This previous weekend the household and I went away for somewhat overnighter, and since we’d be someplace flat and quiet we figured we’d deliver all of the bikes simply in case:
Whereas it was good to have them, let’s simply say if we’d left them dwelling it might not have negatively impacted our journey. We rode them into city and again precisely as soon as, throughout which I managed to lock all of them with a single lock, as you see above. In any other case they spent more often than not on THE CAR THAT I OWN, they usually acquired fairly a soaking on the best way dwelling. This turned out to be an excellent factor for the bikes, because it lastly stopped raining in direction of the top of the drive, and heavy downpour adopted by a 55mph air-drying principally replicated a automobile wash for bicycles. Sadly I did lose the plastic bag saddle cowl you see above in the course of the drive, and the Brooks saddle, the saddle bag, and its contents did take a little bit of a soaking, however I used to be early to the dentist this morning so I did have time to park myself by the mighty Hudson and sun-dry every thing within the sizzling July solar:
As I sat, I considered how I’m sufficiently old to recollect once we used to name warmth, humidity and rainstorms “July.” Now it means the world’s ending. I additionally bear in mind when idle climate chat was a method to keep away from awkwardness within the elevator. Now it’s a possibility to proselytize:
“It’s solely gonna worsen till we cease burning fossil fuels” is the brand new “Have you ever heard the excellent news about our lord and savior Jesus Christ?” Both means, I’d be hitting that “Door Open” button like when the aliens get shut in “House Invaders.”
Additionally, except these idle conversations are happening between two drivers in idling automobiles à la “The Wire,” that’s fairly a non-sequitor:
[“Yep. And it’s only gonna get a lot worse until we stop burning fossil fuels, right?”]
Talking of saving the world, the Smugerati proceed to pin all their hopes on congestion pricing in New York Metropolis, and if there’s one factor they love greater than anything it’s foffing off to fashions–and no, I don’t imply fashions within the “Swimsuit Difficulty” sense, I imply fashions within the “I made a spreadsheet to help the conclusion I already drew earlier than I began” sense. Right here’s the most recent one:
I used to be underneath the impression congestion pricing was supposed to cut back congestion, however right here’s congestion pricing’s primary cheerleader saying it shouldn’t apply to for-hire automobiles:
This can be a little bit of a puzzler, since for-hire automobiles account for anyplace from 1 / 4 to over half the motorized vehicle visitors within the proposed congestion zone:
So if we’re going to cut back automobile visitors, possibly that may be an excellent place to begin.
More and more, the bike lane hater rhetorical tactic is to accuse the native advocates of being a part of a “conspiracy” together with Uber and Lyft:
Usually I believe that is overly simplistic at finest and disingenuous at worst, however once you’re driving via a sea of motor automobiles in Manhattan with TLC plates day after day and you then learn one thing like this, will get tougher and tougher to shrug all of it off. Manhattan is positively choked with these fucking issues. However I suppose after I’m driving dwelling within the night and for just like the fifteenth time in as many blocks an Uber pulls over in entrance of me within the bike lane to disgorge some younger revelers in entrance of a downtown restaurant, I’ll consolation myself within the information that a minimum of they don’t personal the automobile. The truth is, that’s been the road since a minimum of 2015:
As with “micromobility,” the advocates have an uncanny means of throwing the door huge open to the annoying houseguest who gained’t depart after which telling you why somebody who leaves the bathroom seat down and pisses throughout it each morning is definitely making your own home a greater place to stay. These corporations exploit their staff, choke the streets with visitors, and actually drove the cabbies they “disrupted” to suicide:
However in some way it’s all higher than some common schlub leasing a Hyundai, go determine.
Virtually as shocking is that this similar mannequin recommends crediting the congestion cost again to drivers who take the tunnels:
Having actually been to the key conferences of the anti-car cabal through which we had been advised to remind folks on a relentless foundation that individuals who drive in from Jersey are the enemy, this stunned me much more than the for-hire automobile factor. In line with 5 seconds of Web analysis that I by no means stand behind, right here’s what number of automobiles go via the tunnels every day:
- Lincoln Tunnel: 113,000
- Holland Tunnel: 100,000
- Battery Tunnel: 60,000
- Midtown Tunnel: 80,000
TOTAL: 353,000
That’s a shitload.
However in equity to the modelers, I assume the considering is that these tunnels are already tolled, whereas a fair larger shitload passes over the bridges, none of that are tolled in any respect:
- Brooklyn Bridge: 116,000
- Manhattan Bridge: 76,000
- Williamsburg Bridge: 104,000
- Queensboro Bridge: 146,000
TOTAL: 442,000
In a sane metropolis they’d simply toll the bridges to even issues out, however completely different bridges and tunnels are managed by completely different metropolis, state, and interstate businesses, so the one answer on this confederacy of corrupt fiefdoms that’s the New York Metropolis metropolitan space is to give you some cost that can exclude all of the related folks and the particular pursuits and in the long run will solely actually have an effect on, by the Smuggies’ personal admission, solely like 5,000 schmucks.
Fuck it, I’ll simply preserve driving my bike.
