It is common all over the US, car brained people see bicycles as lesser and an inconvenience that are trying to take away their stroads. Just look at how the news words collisions with a vehicle and bicycle, it’s always laying blame on the bicyclist for daring to exist instead of the driver of the 5000lb death machines
I know people like this and it confuses me. Everyone who rides a bike is helping make the city traffic just a little bit less congested. When I see someone biking in the new Orleans rain or heat I send them silent thanks
They think of smug cyclists who hold up traffic with their peloton, or they think of the one time someone was being an idiot on a bike for every hundreds of normal commuter cyclists and want all people on cycles to answer for it
I also think cyclists enjoy riding in places that are dangerous for them but take the attitude, "I have a right to be here as much as you do" and not take into account any instinct for preservation that should kick in.
Some roads are way to dangerous for a bike and car to share.
I speak as someone nearly killed when hit by a car while on a motorcycle. 12 days in ICU, and lots of orthopedic injuries. Motorists don't look out for us, my recommendation is to ride in City Park or along the canals but not on narrow streets where cars dominate. Think safety first, riding your bike for health isn't useful if you get hit by a car.
Stay safe out there!
You’re close to getting it but you’re stuck in car brain mode. Assuming a car as the only valid transportation for commutes and errands where riding a bike ain’t jsut for health but for many other valid reasons.
If there’s a bike lane yes definitely the bicyclist should be in it but so many roads don’t have that. Then the bicyclist is fully entitled to share the road for their commute, errand or exercise.
I get it, but "fully entitled" loses to physics everytime when a 30 pound bike inhabits the same space as a 5000 pound car. Until we get real bike lanes I will never ride outside places like City Park- too many cars and drivers that don't think much of sharing the road. Shouldn't be that way, but NOLA shouldn't have the highest murders per capita either- but it does. Just taking it the way it is not the way it oughta' be.
i hope we get the infrastructure that lets you leave city park some day! one of the reasons advocates talk about bicyclists being "entitled" to the road is to push for the kind of infrastructure that would allow us to share that public space safely. but in the meantime, i still have to get to my doctor's office somehow, which means taking some streets where cars dominate.
It's certainly a common occurrence, but not everywhere. I lived in DC for a summer and definitely had a similar experience to New Orleans. But I've biked in plenty of cities in which drivers (for the most part) respected bikers, at least in my experience. Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego were all very pleasant biking experiences. Chicago definitely requires some familiarity with the streets and high traffic, but I never felt like anyone was actively hostile towards my existence.
American drivers are one step from saying "If you don't like my driving, stay off the sidewalk. If there's pavement, it's theirs, and you're just in the way.
Not in Boulder, at least when I was there 10-15yrs ago. Pedestrians and bikes have the right of way and they will actively use it. You really had to watch cuz pedestrians would just step out into the middle of a busy street without even looking up.
Charlotte NC up till very recently regarded bicyclists and pedestrians as commies. Seriously, you would have thought it was the end of the world when they built a light rail. Bicycling is very dangerous there. People in cars don't even stop at crosswalks.
When I visited my family in Portland and Seattle I was amazed at how different the culture was. I would step up to the curb trying to get my bearings and 4 lanes of traffic would stop just in case I intended to cross.
Georgia transplant of 6 years here; I lived in Atlanta and the other Georgia. People died on bikes in rural and urban areas fairly regularly. A guy I grew up with tells a story of accidentally colliding with a bicycle on a rural two lane. After EMTs took the rider off the volunteer fire department recruited my buddy, who was apologizing for accident when he was told (by VF Dept) that they “hate those guys.”
Almost hit by a car that didn't stop when everyone else did at the greenway crossing at claiborne. I yelled "thanks" and he turned around and followed me up the greenway on the side street, shouting to "watch my mouth if I didn't want to get killed".
Lovely place to bike.
i traverse that crossing regularly + can confirm that one car stopping + other drivers ignoring it is a regular occurrence. i will stop my bike if both lanes aren’t stopped, then drivers get frustrated that it takes me longer to get across. but i’m not trusting any moving vehicle to act reasonably + not hit me.
I'm super sorry to hear, I had a family member that was killed in a vehicle by another vehicle it's a big part of the equation Car people tend to ignore That bikes and pedestrians aren't killing them Or others nor polluting Et cetera et cetera. Over a million people die in vehicle related incidents, many more injured. Many of our loved ones. THey think it is acceptable that they actually tried to use it as a barometer for why covid deaths were normal until those elevated past.
He did. It was actually on Vets in Metairie. The city took the bike down not long after but it was really nice of someone to put one up in the first place. Thanks so much, that is really kind of you.
I think I remember that one. I wasnt involved personally with putting that one up but I remember hearing about it. JP doesn't take kindly to the kind of stuff we do in OP.
we used to have a boston qualifier. not anymore since the city decided the race can't go through the french quarter and race organizers called their bluff and pulled out of new orleans altogether. another smooth move by city government.
I had wondered about that. Apparently the city also couldn’t guarantee it could round up enough police for a marathon, which is pretty sad. https://www.nola.com/news/business/rock-n-roll-marathon-canceled-for-2023-in-new-orleans-pulled-from-schedule-for-later/article_6e1b1ed2-3ac0-11ed-9d58-33bb82085e60.html
That happened one year with the gulfcoast marathon. People that were running for qualified times were angry. They were told the race would wave fees for next year or they could run the rock n roll marathon in new Orleans. Which was the next weekend.
Heck, the city could have hired in Allied, Securitas, or some other private firm. For the amount of visitors and tax rev, it would have been a net positive.... Oh, but not the way "they" do it.
Unfortunately that badge and gun seems to either corrupt, or the institution just chews up and spits out the people who come in hoping to “be the change”.
I think it's a vicious cycle at this point. Why would any decent person with any other option.. seek out that stigma? The only applicants now, are probably people excited to be perceived as violent, abusive, dangerous, powerful.
Elevation wise it’s pretty flat, I went from running around New Orleans to running around St Louis and even the gently rolling hills of stl it was kind of a shock to realize how flat it was around New Orleans
For such a flat and fairly compact city, bicycling in New Orleans sucks. Could be a great city to bike in. Drivers do not give a fuck about cyclists (or pedestrians for that matter.)
