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Old January 6th 17, 06:32 PM posted to rec.bicycles.misc
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Default Age and Heart Rates

On Wednesday, January 4, 2017 at 12:40:54 PM UTC-8, Stephen Harding wrote:
On 01/04/2017 02:26 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:

I've biked many, many miles on limited access roads, and except in cities, I don't
think bikes should be generally prohibited. Data I've seen indicates no real safety
problem; and most cyclists willing to put up with the bad aesthetics of those roads
are probably dedicated enough to be reasonably competent.

But I do think that when such a road is built, highway departments should build (and
later maintain) a separate bike path within that right of way, and afterward maintain
it properly. In rural areas, the crossing conflicts are few, and those tend to be
the big problem with most bike lanes, even "protected" ones. And providing some
extra separation from parallel traffic would at least slightly reduce the noise
level. The percentage increase of the road construction project's costs would be small.


I've biked divided highways during some of my bike touring and while I always felt
safe on the roads, the noise was really annoying over a period of hours.

The breakdown lanes kept 70+ mph cars at a safe distance, but that constant noise
from tires especially really degraded any enjoyment of generally easy riding.

Technically, on many of these Interstates and other divided highways that allow
bicycles (mostly in western states), riders are supposed to exit each off-ramp, then
return on the corresponding on-ramp.

While I understand the safety reasons for requiring that, I never actually did that.
But if I were on a heavily trafficked highway like I-95, etc., I think I'd use the ramps.

I was always quite happy to return to regular roads after riding a divided highway
for a few hours or day!


On an overnighter we had to ride on a section of highway. The shoulder was very wide but the majority of traffic was heavy trucks and after turning off of it after 10 miles I was certainly happy to get onto farm roads despite their meanderings. The next day we had rides the other way and then a left turn onto another equal highway. So after 22 miles it felt like heaven to turn onto a road where the only traffic was farm trucks.

This eventually led onto a mountain road where we did 30 miles and were passed by ONE farm pickup truck. We got to the top of this long hill with a 10% grade for the last quarter of a mile and at the top was this guy on a bike wearing a complete Spiderman costume with the hood. Apparently you can see through the thin material but it was hot enough that day to make you sweat in a bathing suit. I assumed it was one of the local criminals hiding his identity.
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