mohair
This is for Portland mainly, but might be interesting to other urban dwellers.
I just returned from the Hillsdale Neighborhood Association meeting where a motion was passed that the HNA will formally state that the traffic island that was installed is considered a hazard and should be removed. The couple who live on Cheltenham Drive and spearheaded the movement put a lot of effort into getting people involved, including talking to bicyclists and asking their opinion. We'll see what happens as they take on the multi-level bureaucracies that seem to abound. It appears that the island was an "experiment" on the part of PDOT.
Several points were brought out in private conversations after the vote was taken.
1) Perceptions are very important.
One man complained of bicyclists "flying" down Westwood on their way to Terwilliger. I asked him how fast they were going and he said too fast for safety. Note that these roads are fairly rough and only an idiot would ride them over 20 MPH. His claim was that they were a threat to pedestrian traffic.
2) There is a growing antipathy to the sundry bicycle alliances.
The major complaint appeared to be that the growing "equal rights for bicycles" movement was causing unsafe behavior. Again, perceptions.
3) The majority of "unsafe bicyclists" were post-adolescent males.
I won't argue this point.
4) The whole "bike boulevard" concept had no place in the west hills.
This one I agree with. These are the west hills where the roads are narrow and twisty, (Sort of a flatter version of Tuscany but without the great food.), and you have to accept the fact and deal with it.
There were several other issues, but as usual, the behavior of one bicyclist (as filtered through the viewers myriad prejudices) serves as justification for stereotyping all of us. One of the interesting things was that organizations frequently ignore the Law Of Unintended Consequences.
All in all, it was worth sitting through 90 minutes of tedium, administrivia, and blatant commercial boosterism to get to something that mattered.
I urge you all to sit in on some of these meetings. You'll learn something, whether you like it or not. Just make sure to lay off the coffee and other diurectics before the meeting.
Time for my milk and cookies.