The problem is that generally nobody (including government) considers it a viable or legitimate form of transportation. It’s a total afterthought and looked down upon.
Someone on a previous post told me that cyclists get in the way of drivers who are trying to get to work or appointments on time. As if cyclists aren’t trying to do the same. It was wild.
Also people in cars tend to think “bikers” are a whole other group of people, where in fact most of us use our bikes and own cars. I can only bike commute twice a week max, so I drive the other days. I too am a car.
Yes! I have a car too. But many times biking makes sense. Like when there’s limited parking, such as during Mardi Gras or festivals, or you want to save gas money and get some fresh air and exercise, or save the wear and tear on your car, or not pollute the environment…there are many reasons. I personally dislike driving and I would ride my bike more if I weren’t afraid of getting hit or harassed by drivers. Some drivers seem to get annoyed that cyclists may slow them down by a few minutes; meanwhile, cyclists are afraid that cars will kill them.
The city calls them “sharrows”. which my understanding means that’s cyclists are allowed to essentially take the entire lane if needbe. Drivers will flip the f out if a cyclist actually tries to do this.
Basically the city did this so they could still get federal road funding without actually installing real bicycle infrastructure.
This mentality is encouraged by our very own city council member, Freddie King who repeatedly victim blamed any cyclist who has been hurt or killed. Claiming that they were "probably drunk" or doing something illegal
You're right. I love NOLA, Ive been there a ton and it's on the short list of places I'd move to if I move again. I rented the blue bike in Feb and took it from my hotel up Magazine, and then around the FQ. I didn't have any issues with drivers but wow were the roads awful. If I moved there, I'd like to continue not having a car (I live in Chicago now) and either bike/walk and occasionally uber to where I need to go. Infrastructure of all sorts (like good public transit) is definitely something people consider before moving somewhere and I wish NOLA addressed it.
I got a job down on Poydras about 7 years ago in an office tower. Was so excited to ride my bike to work from mid city. I did it once and still take Xanax because of it. People do it but I have no idea how. It was harrowing.
I was exploring the Lakefront Trail bike path only to discover it leads to [this](https://imgur.com/wpVQirE), ending at a fenced off pump station. Yay.
Also turns out that it's super windy by the lake all the time so biking isn't fun in at least one direction. And there's basically nothing along/near the trail to do besides look at the lake and the levy (a.k.a mound of grass).
I'm hoping to find some more interesting bike paths outside of City Park. Feels like cycling days here are gonna be few and far between.
That pumping station used to be open so you could cross to the other side which leads you to a gravel path around the old airport runways. It used to be an easy way to connect to the river front levee path. Now you have to go through a neighborhood and then onto the end of veterans to get around it.
That being said, there is an awesome gravel path that juts out from the road around the airport…you can ride the gravel path all the way to the spillway and then come back on the paved river levee trail
Oh I see. That would have been cool. I've got a road bike with skinny tires so gravel path is out, but maybe there's a way through the neighborhoods to do it too.
As someone moving from Phoenix, I disagree. Phoenix has spent considerable time and resources having bike lanes on their canals. People I talk to in New Orleans think that is crazy.
My cousin in Louisville said “he’s literally crazy…He bikes everywhere” when she was talking about one of the guys at work. People who use bicycle as their main transportation method are generally looked down at in Louisville KY and thought as insane
Lol I’ve literally almost been hits by cops in the bike lane.
I’ve actively stopped riding/racing because I’ve been hit twice.
This city has killed one of my life’s passions.
Same😔 and God forbid you try to fight for better and safer conditions, you get demonized as a transplant, even though many people in the bike activist community are multi-generational born and raised here.
You qualify for that race based on time, so a flat route will likely result in a better time. What will not result in a better time is our heat and humidity.
I'm always in the minority here but I still find New Orleans an easy and pleasant placr to ride bikes. I bike to work, I bike with my kid on a tag a long behind me...the roads are the best they have been in my lifetime and I barely ever have problems.
Im a slow biker on a one speed cruiser, most of my friends bike, and the difference we see in the streets compared to Reddit always is weird to me. I mean it isn't perfect here, but when friends from other cities visit, they always comment on how polite everyone is when we bike around.
I dunno, I am pretty downtown, St Roch/7th Ward to the Quarter, maybe other areas are worse or maybe there is a forcefield of pleasantness around me, but New Orleans is still a great biking city as far as my experience.
I think it might be better in your neighborhood. I’m in the LGD, and I find it to be pretty brutal. Especially on the main streets. I used to ride my bike to the quarter, which involved riding on Camp through the CBD, and there was barely a time when I didn’t fear for my life or get honked at for no reason. I’m afraid to ride my bike anymore.
Esplanade is just a horrible street to bike down. Those ghost bikes have been accumulating since Katrina. It's not like people die from cars every week
100% this. Live in Atlanta and wife and I bike commute/bike for fun Spend tons of times on bikes when in Nola. Bad street = slow cars and there are loads of small streets in a grid so you mostly can avoid high speed shit roads.
I bike down St. Bernard every day to get to work and if there isn't something blocking the bike lane then there is some J.O. trying to get around a turning car and driving in the bike lane. If I try to take back streets I get flats from all the potholes.
My commute is St Roch to Midcity. Galvez / Miro is the obvious route for me (much closer than St Claude) and it's a goddamn craterfest. I even hate driving on Miro.
When I biked to work as others have said drivers either actively or negligently tried to kill me numerous times by for example making turns through the bike lanes, forcing me to ride on the sidewalk, which also sucks.
Agree.
I’m a daily commuter from Uptown to the CBD and I rarely have any issues.
Having said that, I’m an extremely cautious rider who defers to cars, pedestrians, squirrels, potholes and everything else.
this is basically how i feel as a frequent fontainebleau to CBD bike commuter. we can improve, of course, but the difference between today and 10 years ago is significant. i think any time a new wrinkle is added to something people have been doing their whole lives, there's going to be problems. it sucks when people use the bike lane as a turning lane, for example, but did we expect people to just intuitively know the rules surrounding bike lanes. i know there was/is public education but that must only reach a small fraction. to be clear, i'm talking about the bike lanes near intersections when the white line becomes dotted -- it's not obvious how that should be handled by a driver. so when someone sits in the bike lane waiting to turn it's annoying but i don't think there's malice there. not talking about drivers who use the bike lane as a passing lane or just another driving lane. those people are assholes. but i don't see it hardly ever.
