The Money Mustache Community
Around the Internet => Antimustachian Wall of Shame and Comedy => Topic started by: galliver on January 16, 2014, 08:21:42 PM
-
As far as I know, every city in the US is responsible for snow removal from its streets. Every one! But as far as I know, none of them do the sidewalks. Why? They are technically city property. Residents are responsible for that themselves. Which is fine until there is a vacant or irresponsible house, business, or lot on your way and you're stepping through 18" of snow from the past 2 storms. And then some people clear like a 6" walkway, which is useless if you're lugging a 50-lb suitcase back from your holiday break (I had to be prepared for basically every kind of weather from -15F NW Iowa to 75 and sunny in CA, also both athletic and "nice" activities...it adds up). I'm not really complaining (I got home eventually!), I'm just saying that it's *distinctly* preferential to not make car owners shovel the roads themselves.
Also, places with 4-lane roads without sidewalks. We have these around the shopping mall and other stores (craft stores, hardware store, Goodwill, all require crossing a giant parking lot).
My dad had a good story about a friend who needed a lift while her car was broken. Turned out she needed a lift across the street...but it was a 6 lane street (not freeway), no sidewalk or pedestrian crossing in sight. Truly very dangerous to walk. She may have had kids with her, too.
Anyone else have examples?
-
I was recently walking in the downtown area of my hometown and noticed the same thing. Some of the sidewalks had been cleared, but then no one had removed the mounds of snow and slush that accumulated at the intersections from plows going by.
As far as the residential areas, my city requires homeowners to removed snow from the sidewalks in front of their homes. In my section of the neighborhood (more modest, older homes) people are good about clearing them. Two blocks away there a newer more expensive houses (three stall garages with new cars, boats, or other motorized toys filling them all). The people in the newer part of the neighborhood are horrible about clearing their sidewalks. I guess they all have to work crazy long hours to afford their expensive stuff and have no time to shovel snow. I passive aggressively let my dogs poop in the yards of these homes. I figure if they don't have to follow the city ordinance about snow removal then I don't need to follow the one about dog poop removal.
-
Or you could just move to a place where the weather doesn't suck?
-
Or you could just move to a place where the weather doesn't suck?
Yeah, so instead of 3 months snow, you have 9 months of heat stroke.
-
I passive aggressively let my dogs poop in the yards of these homes. I figure if they don't have to follow the city ordinance about snow removal then I don't need to follow the one about dog poop removal.
Ha!
-
As far as I know, every city in the US is responsible for snow removal from its streets. Every one! But as far as I know, none of them do the sidewalks.
The city I grew up in had sidewalk snow removal. It was basically a Gator with a 2' wedge plow in the front of it. Not sure if they still do it though...haven't lived there for over 10 years now
-
Two blocks away there a newer more expensive houses (three stall garages with new cars, boats, or other motorized toys filling them all). The people in the newer part of the neighborhood are horrible about clearing their sidewalks.
When I lived in Pittsburgh, the people in the fancy houses in Shadyside rarely bothered with their sidewalks. This was especially bad one year when snow was followed with ice, leaving an alien landscape of ice to walk on. I was tempted to get a bunch of people together with picks and shovels to clear the sidewalk and bring news crews out to talk about the horrible plight of those people living in Shadyside, who were apparently too poor to afford shovels and clear their sidewalks.
-
You all are pretty lucky you get snow removal at all! Over the river from me in Cincinnati there are some plows, but in northern KY (Covington, Edgewood, etc) it's every man for himself. Years ago the powers that be decided that, although we do get snow, we don't get enough to justify owning all the plows. They sold them off to northern regions. Immediately after they did that we got like 11 inches of snow and every year since then we've always been hit by a blizzard of some kind. They haven't bought any new plows and that was like 15 years ago. Schools here close when it gets cloudy.
-
Our city plows snow into the bike lanes all winter long, it's annoying as hell. We also get the sidewalks rarely cleared problem . . . which means that after snowfall, or when it's really icy people walk down the road with all the traffic rather than the sidewalk.
-
Sidewalks here are cleared; some, anyway. Downtown, and along major arteries. Otherwise, if you're lucky, they get packed down by very-unofficial snowmobile.
My bike lane is now a snowbank, several feet high.
-
It was a gorgeous day yesterday, so I decided to walk to the supermarket from work during lunch to pick up some bananas. (Hubby & I go through 6-8/day, so supermarket runs 1-2x/week for bananas are normal for us.)
