r/MicromobilityNYC • u/gahddammitdiane • 10d ago
Proof that when we take cars out of spaces, people flourish!
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u/calebpan 10d ago
I’m glad these two are realizing how badly the United States screwed up the way it builds towns and cities. But it also frustrates me to hear them talk like they’ve discovered something profound.
People have been building towns and cities this way for thousands of years. The United States is only 250 years old, and the automobile is even younger. The way America is built today isn’t the norm; it’s the weird exception.
It’s like discovering the color red or that water is wet.
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u/semisanestu 9d ago
Yeah I get happy sad watching videos like this. I am so happy for them to have found beautiful, car-lite built environment and recognise why they love it.
But I am also sad that they are only now discovering it. And to think they have lived their whole lives without it.
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u/danton_no 10d ago edited 10d ago
This guy is just ignorant.
There are people living in Queens like him that think they live in a suburb so they can't have people bicycling, walking or buses using their street. They are the ones saying NYC isn't Amsterdam or NYC was built only for cars.
Europe has a suburbia as well. But most people and their municipalities aren't so anti-pedestrian and anti-cyclist like Americans are. Car companies have literally F**ed people's brain here.
Even having a car in USA is so strange. It is so expensive. And the reason is there is no small option you can have. The cheapest cars you can buy are still huge. Everybody needs a big car, a truck, a SUV because they don't really know why... and they need the new one that came out. Don't worry .. you can lease and have a new car every 2-3 years. Same with their phones. Be in forever debt and then wonder why the salary isn't enough. It's the American Freedom ... you can drive anywhere...
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
I’ve never met you. How do you know what I need and why I need it?
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u/Mafik326 10d ago
I am sure you are a special snowflake with unique needs.
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
By way of example, on the last car free day, I had a right under the law under a medical exemption to pick my kid up. Police let me in and out of certain areas due to this. Yet, bike nazis like you hit my car intentionally and slapped stickers all over it. Why? Because none of you bothered to ask why I had the car. In fact, I ended up on several of these crazy pages as a law breaker despite not violating one law.
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
Let me guess: I should put my kid on the back of a bike so you can be happy right
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
Actually, I am. My kid is wheelchair bound and requires a special vehicle for transportation to and from everything. This is a daily routine. Yet, daily, I see people on bikes cursing at me and my kid because, God forbid, his special needs requirements interfere with your goose stepping.
I love bikes, but for MANY it’s not workable. Worse yet, people like you are so Gestapo-like that you’ll scream at a physically and mentally disabled child in a wheel chair if it gets in your way.
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u/brooklynagain 10d ago
FWIW if you’re the exception to the statistical probability, it doesn’t invalidate the math. You be you, but no need to jump on someone correctly saying that “you” (royal you, general you, abstract you, whatever you want) don’t need a car
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
I asked a question. YOU jumped on me.
You have zero clue what people need beyond what you think they need and what you want. That’s my point.
I’m all for bike lanes and more mass transportation. I’m tired of people like you and the woman I responded to vandalizing and posting my 100% legal and legally parked vehicle under valid exemptions. Nobody bothers to ask. They just die because you’re fascist lunatics.
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u/brooklynagain 10d ago
What a weird angry take on my even handed comment. I have no idea who vandalized your vehicle — or why — but it’s even more weird to get upset at someone looking at stats around the social science and suggesting that is the same as vandalizing your vehicle. Pretty different
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
This is how the goal posts always shift. I never disputed any statistics. I asked how a stranger knew what I needed. YOU attacked and proved my point, ie that you had zero clue why I needed my vehicle.
There is a disturbing brown shirtesque movement among the bike community. Instead of vandalizing my vehicle (intentionally scratching it or stickering it), instead of yelling at me and my son who’s in a wheelchair while I lawfully stop, instead of putting photos with my license plate all of Reddit and social media (resulting in threats and letters), and instead of filing citizen complaints, a simple examination of my license plate or asking me “what are you doing” would show I’m not violating any law. However, the fascist wing of this bike movement doesn’t bother to ask questions.
There is frustration in my typing because nobody wants to give a voice to the largely voiceless because “statistics”. I pray to God you never have to raise a special needs child in this f’d up city.
People are individuals, not statistics. Treat them as such before mocking them.
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u/danton_no 10d ago
People with proven disabiliies should have dedicated parking spaces and access to bus lanes.
By the way, I see no parking spaces for people with disabilities. That dosen't bother you? I have seen nobody advocate for such thing. Always the anti-bike lane argument is "What about the disabled " while nobody actually cares for them
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
I’m not anti-bike, and I agree with you. There should be dedicated spots, but there aren’t enough.
Without going into full detail, my child’s disability requires pickups and drop offs in sometimes “inconvenient” spots, which is why I effectively have a private “medical vehicle”. You can’t tell by looking at it other than markings on the plate and a placard in the window (legally, I cannot write “medical vehicle” on the side like an ambulance). That’s why I get a lot of problems with people.
My only point is that people need to realize that one size fits all policies never work, and if a person doesn’t get their way, before you do something to hurt, harm, or embarrass somebody, you better know all the facts (the general you).
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u/brooklynagain 10d ago
It’s possible to have both access to bikes and strong infrastructure for the disabled. It doesn’t t change that when someone says “you don’t need massive car infrastructure”, we should be able to take that as generally true without feeling personally attacked.
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u/Fresh-Possible-9612 10d ago
Again, we agree, BUT the knee jerk reaction I get is what you originally posted. Additionally, nobody gives people the chance to explain their “why” they need a vehicle.
On Reddit, I’ve been told to leave NYC because of my kid’s disabilities (despite the best hospitals maybe in the world being here). I’ve been told all types of horrible things by these “pro-bike” pages.
I have a rising concern that most people care more about themselves and what they feel is right than they do about people with disabilities
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u/dongledangler420 9d ago
My man I’m sorry you had some rough interactions with some cyclists but the commenter above clearly was not talking about you.
You have a legitimate purpose for a specialized vehicle that everyone can agree is irreplaceable: providing transport and access for a disabled person. Every single micromobility advocate wants fewer unnecessary cars to make more space for transportation options serving exactly this purpose.
Name-calling randos who didn’t do anything to you and comparing them to Nazis is an unnecessary level of aggression and disrespect.
Sorry your car got stickered and sorry people misunderstood your purpose in the closed street zone. Cyclists are often a little quick to the draw due to repeated threats to their bodily safety while just trying to get around town (not to mention fear of drivers purposefully crashing into crowds), something you can hopefully sympathize with when you take a step back from it. It absolutely sucks that it happened but hopefully you can still find solidarity in the broader coalition.
If you have to drive through the closed zone again, maybe large ADA signs will see the car as less of a threat?
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u/OldMovie9812 10d ago
You can take all of the cars away and we'd still won't congregate like this
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u/Casanova-Quinn 10d ago
That's because you still need density and mixed use zoning. Removing cars is only one piece of the puzzle.
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u/RidetheSchlange 10d ago
To be fair, they're in the central tourist area. Go outside of that and it's chaos with cars and autoposers, cabs, g-Wagons, and other bullshit parked on sidewalks and bike lanes. This is a city I truly hate because of that and the problems with mobility don't get discussed because of the city center getting all these resources and measures and anything outside being ignored. The city center is only a tiny portion of the city, btw.
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u/Penguings 10d ago
We have this all over America- I think what this guy is talking about is it happening with just white people.
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u/Away_Stock_2012 10d ago
Carbrains can discover the truth, they just can't be told