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79 comments on The Case for Physically Separated Bike Lanes
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79 comments on The Case for Physically Separated Bike Lanes
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Could not agree more regarding the need for dedicated bike lanes! One fact that really, really bothers me is that the majority of the civil codes that require bicyclists to ride on the street were written around 1910 when the average bicyclist was fairly capable of maintaining a compatible speed with traffic.
Riding on the streets of any sizeable city is simply a recipe for disaster. All it takes is that one careless driver or p*ssed off individual having a bad day and someone winds up in a wheelchair, or possibly a zipper bag. 200 lbs of man and bike is simply no match for 2+ tons of moving metal.
Yes, I am an unapologetic sidewalk rider. I obey the pedestrian signals relgiously and I match my speed to the amount of foot traffic present. I dismount and walk if there are simply too many people. In 10+ years of riding this way I have never had a collision with another pedestrian or cyclist. Even if I did ride in a less controlled manner the most likely bad outcome is some bumps and bruises, at worst a broken leg.
In college I was fortunate enough to attend school that had a compact campus, wide, wide sidewalks, some mixed-use and dedicated bike paths, and a police force that had better things to do than ticket bikers.
The city I live in now is a less fortuitous situation. The sidewalks are very narrow. They are cut up by many, many sidestreets, and drivers will simply block your travel or roll up on you as you cross the street even though they have a STOP sign. The one key advantage is that nearly no one walks on these sidewalks.
Better yet, the newspaper recently ran a story about the local police staging a 'crackdown' on people who ride sidewalks in the downtown area. Apparently a few bad apples have spoiled it for us all.
Perhaps I should just suck it up, get my deathwish on, and start riding the streetz to reduce my already fairly small carbon footprint!
Sidewalks are not safe above walking speed. A cyclist can't see around hedges, mailboxes, posts, plantings, all sorts of obstructions that are built right to the edge of the sidewalk paving. Pedestrians (and dogs, cars in driveways, toddlers) are not watching for anything coming down the sidewalk faster than a jogger.
Don't ride on the sidewalk. You endanger everyone,including yourself.
This depends entirely on the sidewalk and the amount of walking traffic. When I biked to work in Charlotte, NC I used the sidewalks religiously, where they existed. The only roads that are not cul-de-sac housing developments are insanely crowded, suicidal for bikes and with very fast moving traffic and lots of blind curves and no shoulders. In the two years I biked, I maybe saw pedestrians on the sidewalks twice, and they were waiting for the bus at bus stop signs. I would have endangered myself extremely by biking exclusively on the roadway.
Roadways have to conform to engineering codes and the important one in this case is visibilty. For sidewalks anything goes. Unfortunately bike paths are also usually anything goes.
If you want to claim that you have a spot where there's an exception to the rule be my guest. I break rules too. Just be aware that behind every tree and fence and shrub there is unpredictable and random interference and that your available reaction time is one small fraction of what it might be in a more standard right of way. I call sidewalk riders ER admissions.
As far as I know, roadways do not have to conform to any standards regarding bicycle traffic. Sidewalks that are straight and unobstructed by any of the things you describe are vastly safer for the bicyclist than the high traffic roads that I am referring to. Obviously a level of care is needed wherever one rides. I have been bicycling for over 40 years without ever colliding with a pedestrian and the only serious accident I ever had was misjudging some railroad tracks. The choice for sidewalk riding in the case I describe was more than obvious to me, maybe it would have been different to you. My point is that it is inappropriate to cast moral aspersions on a bicyclist who judges it better to 'hit the sidewalks' especially without knowing anything at all about the context.
Moral aspersions? I don't think we are talking morality here, but rather what is safe and appropriate. I agree with "Old Hippie", that sidewalk cycling is not nearly as safe as many people suppose it to be. But I'm sure you're right, ET, to point out that conditions vary from place to place. Fortunately I live in a town where cyclists have asserted their right to be on the road. So, I would never consider using the sidewalk.
Okay, you guys come to my city and ride the four lane to my workplace where speeds exceed 50 mph on a daily basis and tell me how 'safe' that is.
Nuff said.
What city is it? If it's close, I might. I bike on five lane arterials every day. Everybody who doesn't bike in traffic thinks their roads are too dangerous for it.
Fair enough. I challenge you to come to my town and ride a bicycle on the roads between my home and my workplace for several days. At the close of that period please explain to me how 'safe' riding it is to ride on the roads here versus the sidewalks.
Thank you.
Obviously, I can't comment on how things are in your town. But Old Hippie pointed out prettly clearly the perils of sidewalk cycling. If motorists are so reckless and aggressive that they run cyclists they can plainly see right in front of them, I doubt that they are going to be watching out for bikes on the sidewalk as they whip around a corner. True, a slow and cautious sidewalk cyclist can anticipate these perils, and thus avoid disaster. Many don't, though, because they believe just being on the sidewalk is all the "safety" they need.
