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Bike lane on Avenida Hidalgo


Intercasa

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So one week they said they may add a bike lane.  Next week they started digging up the main street (Hidalgo).  When asked nobody has any information, no feasibility studies nor even an idea of what will be done and where.  No environmental impact study nor any traffic studies as there already is little parking in the area.  A rushed and poorly planned project.  There is a wide malecon for bike riders but they maybe put lanes on both sides of the street.  The Ajijic bike lanes have been a total disaster.  Transit cops asking people to move their cars for the construction and when asked specifics they said they know nothing.  Why the rush and secrecy for an ill planned and detrimental project?

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2 hours ago, Intercasa said:

So one week they said they may add a bike lane.  Next week they started digging up the main street (Hidalgo).  When asked nobody has any information, no feasibility studies nor even an idea of what will be done and where.  No environmental impact study nor any traffic studies as there already is little parking in the area.  A rushed and poorly planned project.  There is a wide malecon for bike riders but they maybe put lanes on both sides of the street.  The Ajijic bike lanes have been a total disaster.  Transit cops asking people to move their cars for the construction and when asked specifics they said they know nothing.  Why the rush and secrecy for an ill planned and detrimental project?

For years you moaned and groaned about the disrepair on Hidalgo,especially as it relates in front of your office. Now you're moaning and groaning because they're fixing it with all kinds of fantasy speculation on your part instead of being happy about the repair.

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I want the streets to be fixed.  Is it too much to ask for maintaining parking, I don't have to walk but there are many older and disabled people who probably don't want to walk a few extra blocks and if they don't then that will hurt local businesses.  I am attaching response to my transparency request where the municipality has zero information about the project, no plans, no sketches, no feasibility studies, no environmental impact or other reports.  2 people came by, a council member and someone from the state of Jalisco and told me they were thinking of tearing things up and putting bike lanes on both sides and no necessarily matching the style of the malecon

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Do the bike lanes allow electric bicycles and scooters. I can see how the government might not allow golf carts, but the next generation of electric powered mobilty chairs (my mother has one) are no bigger than a shopping cart. This a glimpse into the future, sustainable electric power, maybe with charging stations, replacing a community stuffed to overflow, with gas guzzling vehicles.

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1 hour ago, CHILLIN said:

Do the bike lanes allow electric bicycles and scooters. I can see how the government might not allow golf carts, but the next generation of electric powered mobilty chairs (my mother has one) are no bigger than a shopping cart. This a glimpse into the future, sustainable electric power, maybe with charging stations, replacing a community stuffed to overflow, with gas guzzling vehicles.

You can't even get them to respect the bikes, how do you think they're going to react to anything else? I can't even tell you the number of times some old geezer has cut right in front of me to make a turn and then acts surprised when I comment on his (because it always seems to be a male) parentage. Ok, rant over.

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They redid the main entrance street in Sayulita a few years ago. Took forever, and of course they started right at the beginning of tourist season and didn't get it done until Semana Santa. It was the best road in town, there was really no good reason to redo it. But they did, complete with bike lanes, benches, garbage cans and bike racks.

The thingies on the street that prevent people from driving into the bike lane are all bashed up now, half of them turned sideways, people park there anyway. I've never seen one bike in the bike racks and not seen more than a few people ever making use of the benches. The garbage cans are always overflowing. The only thing that does get used is the new sidewalks. All the rest was money down the drain. The clogged up drain they put in that no one is assigned to keep clear.

I've lived a lot of places in my life, but never seen a country where there are so many ill-thought out money-wasting projects.

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I think it is a "build it and they will come" mentality, more common with left leaning governments. For example in much of Europe they build public housing units, usually multi-rise apartments, usually near or around a recreation centre and library.In Germany, for example, the apartments are rented based on a percentage of your family income. Thus in your higher income years you may be paying what might be considered a high rent, but when you retire you just pay the same percentage, enabling you to keep the apartment. This generally works for them, the key ingredient is pride of community and cooperation. If you don't have that, things can go bad very quickly. Drug addiction, a largely cash based economy, an large influx of people of different cultures (both white and brown skinned). The left view is that you have to at least try, it would be much easier to build those Radisson type apartment, rent them out for $1,500 per month, or sell them for high price, collecting the profits as well as the taxes.

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38 minutes ago, CHILLIN said:

I think it is a "build it and they will come" mentality, more common with left leaning governments. For example in much of Europe they build public housing units, usually multi-rise apartments, usually near or around a recreation centre and library.In Germany, for example, the apartments are rented based on a percentage of your family income. Thus in your higher income years you may be paying what might be considered a high rent, but when you retire you just pay the same percentage, enabling you to keep the apartment. This generally works for them, the key ingredient is pride of community and cooperation. If you don't have that, things can go bad very quickly. Drug addiction, a largely cash based economy, an large influx of people of different cultures (both white and brown skinned). The left view is that you have to at least try, it would be much easier to build those Radisson type apartment, rent them out for $1,500 per month, or sell them for high price, collecting the profits as well as the taxes.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the repair of Hidalgo in Chapala centro. It's a road repair,that's all.Perhaps you are confused as to which forum you're on with this way off base diatribe.