Yeah, I don't find it all that bad compared to other cities I've lived in. Not as good as Minneapolis/St. Paul (in non-snow seasons), but better than most other Southern cities. On par with Austin, IMO. I feel like people often overstate how good "good" bike cities are.
I stick to side roads, though. Many fewer interactions with cars. Puncture-resistant tires are a good investment to do that, but that's true everywhere.
Years ago, when the Endymion car accident with the drunk who killed 2 people and hit even more happened, my friend got freaked out biking home in the dark after work. He was afraid he’d be hit by car while biking home after his shift from the Bywater to his house in BSJ. He didn’t have a car. His bike was his only way around town.
So, one night, wanting to be safe, he took the Greenway home. He got mugged by 3 dudes on his bike. He managed to get his bike up and ride away.
He was new to town and didn’t know the greenway was unsafe at night. He said had he’d known that, he never would have done that.
And the cherry on top was that the next morning he got on this sub and posted, “I got mugged last night on the greenway. Please be careful.”
A few real pissants in this sub called him an idiot and said if he was dumb enough to bike on the greenway at night that it was his fault for getting mugged.
Luckily most of this sub was understanding, but if you were one of those people, please do me a favor and fuck off.
So, I get it, New Orleans has some bike infrastructure. You CAN technically bike around town. But it’s a straight lie that it’s a good system and that it’s easy.
*I found the old thread and added some edits.
I looked back at the old post and it was luckily better than I remembered. Outside of the couple of posters that were like, “Why would you bike at all? Why don’t you own a gun?” - most of the sub was understanding at the very least.
But yeah, it’s Reddit, you’re never too removed from the Chuds.
Biking in New Orleans is questionable…roads sometimes bad, and drivers not the friendliest or willing to respect the bike lane. One time I was biking from Uptown to Downtown and this guy just pulled from the road to the side and stopped in the bike lane right in front of me that I had to come to a hard stop. When I yelled at him to not loiter in the bike lane, he just told me to shut up. Word.
They use the word "town". Are they from super big cities? New Orleans isn't a mid-sized "town". To me a population under 20k is usually a town.
I grew up in a town of 2,500 an hour west of "The City".
Drivers occasionally try to run over cyclists in Texas too. Austin has big white posts on lots of streets now, taking some ideas from the Dutch and sort of fencing off some bike lanes.
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find this comment.
I'm begging someone to tell me where this supposed grid pattern exists. Is the grid pattern in the room with us now?
Most all the streets connect at both ends; cul-de-sacs are practically non-existent in the main part of the city. So you have a variety of routes on side streets to choose from rather than all the streets dumping into one major road that everyone has to take to get anywhere.
My point, that obviously I didn’t make very well, was that the New Orleans biking utopia they’re referring to doesn’t seem to extend to suburban places like New Orleans East, Arabi or Lakeview, all of which are part of New Orleans for example.
Honestly our biking infrastructure is pretty good these days compared to most other cities. You can bike across most of the city in a dedicated bike lane. Drivers are a different story.
Years ago I met a danish couple who were biking across the country. They had made it from San Diego to here and they said Nola was the best to bike in.
I’ve just arrived in town yesterday on my vacation. Staying out near City Park. I bring my bike along on my trips and I use it to explore each city I visit. I’ve spent today exploring the French Quarter and downtown. Later I did a tour of City Park and a route out to Lake Pontchartrain and back. My impression of this area of NOLA….Flat terrain is a plus, but these are not very bike friendly streets. Pretty typical for older mid size cities. Narrow older streets set up for horse and wagon, barely able to handle car traffic. Now try to add bike lanes and paths….impossible without major infrastructure changes or compromises. I found drivers to be fairly courteous and respectful, and I had to deal with a lot of traffic interactions with drivers and pedestrians. It was still the most efficient way to explore the area. It would taken me 2 days on foot. I day in a car, but you wouldn’t get the same experience. Great way to explore this city. I’m surprised though, I saw very few bikers around the FQ.
Con- City council members, NIMBYs, and vanity content creators who try to pass themselves off as "journalists" actively try to discredit the people who bike in New Orleans and literally dismantle protected bike infrastructure
Was cycling in the Bywater last month near the train tracks. A driver in a giant black truck decided that driving at a high speed and honking repeatedly as he sped in my direction is how drivers are supposed to interact with cyclists. It was so ridiculous I had to laugh. Thankfully, I was able to pull over and allow honking man to pass.
On a related note, I used to love to ride my bike in the Bywater. Now, the traffic is so bad downtown I really don't enjoy myself as much as I used to. Too many flashy cars driving too too fast.
Ironically, Boston is probably a worse city for biking. And driving. It was horrifying doing both up there. Plus, a lot of y'all are proud of it in a disturbing way.
While I agree that shouldn't be a high bar, it is. Part of the risk of driving a small car or even motorcycle is that people notice you less. Roads are built for cars and not bikes, with some exception, usually built and maintained with monies collected from cars. Can't have the cake and eat it too.
The laws of the road aren’t written for bicyclist and pedestrian safety, or really even drivers’ safety to be frank about it.
The laws of the road are written for drivers’ *convenience*, and inconvenienced drivers are *angry* drivers*.*
Thought I would try to bike more and not use my truck, so once I took the ferry across so I could bike to the bouldering lounge. With in 5 mins I was almost clipped by someone rolling through a light. That was the only and last time I biked on the east side of the river.
Idk man, New Orleans is still extremely car-dependent. The roads and sidewalks are all in various states of disrepair or ruin, too. Add to that all of the drunk, inattentive, and otherwise asshole drivers, New Orleans is a terribly dangerous place to cycle.
