alt Hacker NewsThis type of repetitive comment[1] is a bit like the bike lanes discussion:
1.City introduces bike lanes on street.
2. Residents complain about parking spaces going away, businesses complain about future bankruptcies due to fewer customers, general uproar is huge.
3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersections are safer.
4. Businesses (re) discover that cars don't buy things, people in big metal boxes going 50+kmph don't buy as many things. But people biking and walking are... foot traffic... and business goes up.
5. City decides to introduce bike lanes on another street.
6. Cycle repeats.
To your point about phones, it is very effective. If nobody can take their phone out on the school premise, suddenly it's very obvious who's trying to break the rule and guess what. Kids play, kids talk face to face, etc.
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[1] This type of comment is one of the first things posted for these types of articles.
Replies
Must be location dependent. Where I live you never move beyond 2.
> 3. Residents discover bike lanes are quiet, and they also reduce ambient noise levels due to reduced car traffic, air is also cleaner, roads and intersections are safer.
Except that 3 doesn't actually happen... Bike lanes stay empty and kill businesses.
In Seattle and Portland the businesses within 1 block of new bike lanes declined faster after 2019.
and completely seriously:
7. right-wing gains power and bans bike lanes anyway, labeling them "leftist"
city after city in various states/countries
but back to phones
the real problem is they can't rule that parents must be responsible for their children
I find the moral panic about kids with phones/internet access fascinating
because of course it's a problem, but it's not the root cause of the problem
ps. I am so old we weren't allowed to have calculators in school, absolutely forbidden
Agree with all of that but want to point out one thing that is almost always true re: businesses citing loss of parking to oppose bike lanes:
99% of the time the business owners are really just mad that they personally cannot park directly outside their business anymore. They may cite nonsensical things like 2 less parking spaces outside their business will lead to less customers, but what they are really mad about is their own personal parking space going away. Very dumb and selfish