Streetcleaning: double edged sword for cyclists...

who own motor vehicles.

What I dislike about streetcleaning, like many other city services, is its guise.  Yes, it's a necessary service, especially for cyclists.  It's this very sweeping of debris that keeps us from getting more frequent flats.  It seems we get screwed more often though.  Well at least those of us who own motor vehicles, since we tend to drive less and often park on the street.

I have come to terms with the fact that streetcleaning is a means to acquire revenue for the city.  Yes they are doing a service, but they are also counting on motorists not moving their vehicles so that they can collect revenue.  If everyone moved their vehicles accordingly, I am sure the mayor would be fairly upset.  It's this opportunistic behavior I hate, yes hate!  Kind of like that guy in the earlier thread.  The one about the abandoned bike...you know he didn't want the owner to claim the bike, so he could take it as his own.   

So as I stare out my window and look at that bright orange ticket splattered on my windshield, I am upset.  So much so that I gave myself a headache.  Not at having to pay, but at having forgotten to move my car yet again.  I feel like the guy from memento, hopefully I wont get run down by a (insert mode of transportation here) as I am wandering on the (insert location here) aimlessly in a senile stupor one day.  rant over.   

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Permalink Reply by heather s on August 4, 2010 at 4:37pm
Lose the car, but stay away from the Michelob Ultra. You're welcome.

H3N3 said:
Oh, and Adriana:

Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on August 4, 2010 at 5:04pm
Don't lose the taste, eh? How can you if it isn't there to begin with?

And I do love the implication to ride while drunk.

H3N3 said:
Oh, and Adriana:

Permalink Reply by Lee Diamond on August 4, 2010 at 5:47pm
I have a slightly different opinion on this one.

I think that laws should be used in mass frenzy to make money.

I think that the goal of law enforcement should be to run the city with the money it makes from people who break the 3 foot rule law, speeding, red lights, and every other POSSIBLE revenue generating enforcement of existing laws. I’m mad that they don’t do it more, and the mad, crazy, psycho-wild enforcement I envision would pay for the staff needed to do it, and everything else you can imagine. I would like to see some of these fees doubled, tripled and quadrupled. I would like to see the city use, for example, the money derived from enforcement of the 3 foot rule for the creation of bike lanes, bike boulevards, etc. Those that make it unsafe for cyclists could pay for the separation of cyclists from the traffic that endangers them. Just as an example.

Not that this would ever happen. The uproar if someone were to even PROPOSE enforcement of the laws would be enough to have them lose whatever election they were running in, or run out on a rail otherwise. In Schaumburg last year, a Red Light camera was catching people turning right on red into Woodfield Mall, when it was not allowed; this wasn't a situation where right on red was ok. The vast number of complaints from citizens who were breaking the law and threatened to stop shopping at Woodfield Mall caused them to remove the camera, not change the law, because they agreed it was unsafe for pedestrians crossing there for it to be a legal right turn on red. They therefore are completely complicit in allowing people to break the law, who got pissed off for getting a ticket for the law they were breaking on the way to their shopping orgy or whatever.

Seems amazing, but it's just what happens when you enforce a law that is there. Somehow, the people enforced "upon" suddenly feel put-upon.

The law is toothless if it is not enforced, but this is a society that likes to have enough laws to appear like we are doing things for safety, public concern, etc. It is only when it interferes in their personal convenience that the conspiracy theories come out.

We are right in the middle of “hate-the-cyclists” letters to the Editors season right now, so every other day, you can see another recommendation from a letter-writer that cyclists get ticketed for running red lights, or get licensed, or what have you. The fact is that most people break tons of laws every day, and rely on the lack of enforcement to get by and continuously do so. Jaywalking, spitting on sidewalks, cruising through stop signs, illegal rights on red and a million other offenses. Have you ever seen a car come to a complete stop when there weren’t either cars waiting turns, or a cop? Me neither. I’m all for the enforcement of existing laws with cyclists too, as long as the laws get enforced equally for cars, which are far more deadly and imposing on public safety. Since there are an infinite number of people doing an infinite number of things that they shouldn’t, it is a good way to separate the good laws from the chaff….the ones society really cares about, from the ones they would just presume they didn’t have to worry about.

