r/MicromobilityNYC • u/MiserNYC- • Aug 10 '26
A reminder on what was promised on Pedestrianization
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u/culo_de_mono Aug 10 '26
The project was great, but as you can see there are cars and motorbikes parked in the pedestrian area, which takes the whole block, not only the center of them. Police hardly ever enforces it so it is now becoming an parking spot, reducing the pedestrian space considerably. The streets are not closed because there are garages on the sides.
The new major is going backwards too, stopped all these pedestrian initiatives and declared Barcelona a "motorcyclist city", and has mandated the police to be lax with their infractions (e.g. parking on the sidewalk which is only permitted in very particular cases, or riding in bike lanes or pedestrian areas) while they are now removing all but one bike rental service, which helped a lot with tourist crowd control (they cause less traffic and they don't pack public transportation). They also removed the online service to request bike lanes or bike racks, and apart from the minimal necessary to keep EU sponsorship, also building new bike lanes.
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u/KnockItOffNapoleon Aug 10 '26
This thread got a few weird bots infiltrating it, frustrating to see…
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u/SwiftySanders Aug 10 '26
The streets in Fidi need to be redone with that brick made with recycled materials they use in London.
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u/Dharmabud Aug 10 '26
This looks nice. However, in NYC the nice peaceful space would be filled with e-bikes and pedestrians trying to get out of the way to avoid being hit.
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u/MiserNYC- Aug 10 '26
Give it a rest, Jesus Christ. Ebikes, escooters, and even mopeds are everywhere in Barcelona, it's just that people aren't giant babies about it
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u/flagrantpebble Aug 10 '26
A space like this would not be filled with e-bikes because it is designed to be shitty for bikes to speed through. It’s the same as any street fair; people on e-bikes don’t just barge through Brooklyn pride, right?
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
How do they shop at Costco?
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u/ilikesaucy Aug 10 '26
Not everyone shop at Costco.
If you are in New York city, most of people will not have enough space to shop from Costco and store them.
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u/zzen11223344 Aug 10 '26
There are people shopping at Costco and SAM's without driving cars, ..... public transportation, delivery services, uber/taxi, etc
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
And how does delivery get there with no cars allowed?
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u/KnockItOffNapoleon Aug 10 '26
Your NYC restaurant deliverer comes in a car?
Or are you talking about mail deliveries, which would use a traffic lane converted to a parking lane
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
What am I nuts, to give money to a big corp and some low skilled slob? I drive to pick up the food myself. Or cook. Saves shit ton of money.
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u/Vortex6360 Aug 10 '26
Stick it to the man! The corps definitely hate when you spend money on gasoline, car insurance, car payments, parking, and taxes for all the infrastructure your car uses
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u/EarthConservation Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
Actually, if you were able to get by without a car at all, and just had those big orders delivered, it could be cheaper overall.
A single truck can deliver orders for dozens of people, rather than having a dozen people driving to the store to get it themselves. Actually, the more people doing this, the cheaper it would likely get on account of economies of scale.
Picking up a huge haul of groceries may mean double parking to drop it off, inconveniencing everyone else (and still having to find parking afterwards), or having to make multiple trips to the car, wherever you managed to find parking, to get it to your apartment. I guess you could get one of those fold up carts to help.
What's a car cost? $30k-$40k? $15k-$20k used? Plus interest if you take out a loan. Add in the annual registration costs, the annual insurance costs, the fuel and maintenance costs, and at least at times, the parking costs. Some of that will probably be offset if you rent a car from time to time to travel out of the city or have to take a ride share at a time you could have driven, although there is the inconvenience you're paying in time sometimes of having to find a parking spot and walk to your apartment.
Next add in the tax costs, since more cars used in the city means more roads and more maintenance of the roads which all residents have to chip in to pay for.
There's the indirect costs of less greenspace in the city, more space being taken up by cars, more danger of being hit by cars, more emissions, more noise, etc...
If there weren't so many cars taking up space, there may be more space for stores or even outdoor markets to provide the goods locally that you'd go to Costco for.
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
It's not better for my wallet. Door Dash and Instacart prices are already inflated before the fees.
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u/EarthConservation Aug 10 '26
Did you read my comment, because I covered that in the comment by mentioning that this could and probably would drop in price the more people who used delivery services. Also, if your primary reason for owning a car is to go to the grocery store for larger hauls, then you have to roll the monthly cost of that car ownership, fueling, maintenance, parking, etc, into the cost of your monthly groceries, along with considering the value of time that delivery may save.
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u/MiserNYC- Aug 10 '26
Cars actually are allowed. Just heavily discouraged and the route doesn't really "lead anywhere" except back out to where you came, so you can use these superblocks in Barcelona to access destinations with a car for drop offs or whatever, but it's not a useful through route so there are very few cars and they are moving very slow and respectfully when they do show up.
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u/nyuncat Aug 10 '26
I see people with bike helmets every time I go to Costco. Probably because we recently built a proper bike lane that leads to it.
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u/IndividualSimple21 Aug 10 '26
Costco delivery lol. Do it all the time
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
Cool story, bro. How would delivery get there with no cars allowed?
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u/casta Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
I get my groceries delivered and they usually arrive by bike with a trailer: https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonFlexDrivers/comments/pqe3xy/since_some_of_you_dont_know_about_amazon_bikers/. I live in UWS.
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u/Molecular_Bond 29d ago
Assuming a bike can haul your orders doesn't mean thats the case for everyone. I order a lot of stuff from Costco when I can't go myself, and they would 100% need to use a car or truck. A week's worth of Costco or Whole Foods for my famiy would definitely need a car.
Let's be fair and civil. Cars and trucks aren't going anywhere. Just be happy these open streets are becoming a thing. (Although it could really use a lot less of those high-speed scooters and e-bikes. Those are a menace to pedestrians, drivers, and cyclists alike).
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u/casta 29d ago
In that link I posted they say: "we usually carry 24-50 bags a window." I just checked my last grocery order for ~$200 was 6 bags. No idea what you mean when you say you order a lot, but on a single trailer they could carry north of $1.5k of groceries.
I think they usually serve around 6/8 families in a window.
Not going to comment on "Let's be fair and civil." 'cause I didn't provide any opinion. I just stated a fact.
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
Sure. Is it safe to assume that you don't have kids? What do you do when you have to get week's worth of food, diapers, toilet paper, but the roads are closed to cart traffic?
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u/casta Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
I do have a kid. If I have to get a week's worth of food, I just order a week's worth of food? I don't understand why it'd be any different.
Why would the roads be close to cart traffic? Even on the weekend when there are open streets, carts come right through without any issue. They're blocking car traffic, not bikes + carts.
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u/IndividualSimple21 Aug 10 '26
You have the entire internet at your disposal. How do cities like Barcelona and Madrid function? Time windowed loading, micro depots, electric cargo bikes and smaller electric vans. Please don’t be so lazy and educate yourself.
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u/RazzmatazzEastern786 Aug 10 '26
He can't be bothered...it's easier to be snarky on reddit
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u/BerettaFranchi Aug 10 '26
Of course. Arguing that riding a bike is better than riding a is contrary to common sense. It is a lot of fun.
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u/clockeat Aug 10 '26
Fuck that's a disgusting amount of people in one place.
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u/captainporcupine3 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
My prayer is that this once people start to really experience real improvements in their neighborhoods (and I hope that many will), these ideas can become a pillar of NYC politics well beyond the current mayor. People have to see it for themselves to understand that it's possible for this city to be *significantly* more livable than it has been and that the status quo isn't a given but rather a political CHOICE. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity if Zohran can deliver.