Protected bike lanes are key. I commute to work by bike, and use biking as my main form of transportation. My city has created many bike lanes, and encourages bikers to prefer those roads. Unfortunately, bike lanes have really just become double parking zones for delivery workers, ride shares, and people just who don't feel like looking for a proper parking space while their partner shops. Having to go around people double parked in the bike lane feels much more dangerous than biking on a regular street, since I have to go out into the middle of the road to pass them.
Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
181–190 of 485 posts
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing about cycling is that it’s basically fast walking. In places where cycling dominates people only ride as fast as a quick jogger (10 mph is a 6 minute mile). The correct model for cycling isn’t space on the road, it’s an extra sidewalk with an accommodating turning radius. This is what you actually see in The Netherlands. People think of public spaces as roads and as roads as places for cars to drive and par…
I was just in Amsterdam this past autumn. It was awesome how most streets have bike lanes that are at-grade with the sidewalk instead of at-grade with the street, and that everyone respects as being for cyclists and does not block. You're underestimating some of the speeds involved though. People will bike at speeds that feel safe to them. There's bike lanes there that are long, straight, and that have people going m…
I cycle somewhere between 20 and 35 km/hour; that's faster than scooters and most electric bikes. It's way faster for me to cycle to the supermarket, the gym and the kids daycare compared to driving.
It beats being lazy in a car and I'm very thankful that the infrastructure here in NL supports it.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#183It will be interesting to see what effect this has. A few things I predict:
1. The price of housing with off-street parking will rise even faster now.
2. A lot of off-street parking in the neighborhoods will be eliminated, forcing some people who have to drive to work outside the city to move.
3. The speeds of cars will increase because the roads will feel wider
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is what has happened so far. Retail business owners have... not been pleased (to put it mildly). Overall it's pretty clearly been a net gain, but there's definitely some short term pain there.
I don’t believe there is pain. All the studies in the US have shown that improving biking infrastructure immediately improves retail sales (it’s obvious why...you throw bikes in the mix, and walking is also a lot safer, and everyone who enters a retail store eventually needs to walk, so a nicer walking environment makes it better for all their customers). The complaints are likely a combination of general aversion to…
>I don’t believe there is pain. All the studies in the US have shown that improving biking infrastructure immediately improves retail sales
That generalization is vague to the point of uselessness. It really depends on the nature of the business in question.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#185This is a shift from car centricity to a transport centricity for roads. Looking back in time we had one from horses to trolleys to cars. Now we could be beginning to see them in a broader light. Transport is growing now to include all kinds of electrified (and Rapid!) transit, eg scooters, ebikes, hoverboard... When i lived in Cambridge, ell before the concept of a protected lane, bicycling was commonly known and utilized as the fastest means of transport: the pinnacle of sneakernet.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing about cycling is that it’s basically fast walking. In places where cycling dominates people only ride as fast as a quick jogger (10 mph is a 6 minute mile). The correct model for cycling isn’t space on the road, it’s an extra sidewalk with an accommodating turning radius. This is what you actually see in The Netherlands. People think of public spaces as roads and as roads as places for cars to drive and par…
You won't find a cyclist who opposes dedicated, protected lanes that are separate from roads and sidewalks. It is almost always the car drivers who don't want to sacrifice the single lane required to make a two way, protected bike lane. Case in point, Peachtree St in Atlanta ~3 years ago. https://www.ajc.com/news/traffic/bike-lane-plan-for-peachtre... https://www.ajc.com/news/local/bike-lanes-peachtree-road-for...
> You won't find a cyclist who opposes dedicated, protected lanes that are separate from roads and sidewalks.
"Vehicular cyclists" are opposed to bike lanes and are not uncommon. See elsewhere in this thread for discussion of them. I consider myself roughly 1/2 vehicular, 1/2 infrastructural. Both camps have good points.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#187I've lived in Cambridge or neighboring Somerville every year but one since 1989. The cycling infrastructure is much improved and still deadly. Just yesterday, I approached an arterial Street from a side street at 6pm. Cars on the arterial were moving about 8 MPH. I dismounted my bike, and began walking across the arterial in the crosswalk. As I re-mounted on the other side and resumed riding, a white man in a mid-siz…
I've experienced similar hostility, while just walking and minding my own business (and respecting traffic rules). For some reason, drivers get annoyed with anyone on the road that is not inside a car.
I've written about this earlier. People get seriously nasty in their cars. I've seen them honk at my 8 yr old daughter crossing the street from her school to come home.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#188Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mixing cyclists and pedestrians causes a whole set of different problems (and injuries). Some people ride slow, and some ride fast, and it's facetious to conclude that average biking speed is slow. Also as a jogger, I wouldn't every try running on a busy sidewalk somewhere downtown, but I will need to bike home in rush hour.
Much easier to bike in rush hour as well. Lane splitting lets you beat traffic, and it's of course way easier to dodge a 5mph car in a lane versus a pedestrian wandering all over the sidewalk with zero situational awareness on their phone with headphones.
Nah, I find this to be is suicidal. Not to mention, that even when I get away with this kind of behaviour, the drivers stuck in traffic will be irritated by it and might not be as considerate to the next cyclist passing by.
I'd rather stay on the right, if traffic is too bad I would get off the bicycle and walk the intersection until traffic clears.
Re: Cambridge's Ambitious Protected Bike Lane Law
#190I'm a huge fan of protected bike lanes. Chicago has a few of them, and they are far less stressful to ride on compared to just basic striping on the road. By far the biggest issue I have with striped bike lanes is trying guess when an Uber driver is going to do something crazy when picking up or dropping off a passenger.
My biggest problem with unprotected bike lanes here in Manhattan is that they are so frequently illegally blocked, not just by Taxis/FHVs but also by people parking in them. And a lot of the unprotected bike lanes are basically just the door zone of a line of parked cars, so you need to ride to the far outside of it to avoid getting doored. There's entire block-long stretches that I'll stay out of the unprotected bik…
The fine for parking your car in a bike lane should really be a tow. Predatory towing companies in my town can grab a car in 10 minutes; it's spooky. They even have scouts. I feel like towing companies should be chomping at the bit to get action on this parking ignorance with bike lanes, which seems to be universal in any city with them.