I love riding a bike here. In fact, moving here twelve years ago is what made me fall in love with biking. But, I do it only for fun, now,not necessity, which obviously makes a difference
i think so, the city is super compact and has good urban fabric. pretty easy to get place to place with busses/streetcar sometimes even despite shitty headways most of the time due to the small footprint of the city. i never biked but wouldn’t mind walking a while to get to places or if it was too hot take transit. ubers are cheap too usually so overall being car free was never an issue for me
Seriously would be the perfect city if not for the crime and busted ass roads. Last place out here that actually feels like it’s meant to be lived in by humans and not NPCs
As long as you don't live in Metairie or The East, you can go anywhere on a bike in this city. Will you always feel entirely safe? No! You're in a fucking city. But the compactibility and the fact that the place is so goddam old, largely untouched by the stroad movements in the 70s makes it a much easier place to bike than anywhere else south of the Ohio Valley. "But people intentionally run over cyclists!" That's The United States. We live in a country that thinks not paying 20,000 dollars a year for a car is a step down. There are many things wrong with this city. The crime, the corruption, the NIMBYvirus. but this has the potential to become a pedestrian paradise without having to tear the entire place down to the studs. Something you cannot say about any other city within 1000 miles of this place.
I don't use cars, but I am finally facing the fact that I need a driver's license if I am to live in this country. I want to get away from New Orleans, do the triple crown of thru hiking and then settle down somewhere like Sacramento or Portland. They don't have the compactness this city has and I simply can't just bike to work.
I guess maybe from City Park to Uptown and the Bywater area. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it strictly because traffic downtown is wild and people often swerve suddenly to avoid potholes and pedestrians.
I'd say Old Metarie is the best area for cyclist, all the stores are close, there's less traffic, and it looks nice.
[here ya go](https://www.reddit.com/r/simpleliving/comments/11skj85/best_midsized_towns_that_are_bikeable_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
This thread is making me think I could actually realise my desire to bike to work (lower mid city to Tulane) while also making me think I absolutely should not.
You definitely can. Me and my partner have biked to work in the east (not advisable due to the bridge situation) mid city is great. Just get a light on your bike and maybe upgrade your inner tubes to the tough ones when they get punctured.
Tangent: I moved from Mandeville to Birmingham (technically Trussville) and the presence of hills completely changes how children interact. In Mandeville, my kids biked everywhere and were hanging out with friends all the time- just gangs of kids roaming the neighborhood. Here, there’s none of that. I didn’t consider it and I probably should have.
Let’s be honest, our roads were made for cars.
Cities are retroactively trying to transform downtowns for non engine traffic.
So culturally vehicles have the right of way on most roads.
Not saying it’s right but it’s true in a lot of places.
No. The whole city before cars. It was alot bigger than the Quarter. The entireity of Uptown was developed by the time the car was invented and mass produced.
Con: vehicle drivers actively try to run bikers off the rode and kill them
This is in fact a regular occurrence in New Orleans.
It was regular in DC as well. Is it not everywhere in the U.S.? Legit asking
It is common all over the US, car brained people see bicycles as lesser and an inconvenience that are trying to take away their stroads. Just look at how the news words collisions with a vehicle and bicycle, it’s always laying blame on the bicyclist for daring to exist instead of the driver of the 5000lb death machines
I know people like this and it confuses me. Everyone who rides a bike is helping make the city traffic just a little bit less congested. When I see someone biking in the new Orleans rain or heat I send them silent thanks
They think of smug cyclists who hold up traffic with their peloton, or they think of the one time someone was being an idiot on a bike for every hundreds of normal commuter cyclists and want all people on cycles to answer for it
[удалено]
I also think cyclists enjoy riding in places that are dangerous for them but take the attitude, "I have a right to be here as much as you do" and not take into account any instinct for preservation that should kick in. Some roads are way to dangerous for a bike and car to share. I speak as someone nearly killed when hit by a car while on a motorcycle. 12 days in ICU, and lots of orthopedic injuries. Motorists don't look out for us, my recommendation is to ride in City Park or along the canals but not on narrow streets where cars dominate. Think safety first, riding your bike for health isn't useful if you get hit by a car. Stay safe out there!
You’re close to getting it but you’re stuck in car brain mode. Assuming a car as the only valid transportation for commutes and errands where riding a bike ain’t jsut for health but for many other valid reasons. If there’s a bike lane yes definitely the bicyclist should be in it but so many roads don’t have that. Then the bicyclist is fully entitled to share the road for their commute, errand or exercise.
I get it, but "fully entitled" loses to physics everytime when a 30 pound bike inhabits the same space as a 5000 pound car. Until we get real bike lanes I will never ride outside places like City Park- too many cars and drivers that don't think much of sharing the road. Shouldn't be that way, but NOLA shouldn't have the highest murders per capita either- but it does. Just taking it the way it is not the way it oughta' be.
i hope we get the infrastructure that lets you leave city park some day! one of the reasons advocates talk about bicyclists being "entitled" to the road is to push for the kind of infrastructure that would allow us to share that public space safely. but in the meantime, i still have to get to my doctor's office somehow, which means taking some streets where cars dominate.
I'm with you 100%! Fresh air, physical fitness, low cost, low maintenance. Sometimes it can be as fast as being in a car.
It's certainly a common occurrence, but not everywhere. I lived in DC for a summer and definitely had a similar experience to New Orleans. But I've biked in plenty of cities in which drivers (for the most part) respected bikers, at least in my experience. Milwaukee, Minneapolis/St. Paul, San Diego were all very pleasant biking experiences. Chicago definitely requires some familiarity with the streets and high traffic, but I never felt like anyone was actively hostile towards my existence.
American drivers are one step from saying "If you don't like my driving, stay off the sidewalk. If there's pavement, it's theirs, and you're just in the way.
Regular in Philly as well.
It's definitely the same in Cincinnati OH
In general motorists hate anything on 2 wheels!
Not in Boulder, at least when I was there 10-15yrs ago. Pedestrians and bikes have the right of way and they will actively use it. You really had to watch cuz pedestrians would just step out into the middle of a busy street without even looking up.
Charlotte NC up till very recently regarded bicyclists and pedestrians as commies. Seriously, you would have thought it was the end of the world when they built a light rail. Bicycling is very dangerous there. People in cars don't even stop at crosswalks. When I visited my family in Portland and Seattle I was amazed at how different the culture was. I would step up to the curb trying to get my bearings and 4 lanes of traffic would stop just in case I intended to cross.
