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Desperately Need References Regarding Bike Lanes
My city has spent several years developing a bicycle master plan that
is about to be passed. We are at the stage of community input. They are **entirely focused on bike lanes**. That is - 1.5 metre painted lines on the road (1.6metre at parked cars). It goes on for 45 pages, but that is the essense. I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed by Ontario. Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material is- the better. Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google lately and miss many posts. Thanks. |
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#3
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#4
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On 27 Apr 2005 23:12:29 -0700, (Cassia) wrote:
I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed by Ontario. Talk to Avery Burdett, also see: http://www.lesberries.co.uk/cycling/infra/infra.html http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/ has some good info (see http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/info/vbriese_abstract.html and http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/info/bhorn_abstract.html, for example) This is an intersting commentary: http://www.answers.com/topic/segrega...cle-facilities Guy -- May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk 88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound |
#5
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On 28 Apr 2005 00:16:24 -0700, "
wrote: http://www.bikelane.com/ http://www.transportation.org/aashto/home.nsf/FrontPage http://safety.transportation.org/plan.aspx searched for bicycle lanes I think that, as so often, the problem comes from one or more groups of people applying a single definition of "what is cycling". A lot of local authorities see cyclists as a kind of wheeled pedestrian, slow-moving and at risk from traffic. They are swayed by people who give as a reason for not cycling the fact that they are too nervous to ride on the roads - of course we all know that once that is dealt with it will, for many at least, be something else which stops them cycling. The weather, maybe. The best way to deal with fear of traffic is through effective training. If they spent as much on training programmes as they do on bike lanes they would probably achieve far better results in terms of increased cycling and improved safety. Guy -- May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting. http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk 88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound |
#7
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On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 23:12:29 -0700, Cassia wrote:
I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed by Ontario. Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material is- the better. Start he http://www.bikexprt.com/index.htm Not only is there a tremendous amount on the site itself, but also links to many other other studies. Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google lately and miss many posts. OK, done both. Mike |
#8
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Cassia wrote:
My city has spent several years developing a bicycle master plan that is about to be passed. We are at the stage of community input. They are **entirely focused on bike lanes**. That is - 1.5 metre painted lines on the road (1.6metre at parked cars). It goes on for 45 pages, but that is the essense. I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed by Ontario. Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material is- the better. Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google lately and miss many posts. Some of the most illustrative stuff I've seen yet is he http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/index.html Wayne Pein posts on these forums occasionally. If you want further help you could email him directly. Matt O. |
#9
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Cassia wrote in part: ... I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed by Ontario. Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride bikes,...snip I'm no fan of bike lanes myself but, Good Luck. "All the evidence available suggests that striping bike lanes on the roadway has a positive impact on the actual and perceived safety of bicyclists... A recent study comparing roads with striped bike lanes and with "wide outside lanes" confirmed that in addition to creating more orderly traffic flow, the striped lanes encouraged safer behavior by cyclists..." http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/insight...facilities.htm Bike lanes seem to be effective traffic calming devices for young, brain- challenged, or plain bad drivers/cyclists. Personally I completely ignore the lane stripes when positioning myself in the street, like most experienced riders. That doesn't mean I don't often find myself riding in a bike lane, and it certainly doesn't mean I can't appreciate that the presence of the lane stripe might make me safer or just more hassle-free with respect to some passing vehicles. Moritz' survey revealed a small advantage for bike-laned roads over plain ol' wide curb lanes, and, not surprisingly, a huge difference between those roads and narrow-curb-lane roads. Wide curb lanes are still the cyclist's best friend, bike lane or no. Even though Moritz' survey could really be seen to support the concept of wide curb lanes, rather than lane stripes, and even though it is replete with problems like all other bicycle accident stat clustermunches, the survey has been disappeared down the memory hole by bike lane-haters. They simply pretend it doesn't exist. This artful ignorance of available evidence is exactly what Forester (the original bike lane-hater) accused the World of 30 years ago--a conspiracy of sorts to willfully ignore an accident survey while making safety claims about bicycle facilities. Basically, anyone who starts reciting accident stats as if they really mean something should have insults and vegetables hurled in their general direction. Your town aldermen, ombudsmen, and comptrollers, if they're smart, might do something like that to you. Anyone who thinks they have to ignore an accident survey to make a point is giving the survey too much credit; anyone who needs an accident survey to make a point is giving the point too much credit. Bike lanes come with some advantages (facilitating road-sharing by vehicles with vast differences in speed, encouraging more beginners to ride the streets) and some problems (mainly keeping inexperienced riders too close to the side of the road in situations that demand they be farther out in the lane). It's not the end of the world if your town decides it likes bike lanes. I suggest gently introducing the concept of sharrows instead of bike lanes. Sharrows, well applied, may just give us the advantages of bike lanes without the problems. But then, the bike lane diatribes would cease, ushering in an era of great upheaval in newgroups across the land. Robert r |
#10
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On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 05:53:23 -0700 in rec.bicycles.misc, Mark
Hickey wrote: Here's the plan for Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix). The bike lanes here are very, very useable. On the roads with parking, the lanes are wide enough to acommodate cars and still keep bikes out of the door zone (in most cases - some people who drive land barges apparently can't park within 3' / 1m of the curb). yes, but... the streets in the phoenix metroplex were laid out with 60 foot rights of way IIRC. that really impressed me when i landed at ASU, such wide streets. older cities with narrower streets can't make streets wider (or wide) without spending a lot of bux buying out property owners with buildings right up to the edge of the narrow street. there are definitely some urban streets that should never be striped. |
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