@wordshaper I am the 'build it and they will come' guy in our org, but there are places where they won't come, and we still need safer facilities there.

A road i have in mind is down in Northern VA, where I occasionally saw guys on beater bikes wheeling their way to Home Depot to pick up work. If VDOT did a repaving and had space to easily insert some flexplost PBLs, they should, even though no additional folks will likely bike that hellscape. Those guys deserve safety.
@DrTCombs @pedbikeinfo

@wordshaper Or here: If this ridiculous road got repaved, and they could nip/tuck a few feet to add a buffer and flexposts to these bikelanes, the additional induced ridership would be minimal. They should still do it to improve the safety of the few people using it now.

This road should be fundamentally better, the surrounding land use should be better, but it's unethical for us to wait for the whole world to change to be safer. @DrTCombs @pedbikeinfo

@bikepedantic @wordshaper @pedbikeinfo If only the transportation industry took safety as seriously as /checks notes/ the amusement park industry

https://www.iaapa.org/safety-security/amusement-ride-safety

@bikepedantic @wordshaper @pedbikeinfo we build and operate roads knowing full well that people will die on them unless we take urgent action to make them safer...and in most cases, we don't take those actions even when people end up dead

no other industry is allowed to operate like that

@bikepedantic @DrTCombs @pedbikeinfo I look at that and my first thought is "why aren't there tram tracks in that green space?" and then I remember and get disappointed.

But yeah, there should be better biking and pedestrian infrastructure here. It's sad but unsurprising there isn't.

@bikepedantic @DrTCombs @pedbikeinfo Oh, I am all for safe bike and pedestrian facilities even if it doesn't ultimately mean a shift in traffic types. Nobody should die because the roads they're on basically forces them into peril.