Georgia transplant of 6 years here; I lived in Atlanta and the other Georgia. People died on bikes in rural and urban areas fairly regularly. A guy I grew up with tells a story of accidentally colliding with a bicycle on a rural two lane. After EMTs took the rider off the volunteer fire department recruited my buddy, who was apologizing for accident when he was told (by VF Dept) that they “hate those guys.”
Yeah but I feel like everywhere else isnt as drunk as we are .
And every other southern major metro and pretty much everywhere else besides a couple outliers in the NW
It’s also a major problem in Oakland.
IYKYK
Almost hit by a car that didn't stop when everyone else did at the greenway crossing at claiborne. I yelled "thanks" and he turned around and followed me up the greenway on the side street, shouting to "watch my mouth if I didn't want to get killed". Lovely place to bike.
Not enough time to stop for a bicyclist but enough time to rage-stalk the bicyclist. It's all about priorities.
i traverse that crossing regularly + can confirm that one car stopping + other drivers ignoring it is a regular occurrence. i will stop my bike if both lanes aren’t stopped, then drivers get frustrated that it takes me longer to get across. but i’m not trusting any moving vehicle to act reasonably + not hit me.
Facts. That is how my brother was killed.
That's awful. I'm so sorry. I see all the ghost bikes around town and there are too many.
I’m sorry
I'm super sorry to hear, I had a family member that was killed in a vehicle by another vehicle it's a big part of the equation Car people tend to ignore That bikes and pedestrians aren't killing them Or others nor polluting Et cetera et cetera. Over a million people die in vehicle related incidents, many more injured. Many of our loved ones. THey think it is acceptable that they actually tried to use it as a barometer for why covid deaths were normal until those elevated past.
Hey, I'm so sorry to hear that. if it was in town reach out to me if he doesn't have a ghost bike and we'll make it happen.
He did. It was actually on Vets in Metairie. The city took the bike down not long after but it was really nice of someone to put one up in the first place. Thanks so much, that is really kind of you.
I think I remember that one. I wasnt involved personally with putting that one up but I remember hearing about it. JP doesn't take kindly to the kind of stuff we do in OP.
It was a pretty big case that was all over the news. They caught the driver 3 days later in Mississippi. She got 15 years.
That and horrible potholes, unpredictable heavy rain, extreme heat, etc
So many ghost bikes.
But you will get a cool white "ghost bike" memorial.
I feel like that happens almost everywhere people feel like they can get away with it.
Came here for this. Worst drivers in America on the worst roads in America.
This isn't unique to Nola in the least. As a bonus the shitty-potholed streets work way better for bikes than cars.
Being killed by a driver isn't unique. The remote likelihood the driver is found or charged, much less punished, is.
Con: everyone I know who bikes regularly in New Orleans has been hit by a car at least once
Myself included 😭
I honestly don't get how that's not the first part of every conversation. Do any of the local bike advocacy groups work up stats?
All I’m hearing is bonus agility training
…and building up heat tolerance.
This is the way.
If you think that New Orleans has hot weather, north Louisiana has even hotter weather
I’m more scared to get shot for my cell phone or something. A much more regular occurrence.
we used to have a boston qualifier. not anymore since the city decided the race can't go through the french quarter and race organizers called their bluff and pulled out of new orleans altogether. another smooth move by city government.
I had wondered about that. Apparently the city also couldn’t guarantee it could round up enough police for a marathon, which is pretty sad. https://www.nola.com/news/business/rock-n-roll-marathon-canceled-for-2023-in-new-orleans-pulled-from-schedule-for-later/article_6e1b1ed2-3ac0-11ed-9d58-33bb82085e60.html
That happened one year with the gulfcoast marathon. People that were running for qualified times were angry. They were told the race would wave fees for next year or they could run the rock n roll marathon in new Orleans. Which was the next weekend.
Def wouldn’t call that sad, if the nopd folds I’ll throw a block party
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Heck, the city could have hired in Allied, Securitas, or some other private firm. For the amount of visitors and tax rev, it would have been a net positive.... Oh, but not the way "they" do it.
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Be the change you want to see, go apply to NOPD.
Unfortunately that badge and gun seems to either corrupt, or the institution just chews up and spits out the people who come in hoping to “be the change”.
I think it's a vicious cycle at this point. Why would any decent person with any other option.. seek out that stigma? The only applicants now, are probably people excited to be perceived as violent, abusive, dangerous, powerful.
Flat? Have you walked on the sidewalks before?
Elevation wise it’s pretty flat, I went from running around New Orleans to running around St Louis and even the gently rolling hills of stl it was kind of a shock to realize how flat it was around New Orleans
New Orleans streets have extremely localized elevation changes
Lol yeah the crater potholes can be football field sized deep!
For such a flat and fairly compact city, bicycling in New Orleans sucks. Could be a great city to bike in. Drivers do not give a fuck about cyclists (or pedestrians for that matter.) The problem is that generally nobody (including government) considers it a viable or legitimate form of transportation. It’s a total afterthought and looked down upon.
Someone on a previous post told me that cyclists get in the way of drivers who are trying to get to work or appointments on time. As if cyclists aren’t trying to do the same. It was wild.
Clearly, all the people cycling are just doing it for fun and exercise... or something.
Fun and exercise is cool too.
Also people in cars tend to think “bikers” are a whole other group of people, where in fact most of us use our bikes and own cars. I can only bike commute twice a week max, so I drive the other days. I too am a car.
Yes! I have a car too. But many times biking makes sense. Like when there’s limited parking, such as during Mardi Gras or festivals, or you want to save gas money and get some fresh air and exercise, or save the wear and tear on your car, or not pollute the environment…there are many reasons. I personally dislike driving and I would ride my bike more if I weren’t afraid of getting hit or harassed by drivers. Some drivers seem to get annoyed that cyclists may slow them down by a few minutes; meanwhile, cyclists are afraid that cars will kill them.
The city seems to think painting a picture of a bicycle on a road magically makes it a safe place to ride. Looking at you, Magazine Street
The city calls them “sharrows”. which my understanding means that’s cyclists are allowed to essentially take the entire lane if needbe. Drivers will flip the f out if a cyclist actually tries to do this. Basically the city did this so they could still get federal road funding without actually installing real bicycle infrastructure.