It's about a 12 minute walk, down a very main street w/four lanes of traffic. I'd say it's about 3/4 mile one way.
One of my co-workers saw me as they were driving back to work, and she proceeded to ask me if everything was OK w/my car. I said yeah, and asked why she was asking. That's when she told me she saw me walking down the street.
I smiled and said that it was a good break from work, good exercise, and not that far. (I timed it, I was back at my desk 36 minutes later, and I was wearing 3" heels!) She responded, w/the utmost concern, about how "unsafe" it was to be walking out in the open like that!
I laughed and reminded her that it was broad daylight, a very main road w/tons of cars passing by, and I'm a female, living in TX! (Men are way too chivalrous here, I'm never allowed to open a door or drop something on the floor and have to pick it up myself.)
It's ridiculous that the car culture has made it acceptable for people to associate walking w/risk!
-
I got the concerned comment yesterday as I saddled up to bike home:
"I thought you made enough money to drive a car!"
LOL!
-
One of my co-workers saw me as they were driving back to work, and she proceeded to ask me if everything was OK w/my car. I said yeah, and asked why she was asking. That's when she told me she saw me walking down the street.
[...] She responded, w/the utmost concern, about how "unsafe" it was to be walking out in the open like that!
Not recently or around here, but I've definitely seen/heard of that sort of thing *shakes head* it's madness!
-
I laughed and reminded her that it was broad daylight, a very main road w/tons of cars passing by, and I'm a female, living in TX! (Men are way too chivalrous here, I'm never allowed to open a door or drop something on the floor and have to pick it up myself.)
It's ridiculous that the car culture has made it acceptable for people to associate walking w/risk!
I recently moved to a cheap dump in a Hispanic part of Houston and instead of yelling out their car windows at me, all the guys honk and wave cheerfully. A nice change from the usual cat-calls.
-
You just named my biggest pet peeve O.o
Except for in the heart of a big city in the pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, it's rare to see people care about sidewalks. And no one ever cares about bike lanes being cleared.
Honestly, half the time I'm just thrilled there are sidewalks...many older neighborhoods near me that don't have them.
-
My city has a great program- they will buy a big sidewalk-clearing snowblower for your neighborhood, if the neighbors get together and agree that they will clear certain "priority" sidewalks first (those that aren't in front of anyone's residence, but are still heavily used, near bus stops, etc.) So now my husband is on the roster of volunteer snowblowers. Another volunteer keeps the snowblower in his garage. When it snows, the volunteers discuss among themselves how to take turns.
-
As a Texas co worker once told be at a meeting up here in Chicago "... if God meant for people to live here, he would have planted palm trees"
-
You all are pretty lucky you get snow removal at all!
You all are pretty lucky that you can snow at all! I wish I had your problems, living in the Australian desert :(
-
As a Texas co worker once told be at a meeting up here in Chicago "... if God meant for people to live here, he would have planted palm trees"
Furthermore, ice is for tea.
-
I hear Charleston is nice this time of year.
-
My town (in New England) clears sidewalks in the town center (business district) and also several primary walking routes to schools. But, generally, residential sidewalks are left up to property owners to keep clear.
Some cities (including the city of Boston) have bylaws that mandate property owners make their sidewalks safe and passable within a certain number of hours after the snow stops falling.
-
You all are pretty lucky you get snow removal at all!
You all are pretty lucky that you can snow at all! I wish I had your problems, living in the Australian desert :(
Even in a coastal city, I'm concerned about sunburn and heatstroke when walking or biking between 830 am and 430pm at the moment.
-
Some input from where it is cleared (sporadically): http://spacing.ca/toronto/2013/03/12/improving-sidewalk-snow-clearing/
-
Hm, in my city property owners are zealous about clearing their sidewalk because if someone slips and falls they could sue. Perhaps an accelerant for some of y'all's FIRE plans?
-
My husband and I spent a year in the Albany area. I lucked out, and got a job three days after arriving. Since we only had one car (and I don't even have a driver's license), my husband would drive me to the office, drop me off, go to work, and do the whole thing in reverse every evening. When he worked a second job, I'd take the bus.
I was never, not once, late to work, though there were a few occasions when I was stuck waiting after work for over an hour for my husband. I'd read and knit in the lobby, and this didn't both me at all.
Anyway, four months in, we had employee reviews. Mine was a rave, but my employer was Deeply Concerned about how I'd cope come winter, without my own car. I didn't feel this was any of her business. But for heaven's sake, we were a travel agency, and I worked three blocks from the Albany Airport Marriott. If the weather had been so dire that my husband couldn't spend an extra 20 minutes driving me to/from the office, (in which case, neither of us would have had any business being on the roads!), I would have used my IATA card and booked a night at the Marriott for $50 or something.
