Dori Monson, and Jamie Skorheim who is writing him up, complaining about new lights and a better bike lane on 2nd Ave:
“It is so confusing,” says Monson. “There are five lights, and you’re supposed to decipher what to do.”
There are 3 sets of lights. One for people in cars turning, one for people in cars going straight and one for people on bikes. If you can’t decipher that, you should get out and walk. You have no business guiding a ton of metal near other humans.
I guess if you count the pedestrian light, that’s 4. Still if you’re unfamiliar with what that little guy or the blinky/ solid hand mean, that’s even an even worse case that you should be talking about driving, let alone behind the wheel.
Also, not for nothing, but the lights for bikes are in the shape of bikes. I’m not saying pictures on public amenities always look exactly perfect, but if you’re in a car and you have a tough time figuring out if the light in the shape of a bike is meant for you or someone else, you are a danger to humans just by putting your foot on the pedal. Apply the break, and call for a tow, because there is no amount of lights or signage to correct for your gross, gross incompetence.
With transportation officials always warning about distracted driving, Monson wonders if all these different signals aren’t their own type of distraction, making it even harder for drivers trying to navigate already-busy downtown streets.
Right. Looking at, and responding appropriately to, street lights is the same as watching cat videos on your phone behind the wheel. Good logic. These green lights are too sparkly for me, but I’m definitely qualified to navigate 30 miles an hour through those same busy streets.
Geez Carl. You expect drivers to know how to drive? And what the traffic laws are? Don’t want much, do you? I wondered for a long time why the state lets people with 30 moving violations have licenses. Then I figured it out. They’re going to drive anyway, so if they’re licensed, the Department of Licensing at least knows where to find them. Plus they keep collecting license fees.
Dori’s natural audience is people with the blood pressure of a firehose but the IQ of a potted plant (apologies to potted plants). I can see why he’d be concerned that they’d be confused. He makes very good money making them more confused, and stupid, five days a week.
Dori himself is the most despicable excuse for humanity operating in local media for at least the last generation, and it isn’t even close. Dishonest, venal, manipulative, and cynical beyond all imagination. He’s needed his platform for spreading hate removed for a long, long time.
I commute down Second Avenue on my bike. The new bike lane has turned a stressful, pedal-and-heart-pounding survival horror into a civilized trip. No more looking for sudden left-turners, because a red arrow holds them whilst I breeze thru on a bicycle-green light. No more worries about doors getting thrown into my path by no-look passengers; the parking spaces are separated from the bike lane!
“Plus they keep collecting license fees.”
Thank you for finally explaining how 95+% of American drivers keep their licenses. Merit was obviously never a factor.
Can’t they get that worthless fuck Monson off the Seahawks broadcasts?
C’mon, cut him some slack. Dori is an entertainer, and his daily radio show is entertainment. Only listeners with marginal connection to reality (those “potted plants”) take him seriously. I’m not sure he takes himself seriously. Why would you?
In some happy alternative universe Seattle would have accepted the challenge that the time had come for a major redesign of its downtown street usage. Some small number of streets NS and EW downtown should be forever dedicated to bike/pedesterian (and perhaps a streetcar would be nice) solely. Bike lanes could then be eliminated from steets where sweaty commuters are lurching foward balancing their coffee, their cellphone, and their stock portfolio making biking in the same area a ridiculously dangerous bodge. Oh, and either go all one-way streets or no one-way streets. But this will not be this universe and we’ll forever be envious of that damn smug other universe, selah.
@6 Seattle’s streets were designed for the population of 100 years ago. This city doesn’t have enough transportation corridors for anyone — drivers, transit riders, cyclists, pedestrians — and there’s no room for any more. So everyone will have to share what space there is.
@8 of course it must be “shared”, (even Bezos wouldn’t be permitted his own private street for über-drones). but by separating the modes a good deal more safe density could be established relatively cheaply. (plus i think your comment betrays some devotion to two dimensional thinking which also tends to curse ‘this universe’ ;) )
Dori is Seattle’s version of Limbaugh. He whines and complains all day but has no facts or data to ever back his daily whine up with. He has probably never even been to 2nd avenue. He doesn’t even live in this city.
He is of no use to anybody, beyond the potted plants. Love that description Pete.
and yes, Rujax, why is Seattle’s most polarizing radio host on the Seahawks broadcast team?
The reason why Dori is always complaining about cyclists is because the majority of his audience are people in cars. That is when us Americans listen to radio. He points to the cyclists and tell his listeners that they are to blame for their suckky commutes.
It is pandering plain and simple. It also generate buzz on the MyNorthwest site and he has stated that all he cares about is ratings and click counts. He is merely a ShamWow guy selling hate instead of mops. I wonder what his daughters think now that they are in college and surrounded with more evolved thinking.
“Dori is Seattle’s version of Limbaugh. He whines and complains all day but has no facts or data to ever back his daily whine up with. He has probably never even been to 2nd avenue. He doesn’t even live in this city.
“He is of no use to anybody, beyond the potted plants. Love that description Pete.”
Ironically, an identical bike lane (with identical bike-shaped traffic lights!! The horror!! THE HORROR!!!1!) started operating on the analogous stretch of Broadway earlier this year, but since neither Monson nor his potted-plant listeners could ever find B’way, much less want to go there, he didn’t whine about that.
Maybe in anticipation of someday building wider streets the city should be requiring more significant setbacks on all construction projects ?
Brakes.
“Maybe in anticipation of someday building wider streets…”
London, Boston, New York and San Francicso do just fine with the streets they have. Seattle’s DOT has been narrowing streets (“road diets”) to *improve* traffic flow. Why would we want to cut back on the things which make a city worthwhile, just to make room for more traffic?
@14 What you call “traffic” is people getting to the things that make a city worthwhile.
Dori should come and look the Queen Anne Ave N and Roy St intersection. I haven’t even tried to count the combinations of lights there are, and no separate lights for bicycles.