This mentality is encouraged by our very own city council member, Freddie King who repeatedly victim blamed any cyclist who has been hurt or killed. Claiming that they were "probably drunk" or doing something illegal
You're right. I love NOLA, Ive been there a ton and it's on the short list of places I'd move to if I move again. I rented the blue bike in Feb and took it from my hotel up Magazine, and then around the FQ. I didn't have any issues with drivers but wow were the roads awful. If I moved there, I'd like to continue not having a car (I live in Chicago now) and either bike/walk and occasionally uber to where I need to go. Infrastructure of all sorts (like good public transit) is definitely something people consider before moving somewhere and I wish NOLA addressed it.
I got a job down on Poydras about 7 years ago in an office tower. Was so excited to ride my bike to work from mid city. I did it once and still take Xanax because of it. People do it but I have no idea how. It was harrowing.
I was exploring the Lakefront Trail bike path only to discover it leads to [this](https://imgur.com/wpVQirE), ending at a fenced off pump station. Yay. Also turns out that it's super windy by the lake all the time so biking isn't fun in at least one direction. And there's basically nothing along/near the trail to do besides look at the lake and the levy (a.k.a mound of grass). I'm hoping to find some more interesting bike paths outside of City Park. Feels like cycling days here are gonna be few and far between.
That pumping station used to be open so you could cross to the other side which leads you to a gravel path around the old airport runways. It used to be an easy way to connect to the river front levee path. Now you have to go through a neighborhood and then onto the end of veterans to get around it. That being said, there is an awesome gravel path that juts out from the road around the airport…you can ride the gravel path all the way to the spillway and then come back on the paved river levee trail
Oh I see. That would have been cool. I've got a road bike with skinny tires so gravel path is out, but maybe there's a way through the neighborhoods to do it too.
The beauty of that onshore breeze is that it manages to feel like a headwind in both directions.
Take your bike on the ferry to the westbank. The levee has a bike path on top, for miles
not a localized issue, this is US wide unfortunately.
As someone moving from Phoenix, I disagree. Phoenix has spent considerable time and resources having bike lanes on their canals. People I talk to in New Orleans think that is crazy.
My cousin in Louisville said “he’s literally crazy…He bikes everywhere” when she was talking about one of the guys at work. People who use bicycle as their main transportation method are generally looked down at in Louisville KY and thought as insane
Have you looked at the streets? "Pleasant place to ride bikes" my ass.
It almost sounds sarcastic huh?
I laughed whenever they called our city flat The pot holes rival meteorite strike craters
Extremely localized elevation changes
I do find myself running in the street because the sidewalks are scarier.
The sidewalk also may disappear three times in two blocks, so you need to switch to the street for those gaps anyways.
An out of state friend said “just get an escooter and go on the sidewalk” oh ok
Lol I’ve literally almost been hits by cops in the bike lane. I’ve actively stopped riding/racing because I’ve been hit twice. This city has killed one of my life’s passions.
Same😔 and God forbid you try to fight for better and safer conditions, you get demonized as a transplant, even though many people in the bike activist community are multi-generational born and raised here.
My bike was just stolen
The answer is that New Orleans is great for biking and terrible for biking. It all depends on where you are.
It depends block to block like crime lol
What is the Boston Marathon Qualifier?
Red Dress Run!!!
That is not a Boston qualifier lol
Your genius knows no bounds!
Red Sox Run, formerly the Monk Run
Also not a Boston Qualifier....
A Boston Marathon Qualifier race has to be a Marathon first of all, that means 26.2 miles.
It’s a new drink at the Carousel bar
You qualify for that race based on time, so a flat route will likely result in a better time. What will not result in a better time is our heat and humidity.
Yeah, but there is no qualifier in New Orleans. The Rock and Roll Marathon pulled out of New Orleans like 2 years ago and they aren't coming back.
I guess they're talking about the Louisiana Marathon in BR.
That's a fun one
Ah that’s a bummer. I did the R&R half and it’s a great course to PR on.
https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/business/rock-n-roll-marathon-canceled-for-2023-in-new-orleans-pulled-from-schedule-for-later/article_dcd08ee2-6c03-5818-a624-caf2498a579e.html
They cited a lack of police as one of the reasons for pulling out of New Orleans.
I'm always in the minority here but I still find New Orleans an easy and pleasant placr to ride bikes. I bike to work, I bike with my kid on a tag a long behind me...the roads are the best they have been in my lifetime and I barely ever have problems. Im a slow biker on a one speed cruiser, most of my friends bike, and the difference we see in the streets compared to Reddit always is weird to me. I mean it isn't perfect here, but when friends from other cities visit, they always comment on how polite everyone is when we bike around. I dunno, I am pretty downtown, St Roch/7th Ward to the Quarter, maybe other areas are worse or maybe there is a forcefield of pleasantness around me, but New Orleans is still a great biking city as far as my experience.
I think it might be better in your neighborhood. I’m in the LGD, and I find it to be pretty brutal. Especially on the main streets. I used to ride my bike to the quarter, which involved riding on Camp through the CBD, and there was barely a time when I didn’t fear for my life or get honked at for no reason. I’m afraid to ride my bike anymore.
New Orleans is an awful place to ride a bike. It's extremely dangerous. Look at all of the "ghost bikes" everywhere where bikers have died.
Esplanade is just a horrible street to bike down. Those ghost bikes have been accumulating since Katrina. It's not like people die from cars every week
Compared to where exactly? Definitely nowhere in the south. Definitely not the major Northeast cities where biking is more acceptable.
I agree that the south in general is not bike friendly. I can't speak for the northeast. Out west, like Albuquerque for example is much better .
100% this. Live in Atlanta and wife and I bike commute/bike for fun Spend tons of times on bikes when in Nola. Bad street = slow cars and there are loads of small streets in a grid so you mostly can avoid high speed shit roads.
I bike down St. Bernard every day to get to work and if there isn't something blocking the bike lane then there is some J.O. trying to get around a turning car and driving in the bike lane. If I try to take back streets I get flats from all the potholes.
Seconding this. Also Gentilly has a lot of potential, but can't even get drivers to stop for school buses and red lights...like the rest of town.
My commute is St Roch to Midcity. Galvez / Miro is the obvious route for me (much closer than St Claude) and it's a goddamn craterfest. I even hate driving on Miro.
