121–130 of 145 posts
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I've always thought cities with a snowy season would be great candidates for bike lanes. Bicycling drops dramatically in the winter, so the bike lanes sit mostly unused. This makes them a good place to deposit excess snow.
That’s essentially how it works in Chicago.
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I bike commute in Boston. I avoid a 1 mile stretch of grade separated cycle track because there are so many problems with it, I don't even know where to begin. - Cars emerging from side streets don't stop at the cycle track so there's a constant T-bone risk. - Parking (the only parking lane on the road) obscures drivers' vision leading to a high right-hook risk. - The grade separation disappears at driveways and side…
I don't know if you're referring to Beacon Street in Somerville, but... Even though I actually haven't ridden that way since they built the cycle track, I live in the neighborhood and the cycle track has looked awkward to me since they put it in. Back when I commuted home down Beacon I would bomb down the slight downhill to the Star Market at 25 or so, pretty far out into the "car" lane, because I wanted to be able t…
Going downhill (cycle track side), I have no problem keeping up with traffic. During rush hour, I usually end up having to slow down for cars in front, which sucks a lot but that's life.
I'm not sure how expensive this project is (it's still not finished!) but it must be at least a million dollars flushed down the drain. And that's not even mentioning those dumb HAWK lights that will be ripped out because no one knows what to do.
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Cars do just fine in snowy places. I don’t see a reason why bikes shouldn’t. Just throw in the same effort that you do to keep car lanes open, and you’ll be fine. You can even put on pegged tires if the bikelanes tend to stay icy (like they do in Reykjavík), however be prepared to spend like 5x the effort when riding on pegged tires.
Cars do just fine in snowy places. I don’t see a reason why bikes shouldn’t. Stability, slippage, being exposed to freezing cold and wet, the lack of an engine assist, no heat, two fewer wheels, and did I mention cold? Just throw in the same effort that you do to keep car lanes open, and you’ll be fine. Open for a car and open for a bike are different. You can drive through some snow, slush and ice, but I hate biking…
No one is trying to force the elderly, the pregnant and the handicapped to ride bikes. They can still use their cars, taxis and buses while the city is plowing the bike lanes for us healthy adults that like to ride our bikes to work.
Do note that while I say that harsh winters pose no problems to biking in general, I’ve found my self taking the bush in the worst winter weathers in Reykjavík. Which brings the point home that bike infrastructure is not mutually exclusive to other transportation.
One of the issues here is that it's very likely that e-bikes will start to dominate regular bikes in near future. Because of their fast acceleration they may well be more suited to the roads that cars currently dominate than to the typical "bike lane" environment. Certainly the difference between an e-bike and a regular bike is much bigger than would be expected at first glance. Last year the Dutch bought more e-bike…
The difference isn't that big in The Netherlands. Legally, e-bikes are limited to 15mph, and the electric motor can only provide assistance. Faster pedelecs are classified as mopeds and are mostly not allowed on bike paths for obvious safety reasons. In practice, I've not yet noticed this domination. Getting passed by an e-bike does happen, but it's not very common.
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> less safe, less reliable Doesn't seem true where I live. Maybe you have a study to support this claim?\ > Bikes probably do make more sense if a majority of your population lives in one or two cities, otherwise it just doesn’t. Cities in general seem to be conducive to bikes. Not sure why the whole country needs to live in just one or two cities or how that could logically follow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/05/12/how-saf... Nationwide, you’re more than twice as likely to die while riding a bike than riding in a car, per trip, according to a 2007 study led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Laurie Beck. Bike riding is also about 500 times more fatal than riding in a bus. Though Beck didn’t run numbers on subway and commuter rail systems, they may be…
per trip
exposure rates such as the number of trips, distance,
or hours walked and cycled [...] are crucial in
measuring the safety of these 2 nonmotorized modes.
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Cars do just fine in snowy places. I don’t see a reason why bikes shouldn’t. Just throw in the same effort that you do to keep car lanes open, and you’ll be fine. You can even put on pegged tires if the bikelanes tend to stay icy (like they do in Reykjavík), however be prepared to spend like 5x the effort when riding on pegged tires.
I bike all winter and even I'll admit two wheel vehicles are not as stable on ice & slush as three or more.
Still, the feeling of well-being that comes from moderate exercise and the joy of seeing the world in another way makes up for it. Most drivers are smart enough and courteous enough that I would recommend it to anyone.
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> I realized, though, that unlike many American cities, Amsterdam came of age way before the automobile. The US has a fetish with cars. No, Amsterdam also loved cars. It was activism that turned it into a bicycle heaven. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bic...
See also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YY6PQAI4TZE , about the Amsterdam neighbourhood De Pijp fight for a play street without cars in 1972.
Hemonystraat, one of the streets cited in the video, now:
https://www.google.it/maps/@52.3567496,4.9026422,3a,58.5y,13...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> less safe, less reliable Doesn't seem true where I live. Maybe you have a study to support this claim?\ > Bikes probably do make more sense if a majority of your population lives in one or two cities, otherwise it just doesn’t. Cities in general seem to be conducive to bikes. Not sure why the whole country needs to live in just one or two cities or how that could logically follow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/express/wp/2016/05/12/how-saf... Nationwide, you’re more than twice as likely to die while riding a bike than riding in a car, per trip, according to a 2007 study led by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention epidemiologist Laurie Beck. Bike riding is also about 500 times more fatal than riding in a bus. Though Beck didn’t run numbers on subway and commuter rail systems, they may be…
I quickly read through this. Context: I'm Dutch and live in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This booklet has one massive flaw: it is constructed using American best-practices. At best, a couple of examples could be considered almost acceptable. Most of them were woefully inadequate and consist of little more than a blob of quickly-fading green paint in ill-considered positions. Worst of all, several examples are clearly fl…
Around here they create X crossings, where the bike lane and the right hand car lane cross each other in an X. This is sheer madness.