Students at my university in Berlin need to cross a busy road to travel between campus areas, which meant jaywalking or a long trip to a crossing with traffic lights down the road. A steady stream of students late to their next class sprinting across a six lane road is not great.
At some point students started painting their own crosswalk, which would be removed again and again by authorities, until the city eventually got the hint and installed a permanent crosswalk with a traffic light and a pedestrian island.
Sometimes the way to get something is fixed is by demonstrating the fix.
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darkstar999
It reminds me of The Guerrilla Artist Who Fixed L.A.'s Worst Freeway Sign
In Geneva, activists painted bike lanes in three streets in 2023, causing about 2000 swiss francs in damages (or improvements, depending on your view).
The Swiss police under prosecutor Walther Cimino proceeded to investigate as if they were a crime syndicate, gathering forensics but also identifying 96 sympathizers and putting them under heavy surveillance, which included requesting total records from their banks, employers, phone companies, email providers (Google through the US DoJ), and even CCTV and purchases from their local supermarket.
I'm afraid of the possibility that what used to be "grassroots civil disobedience" will now be labeled "eco-terrorism" and prosecuted accordingly.
show comments
nonethewiser
This is an intractable problem with normal sidewalk/streets. Bikes don't belong on the road with cars and they dont belong on sidewalks with pedestrians and they don't belong in between. This is why both drivers and pedestrians hate bikers.
Ideally we have entirely separate paths for bikes. Of course this is infeasible for most established cities. Doesn't mean they are't inherently a problem in these cases though.
It really makes me sad seeing it. Bike lanes are also a messy problem in Italy where I live.
In these last years they added more bike lanes in parts of my city, but by taking small chunks from the margins of the roads, leaving as only barrier between the twos just a white painted line. I guess they noticed and started adding poles in between the twos, just not everywhere.
In many parts you're forced to ride your bike on the margin of the road, since there is no separate lane.
There's also the issue with crossings, since many of these by law can only be used by pedestrians, unless they're marked, which in most cases aren't.
In such situations, you're treated as a vehicle on par with a car.
You may imagine how it feels getting fined because you've been hit by a car
stetrain
Some DOTs have given official support to Tactical Urbanism, with methods for communities to propose and implement small projects themselves on accelerated timelines like bike lanes or pedestrian crosswalks.
show comments
Sharlin
Similar grassroots (heh, quite literally) activism is the idea of guerrilla gardening. Around here, a local nonprofit Villi vyöhyke (Wild Zone) [1] started as a small group of guerrillas but is now advocating, consulting and involved in many major rewilding projects initiated by municipalities and private companies.
I still think the better way to go is to find lawyers who will aggressively seek civil suits against the idiots who hit cyclists.
Two of the prominent members of our club were hit by a drunk driver outside a small town. Nobody died but bikes destroyed, nasty bruises, cracked ribs and vertebrae.
The driver shouldn’t have still had his license based on previous offenses. But his dad was a politician. Mayor I believe, and had been bailing that piece of shit out of trouble for who knows how long. I bet daddy would stop protecting him if he was on the hook for a couple million in damages. And/or corruption charges.
One of the victims was in fact a lawyer but I think he was property law not criminal.
ivolimmen
It's nice to see that other countries are opening up to bikers. This is a very applaudable action of the local government. I hope and wish for everyone in the world to have the same bike infrastructure like we (the Dutch) do.
irjoe
Title needs (2016) appending
kleiba2
It's terrible that it needs civilian incentives and a fatal accident first before something happens.
That said, in my experience, cyclists are the #1 group when it comes to disobeying traffic rules. There are a lot of crazy idiots driving cars or riding motorcycles but at least the vast majority of them stops at a red light, doesn't ride on the sidewalk, doesn't go against one-ways, etc.
masakino
if youve never listened to it, the podcast episode linked in the article about guerrilla public service is a really nice listen. Their episodes are pleasant, half scripted half chatty. Recommend!
There's another side of stuff like this. People living up in the hills above LA near trail heads will put up fake no parking zones in front of their houses. People have gotten real tickets in fake zones.
More public spending will eventually lead those byciclers out of the state
hk1337
This is great! They saw a problem, found a solution, and just fixed it. Better than complaining about it for 5-10 years waiting for someone else to do something
FinnLobsien
This is similar to The Oval at Ohio State University. Instead of planning walkways across a field of grass, they looked where students actually walked and then paved those routes.
I think this applies to so many things. Centrally planned things rarely work exactly as planned, especially if the people doing the planning are separate from those executing the plan.
Much of the time, it's better to observe what's working in practice (even if in a messy way) and systemize it rather than have a perfect concept that disintegrates upon contact with reality.
jgbuddy
if you want it done right, you often have to do it yourself
throw938990
I like guerrilla housing. City does not build enough flats, so you occupy unused parking lot or sidewalk, and build house there!
jimbokun
The return of Civil Disobedience as a tool for inspiring social change.
Maybe not as profound or important as the Civil Rights movement. But important nonetheless for public safety. (Assuming the guerrilla bike lanes themselves are safe and well thought out.)
luqtas
what an absurd the hipster population taking over spaces of deadly, noisy and polluting vehicles and having the state collaborating with them /j
Students at my university in Berlin need to cross a busy road to travel between campus areas, which meant jaywalking or a long trip to a crossing with traffic lights down the road. A steady stream of students late to their next class sprinting across a six lane road is not great.