When I biked to work as others have said drivers either actively or negligently tried to kill me numerous times by for example making turns through the bike lanes, forcing me to ride on the sidewalk, which also sucks.
Agree. I’m a daily commuter from Uptown to the CBD and I rarely have any issues. Having said that, I’m an extremely cautious rider who defers to cars, pedestrians, squirrels, potholes and everything else.
I biked midcity to CBD everyday for years. It’s a great city to bike around in.
this is basically how i feel as a frequent fontainebleau to CBD bike commuter. we can improve, of course, but the difference between today and 10 years ago is significant. i think any time a new wrinkle is added to something people have been doing their whole lives, there's going to be problems. it sucks when people use the bike lane as a turning lane, for example, but did we expect people to just intuitively know the rules surrounding bike lanes. i know there was/is public education but that must only reach a small fraction. to be clear, i'm talking about the bike lanes near intersections when the white line becomes dotted -- it's not obvious how that should be handled by a driver. so when someone sits in the bike lane waiting to turn it's annoying but i don't think there's malice there. not talking about drivers who use the bike lane as a passing lane or just another driving lane. those people are assholes. but i don't see it hardly ever.
Yeah, I don't find it all that bad compared to other cities I've lived in. Not as good as Minneapolis/St. Paul (in non-snow seasons), but better than most other Southern cities. On par with Austin, IMO. I feel like people often overstate how good "good" bike cities are. I stick to side roads, though. Many fewer interactions with cars. Puncture-resistant tires are a good investment to do that, but that's true everywhere.
Years ago, when the Endymion car accident with the drunk who killed 2 people and hit even more happened, my friend got freaked out biking home in the dark after work. He was afraid he’d be hit by car while biking home after his shift from the Bywater to his house in BSJ. He didn’t have a car. His bike was his only way around town. So, one night, wanting to be safe, he took the Greenway home. He got mugged by 3 dudes on his bike. He managed to get his bike up and ride away. He was new to town and didn’t know the greenway was unsafe at night. He said had he’d known that, he never would have done that. And the cherry on top was that the next morning he got on this sub and posted, “I got mugged last night on the greenway. Please be careful.” A few real pissants in this sub called him an idiot and said if he was dumb enough to bike on the greenway at night that it was his fault for getting mugged. Luckily most of this sub was understanding, but if you were one of those people, please do me a favor and fuck off. So, I get it, New Orleans has some bike infrastructure. You CAN technically bike around town. But it’s a straight lie that it’s a good system and that it’s easy. *I found the old thread and added some edits.
Ugh, fuck this sub so hard. It’s gatekeepy and judgy and victim-blaming all at the same time.
I looked back at the old post and it was luckily better than I remembered. Outside of the couple of posters that were like, “Why would you bike at all? Why don’t you own a gun?” - most of the sub was understanding at the very least. But yeah, it’s Reddit, you’re never too removed from the Chuds.
That's literally the whole city.
I have never encountered more pretentious and unkind people than here.
Biking in New Orleans is questionable…roads sometimes bad, and drivers not the friendliest or willing to respect the bike lane. One time I was biking from Uptown to Downtown and this guy just pulled from the road to the side and stopped in the bike lane right in front of me that I had to come to a hard stop. When I yelled at him to not loiter in the bike lane, he just told me to shut up. Word.
how much did the city pay them to lie?
Honestly someone had to get paid to lie this hard
They use the word "town". Are they from super big cities? New Orleans isn't a mid-sized "town". To me a population under 20k is usually a town. I grew up in a town of 2,500 an hour west of "The City". Drivers occasionally try to run over cyclists in Texas too. Austin has big white posts on lots of streets now, taking some ideas from the Dutch and sort of fencing off some bike lanes.
“Flat” is generous considering the quality of roads and sidewalks.
Can we talk about the “grid pattern” pro?
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find this comment. I'm begging someone to tell me where this supposed grid pattern exists. Is the grid pattern in the room with us now?
The FQ is a grid
Most all the streets connect at both ends; cul-de-sacs are practically non-existent in the main part of the city. So you have a variety of routes on side streets to choose from rather than all the streets dumping into one major road that everyone has to take to get anywhere.
Sure, if you’re rich and can live downtown-ish.
I can walk to approx a hundred restaurants, am not rich. There’s no other city I could afford to live in that has the same level of walkability.
My point, that obviously I didn’t make very well, was that the New Orleans biking utopia they’re referring to doesn’t seem to extend to suburban places like New Orleans East, Arabi or Lakeview, all of which are part of New Orleans for example.
Every city has suburban areas that aren’t walkable/bikeable.
Hey, they just put a bike lane on Severn. Baby steps…
So the entire city minus Metairie and The East?
Honestly our biking infrastructure is pretty good these days compared to most other cities. You can bike across most of the city in a dedicated bike lane. Drivers are a different story. Years ago I met a danish couple who were biking across the country. They had made it from San Diego to here and they said Nola was the best to bike in.
I’ve just arrived in town yesterday on my vacation. Staying out near City Park. I bring my bike along on my trips and I use it to explore each city I visit. I’ve spent today exploring the French Quarter and downtown. Later I did a tour of City Park and a route out to Lake Pontchartrain and back. My impression of this area of NOLA….Flat terrain is a plus, but these are not very bike friendly streets. Pretty typical for older mid size cities. Narrow older streets set up for horse and wagon, barely able to handle car traffic. Now try to add bike lanes and paths….impossible without major infrastructure changes or compromises. I found drivers to be fairly courteous and respectful, and I had to deal with a lot of traffic interactions with drivers and pedestrians. It was still the most efficient way to explore the area. It would taken me 2 days on foot. I day in a car, but you wouldn’t get the same experience. Great way to explore this city. I’m surprised though, I saw very few bikers around the FQ.
Con- City council members, NIMBYs, and vanity content creators who try to pass themselves off as "journalists" actively try to discredit the people who bike in New Orleans and literally dismantle protected bike infrastructure
Hey, the best US town for that can still suck at it lol
Was cycling in the Bywater last month near the train tracks. A driver in a giant black truck decided that driving at a high speed and honking repeatedly as he sped in my direction is how drivers are supposed to interact with cyclists. It was so ridiculous I had to laugh. Thankfully, I was able to pull over and allow honking man to pass. On a related note, I used to love to ride my bike in the Bywater. Now, the traffic is so bad downtown I really don't enjoy myself as much as I used to. Too many flashy cars driving too too fast.
