Anecdotal I know however my wife only learnt to cycle properly this year. She is (rightly) terrified of riding on the road. If we had a better dedicated cycle road network (not paths but actual bicycle dedicated roads) she would be able to use it as a mode of transport. She has expressed interest however the network, while pretty good in Singapore (the park connector network is a good safe cycling option), is not continuous enough to allow commuting as an option.
Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
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Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#32This in Milan, Italy three weeks ago: https://www.wired.it/lifestyle/mobilita/2017/06/01/milano-pi... It's on a narrow bridge quite dangerous for cyclists as cars tend to cut the turn to the left. After years of asking somebody decided to help themselves.
> i milanesi hanno percorso in media 18,6 miglia
> in bici per andare al lavoro...
> velocità media a Milano 14,8 miglia all’ora
Or is this per week? Is it current to talk in "miglia" in modern Italian? (though even km would be high IMHO).
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#33This doesn't really prove anything. My observations from Vancouver where a lot of time and money has been spent on bike lanes over the last few years: (I'm a non car owner, mostly pedestrian) - Pilot projects are not representative of actual long term use. When Burrard bridge lost a footpath to a temporary cycle lane, as a regular pedestrian commuter I saw a brief spike in cycle traffic but then a big drop off again.…
You don't cite a single source for any of these propositions.
Frequently sit unused? Brief spikes and big dropoffs? How do you know? I'll bet your local department of transportation is conducting traffic counts though. I know mine does.
"poorly thought out physically separated bike lines made intersections more dangerous"? You really need a cite on that because this study--conducted in Canada--says the opposite: http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2012.3...
"Bikes are dramatically more dangerous to both cyclists and pedestrians" Really? How many pedestrians were killed by cyclists in your city last year? How many by motor vehicles?
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
The arguments for segregated cycle tracks (physical barriers) rather than cycle lanes (paint) can be answered by one question: "Would you let your child cycle here?" Where I live, when segregated cycle tracks meet T junctions the layout is often like so: | C | ----------------------------------| a |-------- Cycles ◅ | r | ▷ ----------------------------------| s |-------- divider | | ----------------------------------…
This always infuriated me. Cyclists are treated like second class citizens even when designing cycling infrastructure. Then we get yelled at for riding on the road. On top of this often the cycling lanes on the edge of main roads also double up as puncture hazards making it risky to use them.
Why? It's pretty universal that smaller crap yeild to bigger crap. Forklifts yield to service trucks. Service trucks yield to heavy equipment. Heavy equipment yields to bigger heavy equipment. Big heavy equipment yields to trains. Trains yield to ships.
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#35This in Milan, Italy three weeks ago: https://www.wired.it/lifestyle/mobilita/2017/06/01/milano-pi... It's on a narrow bridge quite dangerous for cyclists as cars tend to cut the turn to the left. After years of asking somebody decided to help themselves.
> i milanesi hanno percorso in media 18,6 miglia > in bici per andare al lavoro... > velocità media a Milano 14,8 miglia all’ora "The Milanese cyclist averages 18.7 miles per day to go to work... at an average speed of 14.8 mph". Is my translation okay? That seems improbable [time & distance, not speed]: the _average_ Milanese cyclo-commuter takes over an hour each way? Currently 36C/97F in Milan. Or is this per week…
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Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's a problem that can be solved easily just by having a good and cheap city bike system. Oslo is also really hilly and the weather isn't the best, but since the city bike system was revamped in 2016 biking has exploded here. https://oslobysykkel.no/en One thing I really like about the Oslo system is how startup-like it is, unlike a lot of other systems which feel arcane. The apps are flawless (there's no card), t…
Cheap bike sharing schemes usually don't have gears. If you've ever been to Lisbon you'll know that will be an issue. Lisbon needs electric assist bike for a bike sharing scheme to work.
The Oslo city bike system costs 249 NOK/3 beers for a year and has 3 gears. More gears could likely be implemented if needed for not much more.
I don't see why city biking would be any different than other biking.
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#37This in Milan, Italy three weeks ago: https://www.wired.it/lifestyle/mobilita/2017/06/01/milano-pi... It's on a narrow bridge quite dangerous for cyclists as cars tend to cut the turn to the left. After years of asking somebody decided to help themselves.
> i milanesi hanno percorso in media 18,6 miglia > in bici per andare al lavoro... > velocità media a Milano 14,8 miglia all’ora "The Milanese cyclist averages 18.7 miles per day to go to work... at an average speed of 14.8 mph". Is my translation okay? That seems improbable [time & distance, not speed]: the _average_ Milanese cyclo-commuter takes over an hour each way? Currently 36C/97F in Milan. Or is this per week…
The "miles per day" would suggest 9.35miles each way, so ~40 minutes each way, which seems more likely.
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Bike lanes are a step in that direction. SF is starting to gain more protected bike lanes, it would definitely be nice to have more. The bike lane itself is a great initial way to measure bike interest. Though honestly, nearly every street in the city should have at least a painted bike lane.
Here in the netherlands, cyclist paradise, we don't even have a painted bike lane on nearly every street. There are also streets where biking isn't allowed. These are mostly major car arteries. It is imperative to realize there are places where cyclists don't belong. Just like it is imperative to realize that in most places in the city, cyclists do belong.
It was my understanding that major car arteries in the Netherlands usually had adjacent bike paths that were slightly set apart from the road, ala: https://www.google.de/maps/@52.1084742,5.0647,3a,75y,172.64h...
> Here in the netherlands, cyclist paradise, we don't even have a painted bike lane on nearly every street.
With narrow streets and low speeds, cyclists and cars can effectively mix. It's just that in the US, politically that's an even harder sell than protected bike lanes, most of the time.
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#39That's how bicycles came to the Netherlands. Many think bikes always existed since the beginning of time but that's not true: during the rebuild in the immediate post-war cities were designed around car-based transportation. Only after a couple decades, raised awareness about street safety , accidents causing death of children, the first Oil-shock and general tree-hugging '60s eco-friendliness did the country evolve…
Amsterdam has figured it out for sure. They even have parking garages for bikes only and they're full. The city is a great reference for others looking to go a similar route. Painting lines on streets can showcase demand, which is smart because you need to validate your product/project with minimal cost. Long term, dedicated lanes are needed, for safety, and someone has to pay for them.
Re: Pop-up bike lanes show that demand exists
#40One of the problems with more bicycle infrastructure I see is the current regulatory environment promotes the extremes only. A nice intermediate step would be if states would make moped registration less onerous. As it stands most states require a motorcycle license ($), insurance ($) and registration ($) for anything more than a bicycle with an engine kit. If more people rode those parking would be less of an issue…
Having been in Taipei where mopeds were illegal until ~20 years ago and then unleashed on the city like a plague I can only hope that if any city were to do this they would add the caveat that the mopeds must be electric.
Or just incentivize electric by discounting public transit passes for people with electric mopeds, etc and let attrition of old stuff run its course.