I am not glad that you personally got a ticket, but I am glad they ticketed a car that was breaking the law and pulled some money out of the pockets of someone who did something wrong so that they need that much less from the populace as a whole.

And yes, I drive.

Cheers - Lee
Permalink Reply by Rick norris on August 4, 2010 at 5:59pm
Not really wanting to high jack too much, I thought this would be good place to remind all the bick riders as your doing a great job of cutting down on air pollution and stiking it to big oil companies, dont forget to move your car once every seven days..or you also can get a ticket, daleys way of rewarding you for being green.
Permalink Reply by T.C. O'Rourke on August 4, 2010 at 7:02pm
Adriana said:
Huh...are you saying there should not be any public parking at all? !

Yes, that is what I'm saying. The roadway is public space set aside to enable the movement of people between private properties. TRAVEL. A goodly portion of this public space is taken up by motorists storing their personal vehicles, to the detriment of the system.

And removing parking from the street would open up all sorts of space for wider sidewalks and bicycle facilities.
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on August 4, 2010 at 7:40pm
Bick riders? I just vomited all over my keyboard. Oops.

Rick norris said:
Not really wanting to high jack too much, I thought this would be good place to remind all the bick riders as your doing a great job of cutting down on air pollution and stiking it to big oil companies, dont forget to move your car once every seven days..or you also can get a ticket, daleys way of rewarding you for being green.
Permalink Reply by Joe TV on August 5, 2010 at 2:08am
Just scanned this thread and didn't see this, but forgive me if I'm being redundant. This is absolutely an idea whose time has come.

City-issued text message reminders before street cleaning.

http://theexpiredmeter.com/?p=6710
Permalink Reply by Will on August 5, 2010 at 2:10am
They don't sweep the street where I live, it's a filthy semi-industrial area. But anyway, I have a parking lot.
Permalink Reply by Mark Kenseth on August 5, 2010 at 3:51am
lol, h3n3. chuck woolery would approve...and then be back in 2 and 2.

also, i vote to get rid of the car. i did and have so much less to worry about. i love not owning a car. (but i still don't drink michelob.)

H3N3 said:
Adriana said:
Huh...are you saying there should not be any public parking at all? Hey if the devil can get sympathy, so can I! So stick that in your pipe and smoke it!

T.C. O'Rourke said:
Why the hell do we allow individuals to store their private property in the public right of way to begin with?

Regardless, were you really imagining sympathy over your parking tickets from the bicyclist forum?

Looks like a . . .
Permalink Reply by Michael J Blane on August 5, 2010 at 4:00am
I got tired of remembering to move my car for street-cleaning, too long parked, and whatever . . . so, I sold it, 20 years ago, still don't have a car.
Sell your car, stop worrying about tickets, stickers and auto-insurance.
Permalink Reply by Davo on August 5, 2010 at 4:07am
I thought he was talking about pens. But then think of all the trees the Bick riders kill.

Tank-Ridin' Ryan said:
Bick riders? I just vomited all over my keyboard. Oops.

Rick norris said:
Not really wanting to high jack too much, I thought this would be good place to remind all the bick riders as your doing a great job of cutting down on air pollution and stiking it to big oil companies, dont forget to move your car once every seven days..or you also can get a ticket, daleys way of rewarding you for being green.
Permalink Reply by thang van ung on August 5, 2010 at 6:43am
additionally, wards does have services that will email you the cleaning schedule twice, 7days and 1day prior to the cleaning. go to your ward office and sign-up. there are plenty of services that people are IGNORANT of.

example of what ward 43rd (lincoln park/depaul) sent on july 23rd and july 29th:
Route #1
July 30, 2009

Dayton (Wrightwood to Diversey) West Side
Halsted (Fullerton to Diversey) West Side
Mildred (Wrightwood to Diversey) West Side
Racine (Fullerton to Lill) East Side
Seminary (Fullerton to Lill) West Side
Sheffield (Fullerton to Diversey) East Side
Wilton (Wrightwood to Diversey) West Side


Joe TV said:
Just scanned this thread and didn't see this, but forgive me if I'm being redundant. This is absolutely an idea whose time has come.

City-issued text message reminders before street cleaning.

http://theexpiredmeter.com/?p=6710

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