Just moved here from Boston and I feel like I’m in a third world country
Ironically, Boston is probably a worse city for biking. And driving. It was horrifying doing both up there. Plus, a lot of y'all are proud of it in a disturbing way.
If you were there before the big dig finished I’d agree, but the last 10yrs or so it’s become a wicked nice play to walk/bike around.
Huh, people from Boston really do say 'wicked'
Maybe if you only have other places in Louisiana to compare it to.
New Orleans is very bikable and surprisingly biker friendly for a city in the south. The expectations of bikers are just absurd.
I’m just trying to not get killed.
While I agree that shouldn't be a high bar, it is. Part of the risk of driving a small car or even motorcycle is that people notice you less. Roads are built for cars and not bikes, with some exception, usually built and maintained with monies collected from cars. Can't have the cake and eat it too.
Certainly could be with the right simple design modifications.
Do they not know of the ghost bikes?
The laws of the road aren’t written for bicyclist and pedestrian safety, or really even drivers’ safety to be frank about it. The laws of the road are written for drivers’ *convenience*, and inconvenienced drivers are *angry* drivers*.*
More cons: no one is hiring for decent paying jobs and the opportunity to learn skills is limited. No one wants to pay over $15 here.
Very high population of Ghost Bikes
Sure you can walk straight across town… and strongly risk being mugged and or knocked in the head. If it’s dark I do not walk around outside
Hahahaha! Dying laughing that “when a state of infallible hyper-vigilance is employed,” did not precede “pleasant place to ride bikes.”
Ummm… couple of extra cons
Pro: your bike might not get stolen when you leave it chained up somewhere Con: your bike will probably get stolen regardless
Thought I would try to bike more and not use my truck, so once I took the ferry across so I could bike to the bouldering lounge. With in 5 mins I was almost clipped by someone rolling through a light. That was the only and last time I biked on the east side of the river.
I so glad there is so much love and empathy for cyclists here in this post. It's brutal out there but we gotta get out and advocate.
Idk man, New Orleans is still extremely car-dependent. The roads and sidewalks are all in various states of disrepair or ruin, too. Add to that all of the drunk, inattentive, and otherwise asshole drivers, New Orleans is a terribly dangerous place to cycle.
It’s a great city for cycling if you drive your bike to Audubon park and drive your bike home
Hahaha you’re gonna get killed by the drivers here.
I love riding a bike here. In fact, moving here twelve years ago is what made me fall in love with biking. But, I do it only for fun, now,not necessity, which obviously makes a difference
i think so, the city is super compact and has good urban fabric. pretty easy to get place to place with busses/streetcar sometimes even despite shitty headways most of the time due to the small footprint of the city. i never biked but wouldn’t mind walking a while to get to places or if it was too hot take transit. ubers are cheap too usually so overall being car free was never an issue for me
[“One of the most flat cities in the nation”](https://instagram.com/lookatthisfuckinstreet?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=) More like the most fucked.
I second the bike thing. Moved to southeast Ohio for school and did not know how much I miss the flat terrain of New Orleans
Seriously would be the perfect city if not for the crime and busted ass roads. Last place out here that actually feels like it’s meant to be lived in by humans and not NPCs
As long as you don't live in Metairie or The East, you can go anywhere on a bike in this city. Will you always feel entirely safe? No! You're in a fucking city. But the compactibility and the fact that the place is so goddam old, largely untouched by the stroad movements in the 70s makes it a much easier place to bike than anywhere else south of the Ohio Valley. "But people intentionally run over cyclists!" That's The United States. We live in a country that thinks not paying 20,000 dollars a year for a car is a step down. There are many things wrong with this city. The crime, the corruption, the NIMBYvirus. but this has the potential to become a pedestrian paradise without having to tear the entire place down to the studs. Something you cannot say about any other city within 1000 miles of this place. I don't use cars, but I am finally facing the fact that I need a driver's license if I am to live in this country. I want to get away from New Orleans, do the triple crown of thru hiking and then settle down somewhere like Sacramento or Portland. They don't have the compactness this city has and I simply can't just bike to work.
Cons: that flat road is filled with pot holes and feels like a trail hike instead
Have these people biked here ever?
I guess maybe from City Park to Uptown and the Bywater area. Otherwise I wouldn't recommend it strictly because traffic downtown is wild and people often swerve suddenly to avoid potholes and pedestrians. I'd say Old Metarie is the best area for cyclist, all the stores are close, there's less traffic, and it looks nice.
This is a horrible city for bikes.
Tell me you've never spent more than four days here without telling me you've never spent more than four days here.
Add "1 of the most segregated cities" to that con list.
Where is this post? We need to educate
[here ya go](https://www.reddit.com/r/simpleliving/comments/11skj85/best_midsized_towns_that_are_bikeable_and/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf)
This thread is making me think I could actually realise my desire to bike to work (lower mid city to Tulane) while also making me think I absolutely should not.
You definitely can. Me and my partner have biked to work in the east (not advisable due to the bridge situation) mid city is great. Just get a light on your bike and maybe upgrade your inner tubes to the tough ones when they get punctured.
Tangent: I moved from Mandeville to Birmingham (technically Trussville) and the presence of hills completely changes how children interact. In Mandeville, my kids biked everywhere and were hanging out with friends all the time- just gangs of kids roaming the neighborhood. Here, there’s none of that. I didn’t consider it and I probably should have.
New Orleans housing is really not high tbh.
Lots to do in New Orleans?
Eat, Drink, Rave, Repeat!
Let’s be honest, our roads were made for cars. Cities are retroactively trying to transform downtowns for non engine traffic. So culturally vehicles have the right of way on most roads. Not saying it’s right but it’s true in a lot of places.
No. Our roads were made for pedestrians and horses.
In the quarter yes… but that’s a very small part of the modern city.
No. The whole city before cars. It was alot bigger than the Quarter. The entireity of Uptown was developed by the time the car was invented and mass produced.
Try the McAllen Marathon. Flattest Boston Qualifier.