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To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

nytimes.com

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Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#61

Post by darklajid »

rayiner wrote: post #6

What's so wrong with helmets?

Nothing in general.

And nothing is wrong with the idea of safer flights by banning weapons.

The implementation is crap and (mostly) useless though, in both cases.

If bikes _need_ to wear helmets, that's just taping about other problems. If bikers cause problems on their own (crossing red lights, driving insane and ignoring the law) I'd suggest that they wear helmets or stop using that bike.. If bikers are regularly hit by idiot car drivers and 'wearing a helmet' seems to help, soemtimes, somewhat, maybe, then the problem is elsewhere and should result in

- harsher penalties for the car drivers (20 times the mass, 80+ times the horsepower). Let them bleed in court, if the bikers bleed literally

- better infrastructure (note that this is point 2 for me. There's no excuse for being an ass even if there's no dedicated bike lane)

So .. the question you totally ignored is 'Why helmets in general and why do people force them on others in the first place'. Why?

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#62

Post by drumdance »

tzs wrote: post #55
Tiktaalik wrote: post #11

Folks in the US need to start demanding bike lanes from their elected officials. They're super cheap to build and so it's more of an issue of simply having the political will to remove a lane of traffic from exclusive car use. Such political bravery can pay off. Vancouver BC's Gregor Robertson (and his councillor slate) has been elected twice with strong mandates in large part because of his commitment to bike lanes.

There's actually some organized opposition to bike lanes in the US, from some of the more conspiracy theory oriented members of the Tea Party and the Libertarians. They think bike lanes are part of the UN's "Agenda 21", which they see as a nefarious plot to take away our sovereignty. Bike lanes, for example, according to these people encourage people to bike more, which encourages higher density cities (as people wan…

Here in Colorado a couple years ago the Republican nominee for governor (who was a Tea Party insurgent) tried attacking the Democratic nominee for this. The Dem nominee was the then-mayor of Denver and had pushed for and gotten a bike share program in the city. Everyone realized the Republican was nuts and it started a downhill spiral in his campaign.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#63

Post by msrpotus »

davidw wrote: post #43
mikeryan wrote: post #8

This article is great but it does itself a pretty big disservice by pretty much ignoring a lot of why many of the European cities which have successful programs are successful. Namely they have made significant investment into infrastructure to make bicycling safer, many times prioritizing bike traffic over auto traffic. I ride quite a bit, live in Berkeley which has numerous "Bicycle Boulevards [1]" and I'm pretty c…

Here in Italy, most places don't seem to have all that much in terms of programs or much to encourage cycling - or at least if they do, they're fairly recent. What they do have are densely populated cities, making driving expensive and inconvenient, and cycling a better option in terms of the number of places you can reach in a given amount of time.

Density might be even more important--even with bike lanes, people won't bike if the distances are too far.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#64

Post by rickmb »

mikeryan wrote: post #8

This article is great but it does itself a pretty big disservice by pretty much ignoring a lot of why many of the European cities which have successful programs are successful. Namely they have made significant investment into infrastructure to make bicycling safer, many times prioritizing bike traffic over auto traffic. I ride quite a bit, live in Berkeley which has numerous "Bicycle Boulevards [1]" and I'm pretty c…

Why do people insist on pretending all of Europe is full of bike lanes? In most inner cities there often isn't room for bike lanes, or the lane is just a line on the asphalt.

I bike to work every day in Amsterdam, not a single bike lane on my route, I have to share the road with cars, trams, buses, trucks and scooters. The only traffic that actually poses a regular challenge because of their erratic movements and tendency to step into the road without looking are American tourists on foot...

Bike lines are convenient, but no more than that, and just as much of a red herring as helmets when it comes to safety. Safety in urban traffic is a people problem.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#65

Post by Someone »

zobzu wrote: post #27
jey wrote: post #15

It's apparently not very clear whether bike helmets increase or decrease biker safety: http://www.overcomingbias.com/2010/09/bike-helmet-doubts.htm...

every of these articles manipulate the data to make you believe a simple fact "helmet or no helmet is the same". Just use common sense instead (yeah I know it's so freaking hard). If you're going to ride on a safe road, bike path, etc, like many people do, helmet or no helmet makes an insignificant difference. If you're going to ride in traffic, in SF, NYC or Paris, that is where you want to wear one. If you're going…

"Heck those guy don't need to be told, they know the risk if they don't."