... Do you mean Albany WA? Because I really couldn't see that being a problem... So there must be more than one place called Albany...
-
Going to grad school in New Mexico, it was the epitome of clown car culture. I lived a whopping 4 miles from campus and would occasionally bike (should have more than I did). Once, I came in with my CamelBak on, the secretary asked, and I said "Oh, I rode my bike because my car's in the shop; it's only 4 miles." She looked horrified and said "You should have called me, I could have picked you up!" This was someone who would spend extra time getting the closest parking spot, then take the elevator up, even though we could save about $150 by parking just 2 blocks away. I also walked to the grocery store about a mile away from my apartment while my car was in the shop, and a woman in a mini van tried to give me a ride on my way home, because who in their right mind would walk?!
-
Five words that summarize it nicely:
Valet parking at the gym
... and the parking lot is across the street. When i first encountered it I gave up a huge snort of a laugh because I thought the guy was joking!
-
Going to grad school in New Mexico, it was the epitome of clown car culture. I lived a whopping 4 miles from campus and would occasionally bike (should have more than I did). Once, I came in with my CamelBak on, the secretary asked, and I said "Oh, I rode my bike because my car's in the shop; it's only 4 miles." She looked horrified and said "You should have called me, I could have picked you up!" This was someone who would spend extra time getting the closest parking spot, then take the elevator up, even though we could save about $150 by parking just 2 blocks away. I also walked to the grocery store about a mile away from my apartment while my car was in the shop, and a woman in a mini van tried to give me a ride on my way home, because who in their right mind would walk?!
Way back in the day, at my very first job, I had a 1 mile walk from where I worked over to where my Mom was working. I would then ride the remaining 60 miles back home with her. The people I worked with would NOT let me turn down the rides for that 1 mile. I had to start actively dodging them and going down the alleys to get them to let me walk!
-
Five words that summarize it nicely:
Valet parking at the gym
... and the parking lot is across the street. When i first encountered it I gave up a huge snort of a laugh because I thought the guy was joking!
Oh, that reminds me.. also New Mexico ... having to crawl in the passenger side of my car because some douche had to squeeze his huge ass truck into the spot closest to the door at the gym parking lot when there was ample room 30' away. Hello, you're here to exercise, but that 30' walk is going to kill you?! If ever I'd wished that I kept a stock of those "You Park Like a Dick" cling stickers in my car.
-
It was a gorgeous day yesterday, so I decided to walk to the supermarket from work during lunch to pick up some bananas. (Hubby & I go through 6-8/day, so supermarket runs 1-2x/week for bananas are normal for us.)
It's about a 12 minute walk, down a very main street w/four lanes of traffic. I'd say it's about 3/4 mile one way.
One of my co-workers saw me as they were driving back to work, and she proceeded to ask me if everything was OK w/my car. I said yeah, and asked why she was asking. That's when she told me she saw me walking down the street.
I smiled and said that it was a good break from work, good exercise, and not that far. (I timed it, I was back at my desk 36 minutes later, and I was wearing 3" heels!) She responded, w/the utmost concern, about how "unsafe" it was to be walking out in the open like that!
I laughed and reminded her that it was broad daylight, a very main road w/tons of cars passing by, and I'm a female, living in TX! (Men are way too chivalrous here, I'm never allowed to open a door or drop something on the floor and have to pick it up myself.)
It's ridiculous that the car culture has made it acceptable for people to associate walking w/risk!
Oh man, that story is great. Unsafe to walk alone in the middle of the day? I have never heard this.
I get the "women should not be out alone after dark unless locked in a motor vehicle" thing here in California. Definitely a car culture thing. It always throws me off guard when someone makes a comment about how it is unsafe to run, bike home from work, take the bus home from happy hour, or walk somewhere at 5pm in the winter through my very urban neighborhood!
-
I get the "women should not be out alone after dark unless locked in a motor vehicle" thing here in California. Definitely a car culture thing. It always throws me off guard when someone makes a comment about how it is unsafe to run, bike home from work, take the bus home from happy hour, or walk somewhere at 5pm in the winter through my very urban neighborhood!
People see the news and get scared.
We just had a 14 year old girl get sexually assaulted and beaten severely while waiting for a bus downtown. Middle of the day. Busy area. Does this happen very often? Of course not. All it takes is one time though, the news is all over it and people freak out. Nobody even thinks about how many people died from car crashes that wouldn't have happened if they walked/used the bus...
