On 6/27/2020 5:28 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:
Am Thu, 25 Jun 2020 21:07:22 -0400 schrieb Frank Krygowski
:

On 6/25/2020 12:56 PM, Wolfgang Strobl wrote:

Bike facilites are almost always crap. Good bike facilities are almost
always not recognizeable as bike facilites. Like, for example, using low
rolling resistance asphalt. Or rightsizing lanes.

I agree with you in general. I'm just not 100% adamant.

I'm neither, that's why I wrote "almost always".

IOW, I think
there can be bits of bike infrastructure that are beneficial, as rare as
they are. My favorites, in the few places I've found them, have been
shortcuts or "leaks" that let cyclists through places where motorists
have to drive the long way around. (I helped to get two of those in my
village.)

Sure. But what makes these shortcuts "bicycle facilities"? Are
pedestrians prohibited? What about other nonmotorized vehicles, what
about riders on horses? What about motorcycles which are bicycles by
law? (We unfortunately have those in Germany).

Why not just call them shortcuts, because they are?

I think one difference from "just shortcuts" is surface quality or
ridability. A shortcut could contain stairs or dropoffs, unridable
gravel or other things that permit walking but preclude bicycling.

Personally, I prefer shortcuts which are optimized for bike usage, but
still are useable and occasionally used by cars. It keeps the people in
charge honest. Just make the shortcut unattractive for cars, for
example by allowing motorized traffic both ways, but make it too narrow
for two cars. Nobody likes to drive a car backwards on a winding course.

That sounds closer to what's actually called a Bicycle Boulevard over
here. (Not that we have one in my riding area.) I agree, the ones I've
ridden elsewhere have been very nice. I'm in favor of them.

Today we did a 30+ mile ride through the suburbs to get my new cycling
shoes. Much of it was on tangled residential streets specifically
designed to reduce cut-through traffic. I did a lot of intense
navigating, and was stymied a couple times by streets that were shown to
connect, but in real life did not.

This is a standard design for new housing estates in the countryside. I
hate it. Usually, this design includes mandatory sideway bike paths
shared with pedestrians, on all streets that do not follow this
pattern, because parents in those estates think bicycles are for
children, only.

In my state, we're fortunate to have a law specifically stating that a
cyclist can't be forced to use a bike facility; bicyclists can always
choose the road, assuming it's not a limited access highway.


--
- Frank Krygowski