Wednesday, March 16, 2011

PBOT Brown Bag Lunch Speaker Peter Koonce Heckled by Fellow City Staff

I am giving the Bicycle Brown Bag Series Talk on Thursday at lunch at the City . The talk is similar to what I recently gave up in Seattle to the SVR Design Company last month.  The flyer went up and I don't think I have ever seen heckling on a flyer for activities around the City, but here it is. I don't recall ever having a comment like this for something I am speaking about. Perhaps I am becoming more controversial in the work that I am doing. One can only speculate, but what's clear is there is sentiment that we're not winning the hearts and minds of our fellow City staff as we seek to "Remake Traffic Signals to Encourage Cycling". I guess I should explain that title a little and preface it with the fact that there are little things that the City can do to make traffic signals friendly to people choosing to ride their bicycles. These are also elements and attributes that would be supported by someone that lives on the street or a restaurant owner that has a sidewalk cafe, both of who would prefer slower traffic, as opposed to 35 mph. Pedestrian safety is also a likely outcome of these sorts of measures because the slower speeds will allow motorists to see pedestrians in the darker portions of the day, and perhaps even the ones that aren't dressed in an electric light show. 
What's particularly impressive is the person took the flyer out of the plastic sheet and added their 2 cents and then pushed the sheet back in. The comment is hard to make out, but looks like "why bother they won't obey them?" Another commenter added their "good point" to add another log onto the fire. 


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