Actually, I found out pretty late in my life that the proper expression in English is "Robbing Peter to pay Paul". In French you say déshabiller Pierre pour habiller Paul which I transglibberished into English for this post's title.
Just like a lot of Montrealers I find Franglish a lot more fun than plain English or plain French. Go figure!
Yet the very issue underlined by these sayings cannot be better illustrated than by this little video. It was posted on Copenhaganize.com and was sent from a Romanian cyclist, illustrating the recently "completed" Bucharest cycle tracks.
This, below, is what happen when dumb-asses are in control:
They meet up and sit around wondering how they can deliver the freaking cycle tracks folks are asking, without affecting the current status quo. Do not affect motor traffic. Do not touch the automobile circulation.
In order to achieve said cycle network, they simply take the space away from pedestrians, who are supposed to just shut up and somehow accept this nonsense.
Bullshit like that only achieves one thing: pitching pedestrians against cyclists and vice versa.
We have our very own gems, among which, the infamous Place des Arts oh-so-smart stupid design
As well as several other for which I unfortunately do not have any picture.
We must stop compromising on such half-assed infrastructures and start demanding respect for both cyclists and pedestrians.
Urban planners around the world: please grow the balls to face motorists and take away from them what has been confiscated from all of us, i.e. the public space.
