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Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

citylab.com

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Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#301

Post by u801e »

ams6110 wrote: post #292
waylandsmithers wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is Boston is that there aren't actual bike lanes-- they just painted some new symbols on the already existing roads that were designed for cars and called it a day. Everyone would benefit from separated bike lanes, either raised up or with the white cones. It never made sense to me that a whole line of traffic should have to slow down to 12-15mph because one person wants to ride their bike. Cars a…

Yeah that's the thing that annoys motorists (or at least what annoys me) -- bikes that you can't safely pass. Any time you have vehicles with greatly differing speeds sharing the same lane, it's unsafe.

What about lanes on interstate highways on upgrades that mix 40 mph truck traffic with 70 to 80 mph car traffic?

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#303

Post by u801e »

waylandsmithers wrote: post #255
screye wrote: post #28

A 2 key points about well designed bike lanes that aren't bought up enough are: 1. raised / structural separation between the road and bikes path. 2. bike paths can be used for just about anything that is not a car/motorbike or a pedestrian. Skaters, skate boarders, mopeds and bikes can all share a common separated path way. I have tried biking in Boston and it is a nightmare. Bike Lanes marked on the road are taken…

I think the problem is Boston is that there aren't actual bike lanes-- they just painted some new symbols on the already existing roads that were designed for cars and called it a day. Everyone would benefit from separated bike lanes, either raised up or with the white cones. It never made sense to me that a whole line of traffic should have to slow down to 12-15mph because one person wants to ride their bike. Cars a…

You're making the implicit assumption that people riding their bikes on the road are just doing it for recreation instead of doing it for transportation.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#304

Post by gascan »

underhill wrote: post #115
option wrote: post #40

I wonder how a bike or even public transit is going to replace a car? 1) How am I supposed ro go to the beach with two kids, stuff for picnic and surfboards on a bike or even on a bus?!! 2) Public transit is all good, but have you ever been in a PEOPLE jam during rush hour in a subway? Because I had. And I will take SV traffic jam over it any day. The truly bad things happen because of radicalism - it should not be b…

It doesn't have to totally replace cars. The ideal is to drop down from a 2 car household to a 1 car household and only use it for bigger errands and trips, or you drop down to a 0 car household and use the money you save on car payments, gas, and insurance to occasionally rent or carshare. The best is for biking/walking/transit to replace daily trips to/from places like work, dinner, downtown, the movies, the park,…

Yup, our household dropped from 2 cars to 1. We bike & trailer the kid. It may not last forever, but it's worked out pretty well, with the car parked 20+ days a month but ready & willing for travel outside town.

Saved us tons of money, garage space, and if many families in our town did the same thing, traffic would completely evaporate. Yet everyone would still have access to a car for surfing & beach trips.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#305

Post by [deleted] »

Johnny555 wrote: post #298
Retric wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sub 3 mile commute at 5-10 MPH is not that bad. You don't need a shower or change of clothes etc. So it's more about commute distance than a pure question of speed.

Though a sub 3 mile commute is also easy to serve with transit. I have a 12 mile bike commute. The bus is an option, but it only runs once an hour.

[deleted]

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#306

Post by Faaak »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #247

In San Francisco one major barrier to cycling is theft. You basically cannot leave a bike for > 1hr. This additional burden means many who would bike (such as myself) no longer consider it an option. I previously biked upto 45minutes each way for work. > A 2013 report by the city’s legislative analyst estimated that 4,085 bikes worth $4.6 million were stolen in 2012, with the downtown and South of Market neighborhood…

Buy a sturdy lock ?

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#307

Post by u801e »

screye wrote: post #28

A 2 key points about well designed bike lanes that aren't bought up enough are: 1. raised / structural separation between the road and bikes path. 2. bike paths can be used for just about anything that is not a car/motorbike or a pedestrian. Skaters, skate boarders, mopeds and bikes can all share a common separated path way. I have tried biking in Boston and it is a nightmare. Bike Lanes marked on the road are taken…

> Taking the side of the road causes cars to pass me too closely and taking a lane draws verbal abuse

Close passes are a safety issue; verbal abuse is not.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#308

Post by kazinator »

Faaak wrote: post #306
maerF0x0 wrote: post #247

In San Francisco one major barrier to cycling is theft. You basically cannot leave a bike for > 1hr. This additional burden means many who would bike (such as myself) no longer consider it an option. I previously biked upto 45minutes each way for work. > A 2013 report by the city’s legislative analyst estimated that 4,085 bikes worth $4.6 million were stolen in 2012, with the downtown and South of Market neighborhood…

Buy a sturdy lock ?

Cue familiar joke about all bicycles being fifty pounds, if we factor in the lock needed to protect them: a 5 pound bike needs a 45 pound lock, a 20 pound bike needs a 30 pound lock, and a fifty pound bike needs no lock at all.

Some get around this by buying multiple locks and keeping them at commuting destinations.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#309

Post by kazinator »

Johnny555 wrote: post #298
Retric wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sub 3 mile commute at 5-10 MPH is not that bad. You don't need a shower or change of clothes etc. So it's more about commute distance than a pure question of speed.

Though a sub 3 mile commute is also easy to serve with transit. I have a 12 mile bike commute. The bus is an option, but it only runs once an hour.

A sub-3-mile commute is walkable.

Re: Cycling Is Key to Safer, Healthier, More Vital Cities

#310

Post by kazinator »

mjevans wrote: post #235
telchar wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd add that a significantly under-discussed element of safe biking infrastructure is safer intersections. My city has lots of bike lanes that are sufficiently wide (and many that aren't) and no consideration all at for how a cyclist is supposed to safely traverse an intersection. My commute requires me to cross several lanes of traffic to get from the bike lane to the left turn lane on a road where cars go ~40mph -…

The best practice that I'm aware of is: * AT AN INTERSECTION * Dismount and walk the bike across the cross-walk, as a pedestrian. IMO we've engineered intersections all wrong to begin with. There shouldn't even be cross-walks there (they should be mid-block dedicated services, placed where pedestrians WANT to cross and __VERY CLEARLY__ marked as existing; not the dinky lights many cities go for (Seattle comes to mind…

> I don't know how to handle bikes and turns at an intersection

With regard to right turns, the easiest situation, though not feasible everywhere, is a dedicated right turn bay. Cyclist going right sticks to the curb. Cyclist going straight goes between the right turn bay and the straight lane.

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