On 4/21/2018 2:31 PM, AMuzi wrote:

snip

Frank, you don't see the big picture.

If a couple million dollars of pavement and striping in Santa Clara
increased a household's commuters from one to two, then it's clear that
if the nation would merely replace all structures with underground
bunkers and pave everything dead smooth, without curbs or automobile
lanes,Â* we could have 330 million commuters! Extrapolate, man!

Exactly. And you have to realize that "a couple million dollars" is
pocket change in the scheme of things. A "Bicycle Boulevard" costs very
little and results in significant increases. But we are now working on
converting striped bike lanes into protected bike lanes. It's necessary
because without a physical barrier the bicycle lanes are used for
pick-ups/drop-offs, loading zones, cell phone waiting areas, etc..

The big money has been in creating safe ways to cross freeways and other
major highways. A simple bicycle/pedestrian overpass across an eight
lane freeway will cost $8 million. We have two high schools where it's
extremely difficult for students living in one area to get to school
either by foot or bicycle, so they mostly get driven to school. The
proposed overpass will likely get at least a couple of hundred of these
students to cycle to school on nice days, and will also serve as a
commuter route for others.

$8 million pays for about 1/5 of a mile of above-ground light-rail line,
0.035 miles of above-ground heavy rail (BART), and about 1/2 mile of an
eight lane freeway. With our local transit agency having a 9% fare
recovery, I'd rather spend money on enabling more cycling.