At some point students started painting their own crosswalk, which would be removed again and again by authorities, until the city eventually got the hint and installed a permanent crosswalk with a traffic light and a pedestrian island.
Sometimes the way to get something is fixed is by demonstrating the fix.
It reminds me of The Guerrilla Artist Who Fixed L.A.'s Worst Freeway Sign
https://thelandmag.com/richard-ankrom-guerrilla-public-servi...
In Geneva, activists painted bike lanes in three streets in 2023, causing about 2000 swiss francs in damages (or improvements, depending on your view).
The Swiss police under prosecutor Walther Cimino proceeded to investigate as if they were a crime syndicate, gathering forensics but also identifying 96 sympathizers and putting them under heavy surveillance, which included requesting total records from their banks, employers, phone companies, email providers (Google through the US DoJ), and even CCTV and purchases from their local supermarket.
I'm afraid of the possibility that what used to be "grassroots civil disobedience" will now be labeled "eco-terrorism" and prosecuted accordingly.
This is an intractable problem with normal sidewalk/streets. Bikes don't belong on the road with cars and they dont belong on sidewalks with pedestrians and they don't belong in between. This is why both drivers and pedestrians hate bikers.
Ideally we have entirely separate paths for bikes. Of course this is infeasible for most established cities. Doesn't mean they are't inherently a problem in these cases though.
The logical escalation of desire paths - https://99percentinvisible.org/article/least-resistance-desi...
It really makes me sad seeing it. Bike lanes are also a messy problem in Italy where I live.
In these last years they added more bike lanes in parts of my city, but by taking small chunks from the margins of the roads, leaving as only barrier between the twos just a white painted line. I guess they noticed and started adding poles in between the twos, just not everywhere.
In many parts you're forced to ride your bike on the margin of the road, since there is no separate lane.
There's also the issue with crossings, since many of these by law can only be used by pedestrians, unless they're marked, which in most cases aren't. In such situations, you're treated as a vehicle on par with a car.
You may imagine how it feels getting fined because you've been hit by a car
Some DOTs have given official support to Tactical Urbanism, with methods for communities to propose and implement small projects themselves on accelerated timelines like bike lanes or pedestrian crosswalks.
Similar grassroots (heh, quite literally) activism is the idea of guerrilla gardening. Around here, a local nonprofit Villi vyöhyke (Wild Zone) [1] started as a small group of guerrillas but is now advocating, consulting and involved in many major rewilding projects initiated by municipalities and private companies.
[1] https://www.villivyohyke.fi/en/
I still think the better way to go is to find lawyers who will aggressively seek civil suits against the idiots who hit cyclists.
Two of the prominent members of our club were hit by a drunk driver outside a small town. Nobody died but bikes destroyed, nasty bruises, cracked ribs and vertebrae.
The driver shouldn’t have still had his license based on previous offenses. But his dad was a politician. Mayor I believe, and had been bailing that piece of shit out of trouble for who knows how long. I bet daddy would stop protecting him if he was on the hook for a couple million in damages. And/or corruption charges.
One of the victims was in fact a lawyer but I think he was property law not criminal.
It's nice to see that other countries are opening up to bikers. This is a very applaudable action of the local government. I hope and wish for everyone in the world to have the same bike infrastructure like we (the Dutch) do.
Title needs (2016) appending
It's terrible that it needs civilian incentives and a fatal accident first before something happens.
That said, in my experience, cyclists are the #1 group when it comes to disobeying traffic rules. There are a lot of crazy idiots driving cars or riding motorcycles but at least the vast majority of them stops at a red light, doesn't ride on the sidewalk, doesn't go against one-ways, etc.
if youve never listened to it, the podcast episode linked in the article about guerrilla public service is a really nice listen. Their episodes are pleasant, half scripted half chatty. Recommend!
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/guerrilla-public-serv...
110 comments
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23325319>
There's another side of stuff like this. People living up in the hills above LA near trail heads will put up fake no parking zones in front of their houses. People have gotten real tickets in fake zones.
Reminds me of https://translate.kagi.com/www.bbc.com/portuguese/brasil-366...
Archive link: https://web.archive.org/web/20261104150424/https://99percent...
More public spending will eventually lead those byciclers out of the state
This is great! They saw a problem, found a solution, and just fixed it. Better than complaining about it for 5-10 years waiting for someone else to do something
This is similar to The Oval at Ohio State University. Instead of planning walkways across a field of grass, they looked where students actually walked and then paved those routes.
I think this applies to so many things. Centrally planned things rarely work exactly as planned, especially if the people doing the planning are separate from those executing the plan.
Much of the time, it's better to observe what's working in practice (even if in a messy way) and systemize it rather than have a perfect concept that disintegrates upon contact with reality.
if you want it done right, you often have to do it yourself
I like guerrilla housing. City does not build enough flats, so you occupy unused parking lot or sidewalk, and build house there!
The return of Civil Disobedience as a tool for inspiring social change.
Maybe not as profound or important as the Civil Rights movement. But important nonetheless for public safety. (Assuming the guerrilla bike lanes themselves are safe and well thought out.)
what an absurd the hipster population taking over spaces of deadly, noisy and polluting vehicles and having the state collaborating with them /j