-
As far as I know, every city in the US is responsible for snow removal from its streets. Every one! But as far as I know, none of them do the sidewalks. Why? They are technically city property. Residents are responsible for that themselves. Which is fine until there is a vacant or irresponsible house, business, or lot on your way and you're stepping through 18" of snow from the past 2 storms. And then some people clear like a 6" walkway, which is useless if you're lugging a 50-lb suitcase back from your holiday break (I had to be prepared for basically every kind of weather from -15F NW Iowa to 75 and sunny in CA, also both athletic and "nice" activities...it adds up). I'm not really complaining (I got home eventually!), I'm just saying that it's *distinctly* preferential to not make car owners shovel the roads themselves.
this always drives me SO NUTS, yet I can't believe I somehow never associated with clown car culture!
-
My town (in New England) clears sidewalks in the town center (business district) and also several primary walking routes to schools. But, generally, residential sidewalks are left up to property owners to keep clear.
Some cities (including the city of Boston) have bylaws that mandate property owners make their sidewalks safe and passable within a certain number of hours after the snow stops falling.
Yeah, I think we have that, too. But that system doesn't work too well: off the top of my head I can think of an RR crossing, an empty storefront, and an empty house where it never gets cleared.
-
Five words that summarize it nicely:
Valet parking at the gym
... and the parking lot is across the street. When i first encountered it I gave up a huge snort of a laugh because I thought the guy was joking!
"Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle."
-- U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.)
-
I live in the Chicago suburbs - Downers Grove/Darien area. It's very hard to tell where one ends and the other begins, and hard to tell what is maintained by the village, township, city, or county.
Some governmental entity - has a little sidewalk-width snowplow that runs around on the sidewalks on the main streets and clears them. The sidewalks on residential streets - those that have them - don't get done, but a lot of residential streets don't have sidewalks anyway.
-
I get the "women should not be out alone after dark unless locked in a motor vehicle" thing here in California. Definitely a car culture thing. It always throws me off guard when someone makes a comment about how it is unsafe to run, bike home from work, take the bus home from happy hour, or walk somewhere at 5pm in the winter through my very urban neighborhood!
People see the news and get scared.
We just had a 14 year old girl get sexually assaulted and beaten severely while waiting for a bus downtown. Middle of the day. Busy area. Does this happen very often? Of course not. All it takes is one time though, the news is all over it and people freak out. Nobody even thinks about how many people died from car crashes that wouldn't have happened if they walked/used the bus...
Your last sentence is what I always think about. Statistically, isn't it safer for me to walk alone in the dark than drive my car? I thought car accidents were still the leading cause of death for people under 40. And people generally get assaulted/murdered by people they know. The random acts of violence like the one you describe make the news because they are rare, not because it is a common occurrence...
-
10 people asking me if I biked to work today. EVERY. DAY.
-
10 people asking me if I biked to work today. EVERY. DAY.
Thats so funny, and annoying. At my office when someone drives to work they get more of a WTF for? from all 25 coworkers. Even the ones living an hour from work break up their commute by combinig driving and buses.
A coworker calculated that he spent about 5500$ less by driving to a commuting bus stop half way, párking there for free and taking the express bus the last half hour, and thats not acoounting for depreciation on the car and including the $100 bus pass for 10 months of the year (we have long vacations). Thats a whole lot of money spent on gas and parking in a year!
I love biking to work but its hard to explain the thrill to others, SO included. People tend to over emphazise the inconvenience, cold and hardness of it, when it really isnt cold (because you move) hard (after the first week or so) or inconvenient (good rain gear and a door to door commute all in one makes up for that - and exersise!).
I'll stop my preching to the choir now!
-
This is pretty bad: A recent poll on CTV Ottawa asked the question "Should winter cycling be banned"!!!
It is at the bottom of this story http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/winter-cyclists-defy-the-elements-1.1651199 (http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/winter-cyclists-defy-the-elements-1.1651199)
As usual, some of the comments PISS ME OFF.
Like this
Common Sense, give me a break. No common sense on what your saying as our cities are designed for automobile traffic and are spread out over numerous miles. If you want to be safe, ride a stationary bicycle in winter so we don't have to be responsible for driving over you when we can't see you or you slide under our car. As for sedentary lifestyles, you ain't going to change that by riding your bicycle in winter. Bicycles are very dangerous in winter and summer when ridden on busy roads.
