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Old July 21st 03, 12:39 PM
Dr Engelbert Buxbaum
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Default Do bicycles and cars mix?

Pete wrote:


The German Autobahn system works...in Germany. Transplant that system here,
and the crash and fatality rate would, IMO, skyrocket. Why? Training, road
smoothness, attitude for a start. For instance...very, very rare are the
German drivers going 60 in the fast lane. Here, it is a common occurance.
Mix 85mph and 60 mph traffic in the same lane, and guess what...more
crashes.


Thats just a question of training and enforcement of the law, not of
nationality. Whenever things change, it takes time for people to get
used to the new rules. That, in itself, is no reason not to change the
rules, if there are benefits to be had.


The bike lane system in Holland works..in Holland.


And in many other places.

Transplant that system
here, and you'd end up with unusable bike lanes, crowded with all sorts of
other users (runners, bladers, parked cars), and many, many restrictions and
compromises...rendering it useless for bike transportation. And that is just
one of the myriad cultural and attitudinal differences between here and
there.


A lot of bike lanes are also used by roller bladers, dog walkers and the
like in Europe. With a little bit of common courtesy, thats no issue.
Cars parked on the bike lane are simply towed at the owners expense
(about US$ 300, all included). Usually that prevents repetition.

Lived and rode in Holland for two years. Also Germany, Spain, England.
Look at that lane construct closely. Now go look at a local road. Where
would that 8' wide space (16' if you count both sides) come from? Either
take out a car lane, or take out some of the sidewalk, or move the buildings
back.


What would be so bad about having narrower or fewer lanes for cars?
After all, more people using bikes means fewer cars.

Also, that picture does not show an intersection. What happens there? How
does that cyclist make a left turn?


Depends on the situation. On small roads with little traffic, simply
filter into car traffic and make a normal left turn, similar to a car on
a multi-lane road. On major crossings, use the traffic lights for
pedestrian/cycle traffic. Since the cyclist can cross a road together
with pedestrians, no additional waiting times are necessary.

The real problem are cars making a short (that is right, in most places)
turn across a cycle path. Again, the legal situation is absolutely
clear, a vehicle turning across another lane has to give way to traffic
on that lane. But it takes some education of car drivers to point that
fact out to them, including legal pressure applied over a number of
years. I had some "close encounters" 20 years back, now this is much
better. By the way, the same problem also exists on roads without bike
lanes.

How does a car exiting a parking lot
negotiate this? Stop before the lane? Stop on the lane? Where?


A car exiting from a parking space has to give way to traffic moving on
the road, so he waits in the parking space until the road is free.
Nothing new here, the bike lane is just an additional lane on the road,
all traffic laws apply.

And the monetary costs to retrofit existing roads would be huge. Is the
political will there to expend billions on a small minority? Evidently not,
as evidenced by a routine rejection of light rail and other alternative
transport solutions.



This reminds me of the situation in England, where I used to work for a
couple of years. They had an extensive system of tram ways, which was
disassembled in the late '60s because everybody had a car and the costs
of public transport seemd unnecessary. They actually had a royal
commision, headed by some lord or such thing which determined this.

As a result, people drove their cars more, and traffic in the cities
collapsed, with concomittant environmental problems. Now they are
placing the rails back in to make traffic more manageble (Manchester
beeing but one example), of course at huge expense. That's what happens
if myopic fools disregard the question of sustainability.
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