Good morning only to the judge who just sided with the City in the second lawsuit against Cambridge MA bike lanes https://www.cambridgeday.com/2024/02/27/city-prevails-again-in-second-suit-on-bike-lanes-ruled-as-markings-not-regulations-by-a-judge/
@acdha in the exact same spirit, they screamed to the heavens that 'quick-build' bike lanes (that took more parking) should stop in favor of big capital rebuilds that would preserve more parking. Now that a big capital project is following up on a quick-build project, they're screaming that it's too expensive.
@bikepedantic I don’t know that I’d have the patience not to quote that back at them: this is what you asked for!
@bikepedantic sounds like the claim was a pretty thin technicality "the installation of bicycle lanes and the signs and markings relative thereto are not rules and regulations under §3(a), but rather are markings and other traffic control devices within §3(b).”
@enobacon it's a thin technicality because the claim being litigated is that same thin technicality. The first (also unsuccessful) lawsuit was on slightly broader but equally dumb technicalities, because technicalities are really the only things that a court will hear in questioning things that are clearly within public agency discretion
@enobacon @bikepedantic they also claimed the head of the traffic department was unqualified and that the city should staff a specific board to hear these types of complaints.
They did get the city to re-staff that board that hadn't been staffed for a few decades because no one ever used it. I've heard that the new members have lamented that they haven't done anything.
@DemonHusky @bikepedantic take them some complaints about the infrastructure status quo?
@bikepedantic so tempted to troll the cranky-old-people's social network with this. They're currently in a lather about Belmont's proposed override.
@bikepedantic I rather like this quote:
"Plaintiffs did win one technical legal point: the threshold question of “standing,” or whether they were allowed to litigate the case at all. Hogan ruled they were indeed allowed to litigate the case, just that they lost on the merits."
I honestly don't know why these people whine so goddamn much -- they're basically never the people actually affected. (And for bike lanes they ultimately benefit from less car traffic)
@bikepedantic let me guess, next they’re going to complain that the city spends too much on legal fees?