#11
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New bike path
On 2018-03-17 08:06, Joerg wrote:
On 2018-03-17 01:28, John B. wrote: On Wed, 14 Mar 2018 08:36:45 -0700, Joerg wrote: On 2018-03-13 18:08, John B. wrote: [...] After all, bicycles comprise about 2% of all road accidents and studies I've seen state that nation wide bicycles make up about 1% of the total traffic. Doesn't spend substantial portions of the tax budget on a group that comprises only 1% of the road users seem a bit one sided? So why don't we start by spending 1%? That's plenty. From what you write it appears that you believe that if only someone would build bicycle paths that the percentage of bicycle traffic would rise and I'm not sure that is correct at all. I know that it works in most areas. It is clearly evidenced by the reaction of people. Instead of "Nah, I am not going to join you cycling back on Green Valley Road" (this is one of my usual rounds) they say "Oh, there is a bike path? How about Sunday afternoon?". Other times I talked with client engineers when I visited. Many times they have bike racks on their cars and helmets in the trunk. Those are the real outdoor kind of people, the ones where it's not just talk. However, then they say they'd love to cycle to work but the bike path system doesn't connect there. ... Or perhaps not correct is assumed to be an all encompassing argument. There will always be areas where it doesn't work or, like in Milton Keynes, the design gets largely messed up and then people don't use it. Other places might have too much inclement weather. For example, I doubt one would get a lot of people onto bikes in a town in Northern Siberia. I recently read an article about cycling in the Netherlands. The number of cyclists in the large cities is increasing but in rural areas it is decreasing. Given that Holland has perhaps the largest amount of cycle paths (compared with motorways) and rural bicycle use is decreasing the argument that building bikeways is going to result in some significant increase in cycle use is probably wishful thinking. Absolutely not. I lived there for years. Though this has been decades ago they probably have a similar trend as we do in the US where many kids aren't interested in any sort of transportation. They don't even want to achieve a driver's license. Probably because the virtual world and smart phones are sufficient for them. I can't understand it. You also have to keep in mind that they have a substantial public transport system. In essence many people wouldn't need any kind of vehicle. It is probably also worth saying that the percentage of trips made by Dutch cyclists is 27% of all trips and the number has remained static for the past 30 years. I guess the number of available bike path kilometers has also largely remained constant. When I lived in the Netherlands in the 80's the bike path system was rather complete. They did add some bicycle highways but most of those had already been there in large stretches, just with the fluff and signage. I meant without the fluff and signage. ... For example, I cycles the F35 bike highway route a lot because I couldn't stand the soft Dutch bread. It got me close enough to ther German border to hop over and buy some real bread. Tens of miles just for a loaf of bread was not a big deal over there because I more of less put my bike in 12th gear and kept pedaling until I was there. It was the same down south where my permanent residence was, cycling to Maastricht for a beer and some cheese was a simple spur of the moment decision. 20mi or 30km each way but easy peasy because all bike path. In fact, it was so peaceful versus lane riding that I once fell into "micro-sleep" on the road bike on the way back. A tree woke me up the hard way ... In closing let me say that one of my high school classmates took his girl to the Junior Prom in his Dad's dump truck (there is a long story there) but no one in living memory ever took his girl to the prom on a bicycle :-) Well ... http://tubulocity.com/?p=118 -- Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com/ |
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