And this
If cyclists want snow cleared and special bike lane created then time for them to pay for them through licenses and bike driving tests. Time and time again I see cyclists putting themselves in danger running stop signs and red lights. Sometimes acting like a car then racing through crosswalks like they have the same rights as a pedestrian. Would be nice to also have some way to trace cyclists after they hit people too.
There was a (limited) rebuttal to the myths of winter biking here http://alexbikes.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/responses-to-the-myths-of-winter-biking/ (http://alexbikes.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/responses-to-the-myths-of-winter-biking/)
You know what would be a cool idea...if we could crowdsource a compendium of balanced objective biking information that could be tossed up as a link on stories like this. Some of this could come from MMM's articles. Anyone interested in such a thing?
Perhaps through a shared google doc or even on this forum as a thread?
-
A long-awaited new restaurant is opening next month in the downtown area of my city. Half the comments on the news story are people bitching about how hard it is to find a parking spot downtown if they want to eat there.
The location is literally a block from the light rail, which has free parking near some of its stations.
-
A long-awaited new restaurant is opening next month in the downtown area of my city. Half the comments on the news story are people bitching about how hard it is to find a parking spot downtown if they want to eat there.
The location is literally a block from the light rail, which has free parking near some of its stations.
I am so with you there. This, also, is very bad where I live. There is a trendy neighborhood with very little parking close to me, and half the restaurant reviews are some iteration of "I drove from [insert name of town 20 miles away] for dinner and drove around the block looking for a spot for an hour! I'll never be back."
-
A long-awaited new restaurant is opening next month in the downtown area of my city. Half the comments on the news story are people bitching about how hard it is to find a parking spot downtown if they want to eat there.
The location is literally a block from the light rail, which has free parking near some of its stations.
I am so with you there. This, also, is very bad where I live. There is a trendy neighborhood with very little parking close to me, and half the restaurant reviews are some iteration of "I drove from [insert name of town 20 miles away] for dinner and drove around the block looking for a spot for an hour! I'll never be back."
Hits on my irritation of people who write reviews and especially do ratings badly. Parking is neither the responsibility nor the fault of the restaurant. I want to know how good the restaurant was. I don't want to know if this book works as a stepstool. I want to know if it's a good read. *smh*
-
Parking is neither the responsibility nor the fault of the restaurant.
I'll disagree with that. A restaurant needs to know the market in order to survive. We've had a number of good restaurants pop up downtown, but they always fail. Why? Parking is hideous downtown and public transport is nearly as bad. It's not like anyone can walk there either, downtown is just office buildings, everyone lives outside of downtown. If you want a successful business, you've got to erase obstacles to the customers. Choosing a bad location is a huge obstacle.
-
Here in NY State, our sidewalks are so bad that you can't use them in the summer!
When I lived in Texas, every mailbox was erected (no joke) in the MIDDLE of the sidewalk! This made walking on the sidewalk literally impossible! I wondered why they even built sidewalks at all! I had to jog in the road.
-
I live in the third-world country otherwise known as "southern Louisiana." The infrastructure here is so abysmally bad, they have telephone poles right in the middle of sidewalks, if they even have sidewalks. 4-lane roads with no shoulders are common here, and there is no safe way for a cyclist to go from one city to the next. Bike lanes? Pfah. Notgonnahappen.
Geez, I need a drink.
-
The infrastructure here is so abysmally bad, they have telephone poles right in the middle of sidewalks, if they even have sidewalks. 4-lane roads with no shoulders are common here, and there is no safe way for a cyclist to go from one city to the next. Bike lanes? Pfah. Notgonnahappen.
Sounds like Tennessee. The roads are kept in good condition, but sidewalks? What are those? Feel free to ride a bike in the field...but on the 1.5 lane road (where if you meet someone, you both need to run off the side of the road just a bit) with steep hills and sharp turns (can't see 'em coming, and they're going pretty fast), not a great idea. I've had multiple close calls on my scooter, where the only thing I'm doing wrong is simply existing.
Maybe it's changed, but even larger cities (not talking Nashville or Memphis, but they may be guilty too) don't have pedestrian crossing lights. I'd try to walk about a mile from my work to my wife's (shared a car at the time) and it wasn't too safe. Just not designed for people to walk anywhere.
But, I suppose the lower cost of living more than compensates, financially speaking.
-
The street I bike to work has a wide paved dual sidewalk/bike trail, in which they planted lots of trees, which you then have to swerve around with your bike every 3 feet. !!!!!!!!