I think someone already pointed out that you have to vigilant no matter where you are. I agree. If you are an alert, experienced sidewalk cyclist, and the traffic culture in your town is hostile to cyclists who dare to use the road, fine, do as you think best. Where I am, sidewalk cycling is not a good practice.
Thanks for that defense. I was tired of it.
But now I'll throw in some more. The notion of cyclist/motor vehicle interaction leading to body bags is drastically overblown. A cyclist hit by a car - or truck or bus - does not even necessarily fall down. I don't. I can't possibly count how many times I've been hit but if I gave up each time I did this post would not exist. When you do go down there's no presumption you will be hurt. Many falls have no damage report whatsoever. If there is damage it is more likely to be paint polish or fabric than skin. When there is injury most cycling injuries are minor and heal. Collar bones and ribs predominate. Cuts, bruises, road rash. The occasional punctured lung. Yes there are severe injuries but they are not the norm.
My injury report for 300,000 miles is 3 stitches and a mild concussion (years before helmets) for injury accident #1, 50 stitches for injury accident #2. Most drivers do worse.
And yes I've had to crash the curb and lay the bike down in the road to avoid sidewalk riders blundering into the crosswalk. They think they're going as slow and being as cautious as pedestrians but they are not. And after you save their stupid butts for them they just act self-righteous and braindead.
The notion of cyclist/motor vehicle interaction leading to body bags is drastically overblown.
The notion of cyclist on the sidewalk danger from a car coming out of a driveway that is blocked by bushes is drastically overblown.
The only time I have been hit by a car while riding was when I was riding on the sidewalk. A driver pulling out of a gas station knocked me sideways onto the pavement. I got up, walked over to the car, and shook the driver's hand through the open window. He thought I was going to slug him. I was probably in shock, but he was more shook up than I. The bike was fine, and I was bruised but OK. And I (re)learned my lesson.
ca 1968: I was in the right shoulder of a two lane road in Damascus MD when a car turned right just in front of me, and I hit him.
ca 1974: On a rural road near Laytonsville MD, someone threw a beer or soda can at me, for no particular reason.
ca 1982: I was in the right lane of a four lane divided road in Four Corners MD, a guy in a pickup truck pulled up next to me screaming, "Use the sidewalk!"
ca 1983: I was riding my moped in right lane of the big loop on the VA side of the Key Bridge. A car changed lanes and knocked me over.
ca 1988: On the bike path near the 17th Street Bridge, I was crossing traffic turning onto the bridge from the GW Parkway. Some woman was looking behind, drove through the crossing and broadsided me. I lifted my legs and rolled over her hood, but the bike's wheels were ruined.
The code in my town is no bicycles on sidewalks but that is no problem since almost all roads with lots of traffic have parallell bike lane/roads. Most of the bicycle lanes/roads are walk and bike.
The odd thing is that some are ok for mopeds and other are not. I guess mopeds will be banned in the long run since they get more and more like motorcycles for each year. I also guess we will get some head scratching about light two wheeled EV:s in a few years. And there are at least two segways in town. :-)
I agree with "Cyclists fare best when they ACT and are TREATED as vehicles".
And here are some statistics:
"bike paths" more dangerous
http://www.csua.berkeley.edu/~piaw/accident.txt
anti-car stats:
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html
bike lanes:
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/bikelanes.html
Many of the links from the above links support bike lanes (as distinct from separated paths, multi-use paths, ...).
Separated bike lanes may work well in NYC where they would probably be well maintained (kept free of snow, debris, tacks, pot holes repaired), but they are not the answer in every case (as enough of the people did say during the video).
I'm well into my second year as a cyclist - only 4000 miles, but after donating my car, I'm in it for the long haul. I routinely ride with intense traffic. I aim to be visible and conspicuous -- and I often am performing a holy grail of transportation cyclists - left turns in multi-left turn lanes.
I'm getting better at waving (with a smile) at drivers that honk at me (one time the driver had two lanes to pass me, but felt it necessary to honk multiple times).
I too wish for cyclists to get in the road, away from pedestrians (and obstacles like mailboxes, signs, poles,...) ride faster, and at least statistically, safer.
In Portland I've heard it's a ticket offense (never gotten one...) to ride in the downtown area on the sidewalks... but everywhere else... that is, in most of the city.... riding on the sidewalks is legal.
That seems reasonable. If I ride with my kids in the neighborhood we ride on the sidewalks. When I commute to work, I ride in traffic.
But Portland Oregon is a different world maybe...