If only: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_helmet#Required_helmet_.... I think culture in the peloton has changed a bit, though.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#66

Post by rheide »

The target audience may be slightly different. In London, the people I see wearing helmets while cycling tend to be that particular young male demographic, whereas people partaking in the bicycle sharing program tend to be commuters. As such, the speed at which both travel, and the roads that they take, tend to be completely different. If you're doing a high-speed bicycle-only commute into Central London then I'd say wear a helmet, but if you're doing a short-distance trip on a shared bike, there's really no need since you'll be travelling slower anyway.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#67

Post by maurits »

To Encourage Biking, Cities should do two things, and two things only:

- Bike lanes. Physically separated bike lanes. This is not rocket science. Trains have rails, airplanes have a nice bit of tarmac and bikes should have a space tailored to their specific needs as well. Typically in the Netherlands, bikes are banned from roads that are 50km/h and up. And they don't need to battle it out with fast traffic, for there are bike lanes. And the limited space in this country means that something truly has to give when adding them.

This how the dutch design an intersection. Note the absence of the ridiculous ASL boxes, and most important, no crossing of lanes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA

- Traffic laws that protect the weaker participant in traffic. Again, case in point, the Netherlands where in a (civil) dispute after a bike-car accident the burden of proof lies with the car. Not to mention the dreaded article 5 that broadly states that endangering traffic is a felony.

This helmet discussion imho is just a way to deviate from arguably more costly and difficult choices when it comes to embracing the bicycle. And while we are are at it. I am convinced that making helmets, 4 point harnesses and leathers mandatory in cars for all occupants would save lives as well.

What perhaps surprises me the most in the car-bike entanglement is the seemingly bad engineering. Cities like Londen, Geneva, all (claim) to cater for bikes, have rental programs, paint the odd lane, but their intersections tell a different story. In the information age, it just baffles me.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#68

Post by rms »

btipling wrote: post #48
mikeryan wrote: post #8

This article is great but it does itself a pretty big disservice by pretty much ignoring a lot of why many of the European cities which have successful programs are successful. Namely they have made significant investment into infrastructure to make bicycling safer, many times prioritizing bike traffic over auto traffic. I ride quite a bit, live in Berkeley which has numerous "Bicycle Boulevards [1]" and I'm pretty c…

As a driver, those bicycle boulevards, like Vermont Ave, in Berkeley are confusing to me. I just don't know what is supposed to be different about those streets, they seem like regular streets except for the designation.

It takes a while to figure out the traffic flow in Berkeley, but basically most streets except for main arterial roads have some form of periodic traffic calming. So some of the bicycle boulevards have speed bumps, some have traffic circles, some go do not enter after 3 or 4 blocks. Basically just a marginal annoyance to try and get non-local drivers onto other roads.

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#69

Post by FrojoS »

rickmb wrote: post #64
mikeryan wrote: post #8

This article is great but it does itself a pretty big disservice by pretty much ignoring a lot of why many of the European cities which have successful programs are successful. Namely they have made significant investment into infrastructure to make bicycling safer, many times prioritizing bike traffic over auto traffic. I ride quite a bit, live in Berkeley which has numerous "Bicycle Boulevards [1]" and I'm pretty c…

Why do people insist on pretending all of Europe is full of bike lanes? In most inner cities there often isn't room for bike lanes, or the lane is just a line on the asphalt. I bike to work every day in Amsterdam, not a single bike lane on my route, I have to share the road with cars, trams, buses, trucks and scooters. The only traffic that actually poses a regular challenge because of their erratic movements and ten…

>Why do people insist on pretending all of Europe is full of bike lanes?

Because as a tourists only stick to the main roads which often have bike lanes. Anyway, in my experience the situation in Europe is much better than in the US.

My datapoints: Munich, Kopenhagen, Zurich Bay, Boston, Portland

Re: To Encourage Biking, Cities Lose the Helmets

#70

Post by _delirium »

rickmb wrote: post #64
mikeryan wrote: post #8

This article is great but it does itself a pretty big disservice by pretty much ignoring a lot of why many of the European cities which have successful programs are successful. Namely they have made significant investment into infrastructure to make bicycling safer, many times prioritizing bike traffic over auto traffic. I ride quite a bit, live in Berkeley which has numerous "Bicycle Boulevards [1]" and I'm pretty c…

Why do people insist on pretending all of Europe is full of bike lanes? In most inner cities there often isn't room for bike lanes, or the lane is just a line on the asphalt. I bike to work every day in Amsterdam, not a single bike lane on my route, I have to share the road with cars, trams, buses, trucks and scooters. The only traffic that actually poses a regular challenge because of their erratic movements and ten…

I wouldn't say they're widespread in Europe, but I moved from the SF Bay Area to Copenhagen, and they're certainly a big factor here. The "bicycle highways", completely separated and wide lanes that form major arteries through the city, make it much easier to bike to work from most places, without danger of car interference, or of being "doored" by parked cars opening their doors.

Some other efforts: 1) the traffic lights on several major arteries have been synchronized to typical bike speeds, rather than car speeds, so in good circumstances you can ride their whole length without hitting a red light (they call this a "green wave"), and 2) of the three bridges over the central harbor, one is bicycle/pedestrian-only (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bryggebroen), with another no-car bridge under construction.

Obviously other aspects also matter, such as a compact and flat city, but I think all these help considerably as well.

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