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Like it or not, there is going to be a wave of electric scooters, electric bikes, electric tricycles, electric skateboards, advanced mobilty chairs. I think this is proactive choice by local goverment that will pay off. Especially when you are stuck in traffic in that section in an automobile, usually with one occupant, and seeing all these people wizz by in the bike lane with smiles on their faces. It becomes a lifestyle choice, and local businesses adjust and prosper.

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I am just trying to picture bike lanes filled with not just bicycles but electric scooters, electric bikes, electric tricycles, electric skateboards, and advanced mobilty chairs. And everyone is wizzing along with smiles on their faces, you say? I’ll have what you’re smoking.

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As predicated bike lane in ajijic complete waste of money.

Blocked by cars , the few cyclists who actually use it need to by pass them going onto the carretera. Most dont obey the traffic lights.

Heading west many still use the careterra going against the flow of traffic at la floresta, and non of them have lights at night or early morning.

The junction at libramiento is a disaster waiting to happen ,they just cross willy nilly.

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Several observations about all this.  First I would assume they are including the bike lane project as part of the badly needed repair of Hildalgo, which I believe is a state project.  One would hope they would be more informative about what is planned but this often doesn't happen here.  I suspect it was a bit of an afterthought to the planned repair of the road which has been in the works for a while.  The new governor is placing a high priority on the badly deteriorated roads of Jalisco and this is part of that.

As to the still incomplete bike path in Ajijic and its fate, the outgoing politicians like to last minute stuff like this as a parting opportunity to line their pockets.  It was run through at the end of the last administration.  There appears there was no thought given to maintenance and the new administration seems as usual far more concerned with doing stuff in Chapala than even the last one.  Ajijic was and remains the largely neglected cash cow for Chapala.  Nothing has changed there.

In general I've notice there isn't much of a maintenance ethic in this culture.  Even when it is built well, more the exception than the rule, the philosophy seems to build it, use it until it needs a major overhaul, rebuild and repeat.  To keep the bike path open would require some serious attention from the transitos.  You would think the new government would notice what a great little source of revenue this could be but apparently not.  Perhaps they are too busy dealing with the double parking on Madero in Chapala.

As for La Floresta, to my knowledge only the north side of the carretera is the designated bike path so of course the bicyclists would be riding against traffic.  The bike path is on the north side of the road practically the entire distance from Jocotepec.

 

 

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54 minutes ago, Xena said:

I am just trying to picture bike lanes filled with not just bicycles but electric scooters, electric bikes, electric tricycles, electric skateboards, and advanced mobilty chairs. And everyone is wizzing along with smiles on their faces, you say? I’ll have what you’re smoking.

Take a trip up north, like San Franciso, and this is what you will see. So much so that the real cyclists, often with years of physical fitness, are frustrated at these electric slugs clogging the bicycle lanes. Lanes which they took years and years of advocacy to produce. That is why I asked. We may be years away from a solution. After that, with lots of pedestrian and bicycle type traffic, they decide to shut down these streets from any automobile traffic, other than delivery and grandfathered houses with parking on their property. This has been happening in Europe for many years now, where many small towns and villages were built way before our American and Canadian towns and cities were built with a sort of a slavish worship to the automobile and its needs.

and xena you would be welcome back to our house at anytime!

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4 minutes ago, CHILLIN said:

Take a trip up north, like San Franciso, and this is what you will see. So much so that the real cyclists, often with years of physical fitness, are frustrated at these electric slugs clogging the bicycle lanes. Lanes which they took years and years of advocacy to produce. That is why I asked. We may be years away from a solution. After that, with lots of pedestrian and bicycle type traffic, they decide to shut down these streets from any automobile traffic, other than delivery and grandfathered houses with parking on their property. This has been happening in Europe for many years now, where many small towns and villages were built way before our American and Canadians were built with a sort of a slavish worship to the automobile and its needs.

and xena you would be welcome back to our house at anytime!

You used the magic words “up north.” When has Mexico ever been like up north? You also did not first mention this utopia will be long after we are all dead brought to us by Mexican politicians who have vision and foresight, putting the long term interests of all people before personal and political gain. Yeah. I’d still like some of what you are smoking. There could just as well be nuclear war and/or climate catastrophes that destroy roads and vehicles and we will be hiking up to our caves at night. In fact, that is far more likely.

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