets for 99% of human history are for pedestrians and horses. The personal automobile is a temporary historical blip caused by humans accessing fossil fuels created over millions of years, and, since there is no substitute for cheap oil, it is only a matter of time until the personal automobile goes the way of the dinosaurs. Don’t get to reliant on that comfy car, it won’t be around much longer. As the era of cheap oil winds down, we are going to find that burning the last of it to move 5,000 pound personal chariots is not practical or possible if we want to eat too. The bicycle and public transport are tools to retain mobility as the cars fade into the dustbin of history. It’s really almost comical the way old geezers lash out at anyone who suggests cars are not a permanent fixture in the world. Try pushing your car down the street sometime to get a sense of the insane amounts of energy needed to power a car, and then study up on the laws of energy, and the reality of our precarious energy situation, and you won’t be “peddling fiction” anymore.

Maybe Eagle Writer means disparate. Disparate things are not equal. Throughout human history roads are for humans to transport themselves or goods and because we are now in the age of the automobile, 99% behind us doesn’t really play in to the equation. It is not a relevant attribute to ask whether you are having a good experience with your wagon or donkey on the streets of America.

We do have more efficient autos however. They are smaller than the conspicuous caddy’s of the past. They are safer, and by the way, a family of four or five can safely travel together in downtown to eat at the restaurant that was there last week, but gone this week.

Perhaps creating, educating about, and enforcing a downtown driving zone would work. 20 mph like residential. Timed lights. Photographic run the light or run the stop sign mechanisms until people comply out of being scared of the fine.

I know! Let’s send the transportation planners to metros that do this. Won’t work, but fun to imagine.

Thanks for the history lesson, Tom, I am shocked to discover that our streets once were for horses. But your point is huge – I’m sure we tried and failed with those shared horse and auto lanes until the primary mode of transportation won out. If you check your more modern history you will see that it is the auto.

I plan to stay “comfy” and rely on my car as I watch consumer trends closely and I do not see an oil shortage nor reduction in auto manufacturing in the next 50 years.

Clancy, “dis” is simply a prefix that means “opposite or absence of.” I use “disequal” a lot and thus it is word, and in fact always feels much stronger than “un.” To clarify, yes of course your standing in life and to drive our roads is equal to all. Your standing to bike the interstate lanes is not. Your standing to bike the sidewalks is not equal to that of pedestrians, and until bikes are registered, riders licensed, safety equipment mandated, and “equal” taxes paid, your standing to bike the city streets is not equal.

I bike too and regularly. One bike for trails and one for rural roads and highways. But I always know I am not equal to mountain lions, or drunks pulling boats to or from McCall. And I don’t ask or expect the trails or roads to be changed on my account.

Ride your bike downtown, but don’t ask or expect the town to be changed for the very small minority.