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Stress Analysis in the Design of Bicycle Infrastructure



 
 
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Old August 13th 17, 06:11 AM posted to rec.bicycles.tech
Frank Krygowski[_2_]
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Default Stress Analysis in the Design of Bicycle Infrastructure

On Saturday, August 12, 2017 at 3:15:31 PM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-08-12 12:03, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On Saturday, August 12, 2017 at 10:31:51 AM UTC-4, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-08-11 17:45, AMuzi wrote:
On 8/11/2017 7:23 PM, Frank Krygowski wrote:
On 8/11/2017 8:00 PM, AMuzi wrote:
On 8/11/2017 5:55 PM, Joerg wrote:
On 2017-08-11 15:05, sms wrote:
https://bikesiliconvalley.org/wp-content/uploads/170808-5B-Alta-Level-of-Traffic-Stress-Knowles.pdf





This was one of the presentations at the Silicon Valley
Bicycle
Coalition Bike Summit.

Slide 6 is especially telling. No surprise that the U.S.
has the lowest
number of bicycle travel in terms of distance, and the
highest death rate.


No surprise to me whatsoever. I lived in three of those
countries, Germany, Netherlands and US and can see why the
numbers on slide 6 are what they are.

When I had to ride from where I lived in the Netherlands
(Vaals) to Maastricht I could pretty much set my 12-speed
bike on the bike path, put it in 12th gear and hammer those
20 miles. I did the same distance here (Cameron Park to
Folsom) yesterday for an errand. Aside from mixing in with
fast traffic at times which some potentially interested
cyclists don't like I also had to hack it across a dirt
field for half a mile, including crossing a muddy creek and
lifting the bike over some low fences. Hardly anyone would
be willing to do the latter. On the way back it was mostly
along a county road with 55mph traffic, ok but not
exactly fun.


But there's no end to that argument.

People who live at a bus stop and work at another think
buses are wonderful. But resources are finite and so for
some people they are merely inconvenient but for most
people buses are not useful in any way.

I have a couple friends who do like buses. I rode yesterday
with a guy who likes to use the bus to get out toward a
distant bike trail. But when we first moved to town and had
just one car, I looked into riding a bus the seven or so
miles to work. It would have taken far longer than just
biking the whole way.

But for most people, I think this Onion article is accurate:
http://www.theonion.com/article/repo...ublic-tra-1434



"Take the bus. I'll be glad you did." ;-)


Yes, that's one of their all-time best.

My point, though, is that a paved kiddie path from every residence to
every destination is ridiculous.


Those are not kiddie paths and they do almost go from residence to
destination in the Netherlands. The only way to experience this is to
actually stay there a few weeks and ride all the time.

When I worked in Hengelo we rented a house sight-unseen and split the
cost between four people. When I got there it turned out to have a bike
path right in front and the company also had a bike path system
connector straight into a massive bicycle parking lot. At one section we
had three lanes on the bike path while car drivers only had two. Having
grown up in Germany I was pleasantly surprised but the three others who
grew up in the Netherlands considered that to be normal.

You don't need it to every house. Folsom is an example how to do it
correctly. They have built a network of bike paths going through nearly
all residential and many commercial areas. Most destinations require a
few hundred yards of street riding but that is on low-traffic streets.
Except in some inner city areas but the very skittish could always hop
off and push the bike on a sidewalk for a few yards (I always ride in
the street).


Stevenage and Milton Keynes and other "new towns" in Britain are also
examples of how to do it correctly. One can bicycle from anywhere to anywhere
without interacting with cars. Except almost nobody bothers. It's easier
to drive.


There are communities that do the implementation correctly and there are
those which don't. Constantly lamenting the latter is not helpful. One
has to look at the successful ones and there are whole countries who
were successful. Stop criticizing everything and book a nice long
bicycle vacation in the Netherlands. Or Denmark.


One day I may; but there are about 200 nations on earth. If only Denmark and
the Netherlands have been successful at building the world you demand, why
would that be?

I suggest it's not because the other 198 or so are populated by dummies.
Instead, I suggest that there are factors at work in those two countries that
are absent almost everywhere else. They are both countries with a history of
high bike mode share, which itself is important. And they have that history
largely because of flatness, density, and economic history, among other things.
And those countries are still among the very few that are willing to actively
dissuade car use.

You're among the people who point to failed results of bike infrastructure
and say "well, they did it wrong." But in almost all cases, "they" did it
the way advocates requested. For example, "they" painted lots of bike lane
stripes when advocates claimed bike lane stripes would get lots of people
cycling. Now those same advocates are saying "Of _course_ paint stripes aren't
good enough."

Before Stevanage and Milton Keynes were built, advocates claimed separate bike
paths everywhere would induce people to leave their cars at home. So those
paths were designed into those new towns, a complete second transportation
route system, hoping to duplicate Dutch practice. But you're saying even that
is not good enough.

Face it, Joerg. Nothing is going to get more than a few percent of Americans
out of their cars, except some sort of national disaster.

- Frank Krygowski
 




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