Comments on: How to create jobs: bike lanes

By: maddy58

maddy58 — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:31:34 +0000

nice post friend Cycle saddle

By: 2Legit2Quit

2Legit2Quit — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:27:50 +0000

The entire premise of your article is flawed, no economist seriously believes in Keynesian economics anymore, which is when the government spends money to “create” jobs.

“We know that infrastructure spending is a good way of creating jobs.”

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports /2010/01/why-government-spending-does-n ot-stimulate-economic-growth-answering-t he-critics

By: Beery

Beery — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 20:48:49 +0000

Yes, bike lanes are a great way to waste money. They endanger cyclists because they’re almost always poorly implemented. But hey, I guess they do create jobs. Striping roads is not exactly a well-paid job, but a job is a job. The real job creation is in the after-effects – dead and injured cyclists (caused by the added conflicts at intersections) generate lots of high-paid labor in hospitals and morgues.

I’m just not sure I’m happy about that sort of job creation.

And personally, I’m offended at the automatic assumption that cyclists don’t stop at red lights. I know some do, but not all of us. I’ve never knowingly run a red light in my life, and I’ve been cycling on the road for 40 years, using my bicycle as my sole method of personal transportation.

I stop at red lights whether it’s hot, cold, raining or snowing, night or day.

By: DaveHolland

DaveHolland — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 18:06:37 +0000

The study this article is referring to is a very convoluted creation of misinformation. The author handpicked projects, with no knowledge of transportation infrastructure construction, and used them to create the end to her means. In this case the mean was to show transportation funds spent on cycling created more jobs than funds spent on projects without special cycling facilities. Even someone with no experience with transportation infrastructure should have considered the difference between infrastructure and facilities. That also applies to confusing job creation with man-hours per job. That is just the tip of the obvious indicators that should lead readers to consider how much of this political economics study is manipulated to politically represent the results that the organization funding it desired, regardless of fact. This seems to be a recent trend in cycling advocacy that will end up doing more harm than good. The people in government, who ultimately make the decisions, may not approve of an attempt at being played for complete idiots. The media seems to enjoy passing information like this along without any research as to validity, and that makes it worthwhile for the creators to continue – that and the profit they gain from it.

By: M.Kingsley

M.Kingsley — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 07:21:51 +0000

Cool metaphor, it makes sense.

By: MaxUtil

MaxUtil — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 06:54:02 +0000

Bike lanes also have multiplier effects which makes investment in them pay off even after the construction job ends. More bike lanes -> more bike riders -> more money spent locally on labor intensive products rather than imported capital intensive ones like oil -> lower pollution -> lower wear and tear on roads -> etc -> etc.

By: KJMClark

KJMClark — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 02:45:05 +0000

Around here, painting bike lane stripes is an on-going job. So many motorists drive in the bike lane or on top of the bike lane stripe that even the thermoplastic lines get worn down to invisible within two years. So they put in bike lanes one year, put them in another place the next, come back the third year to re-do the first ones, come back the fourth year to re-do the second ones, ad infinitum.

It would probably make more sense to enforce the existing law, which makes it a misdemeanor to drive in a bike lane (up to a year in jail!), but the police have never been willing to do something that might *help* bicyclists, and besides, they’re facing substantial layoffs.

Hey! Maybe we could hire the laid-off police to paint bike lanes. Then they’d get buzzed so often that they’d realize it’s a problem, and when they get their police jobs back, maybe they’d be more willing to enforce the law.

By: Moopheus

Moopheus — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:33:58 +0000

As a daily bike-lane user, I’m all for more bike-friendly infrastructure, but this was a lot of work to get to the more or less obvious:

“Thus in the projects we studied, the infra- structure with higher labor intensity of production will create more jobs for a given level of spending. ”

The simplest bike lane–a painted lane in the street–is basically all labor, little material cost. More complex projects require more material and equipment. So of course road construction gets less labor per dollar spent. Now, I suppose it is useful from a planning perspective to have it quantified, but it’s hardly a surprise.

By: jbernar

jbernar — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:08:08 +0000

My question, too. How long do the jobs last? My skimming of the paper didn’t answer the question.

If we say 1 year, then $1 million/$50,000 directly mailed to recipients = 20 students for a year at an expensive 4-year private college or university; 40 in-state students at an expensive state university. (Give or take a few bureaucrats to dole it out, and screw in the light bulbs.)

By: KenG_CA

KenG_CA — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 21:51:27 +0000

Aren’t those jobs just for the construction of the bike lanes? And how long would they last? Bike lanes don’t take very long to construct.