defunct

[Mike leroy]

Some side roads I can take but there's no avoiding some of the main ones. Off hours here would be at night and I don't go riding at night, at least I haven't so far. My area just isn't cycling mecca in terms of the roads.

My area is similar, only slightly better. Car is king. Less than 10% of the drivers stop when I stand in the crosswalk. That is just terrible and dangerous.

 

[Mike leroy]

Excellent point. I'm glad someone brought that up. The amount of effort a city puts in stenciling symbols on the ground does not necessarily translate into better safety. Geneva has stenciled stuff all over the place, but the safer areas are those where they have applied total separation of traffic. That means dedicated paths, or putting bike lanes on the sidewalk.

I've noticed that the mentality of drivers in a given city also influences safety a lot. Courtesy is really important. If possible, one should try to give other road users the right of way, and try to make it so that it works out well for both parties involved. But, unfortunately, the individual "me" mentality often prevails over the collective "we" mentality. In Geneva, I'm intimately convinced that part of the problem lies with the trams. In certain areas where there used to be 4 traffic lanes for cars there are now only 2 (the other 2 now being used by trams). This slows down traffic considerably, and frustrated commuters are becoming increasingly aggressive. More and more, commuting is becoming a "war". I prefer to take a longer but safer route. It's 6 miles (edit: I mean kilometers) longer, but I avoid the center of town.

I look drivers in the eye to know whether they are aware of my presence. On a few occasions, I would have been run over, if I had assumed that drivers would respect my legal right of way. The worst are rolling stops, especially when people are texting. I think the me-against-you attitude increases with car horsepower. Small cars are much more likely to stop when I am in the crosswalk. SUVs never stop, but rather gas the engine with impunity.

I am tempted to make a Pharrell Williams Happy YouTube video. I do silly skipping, jumping and twising on fire roads, while running. I would put very short, subliminal Cuts to street traffic for the parts when Pharrell sings about bringing him down.

 

[Brambor]

I had the 'pleasure' to drive in Geneva for a day and have to free with JayVee. It was frustratingly slow in a car. The traffic lights seemed to take forever. I wished to be on a bike instead.

Excellent point. I'm glad someone brought that up. The amount of effort a city puts in stenciling symbols on the ground does not necessarily translate into better safety. Geneva has stenciled stuff all over the place, but the safer areas are those where they have applied total separation of traffic. That means dedicated paths, or putting bike lanes on the sidewalk.

I've noticed that the mentality of drivers in a given city also influences safety a lot. Courtesy is really important. If possible, one should try to give other road users the right of way, and try to make it so that it works out well for both parties involved. But, unfortunately, the individual "me" mentality often prevails over the collective "we" mentality. In Geneva, I'm intimately convinced that part of the problem lies with the trams. In certain areas where there used to be 4 traffic lanes for cars there are now only 2 (the other 2 now being used by trams). This slows down traffic considerably, and frustrated commuters are becoming increasingly aggressive. More and more, commuting is becoming a "war". I prefer to take a longer but safer route. It's 6 miles (edit: I mean kilometers) longer, but I avoid the center of town.

 

[J.R.]

I ran across a good video that shows great cycling on good infrastructure. Reminded me; you can have the best infrastructure in the world, but without good, courteous cyclists it could be all for nothing.

 

[J.R.]

"If we want Dutch levels of cycling, we need to provide Dutch levels of cycle parking"
https://www.transportxtra.com/magazines/local_transport_today/news/?id=44038

 

[Marko]

US: http://www.digitaltrends.com/sports/top-20-bikeable-cities-2015/

Europe: http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/05/18/denmark-nicer-for-cyclists-but-dutch-ride-bikes-more/

 

[stevenast]

Denver is in the top ten. Hmmmm

Riding here, provisions for bicycles are good but certainly not great. Lot of places where the "bike route" takes you onto streets. Or plenty of places where there's no off-street bike route at all.

Of course, Denver is only being compared to other cities in the United States, which are all designed for cars, cars, and more cars. So comparatively speaking, I guess Denver is good.

 

[J.R.]

Nightly News | July 07, 2015

Building a bicycle infrastructure
July 7: With more Americans than ever before commuting to work by bicycle, cities from Boston to San Jose are aggressively investing in biking trails, lanes, and rental and parking facilities. NBC's Tom Costello reports.

Short video on NBC here.

 

[George S.]

An interesting tour through NYC. Not much real infrastructure, but he wanted to be on streets, not bike paths.

 

[J.R.]

A Halifax municipal councillor is floating the idea of a bridge toll for cyclists, suggesting it's time for those who pedal to start help paying for all the bicycle infrastructure being added in the city.

David Hendsbee, councillor for Preston-Chezzetcook-Eastern Shore, says the municipality gets no funding from the cycling community for projects such as the plan to improve access to the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge bikeway.

Council voted unanimously Tuesday to move ahead with amended recommendations to upgrade the approach for cyclists on both sides of the bridge.

During the meeting Hendsbee suggested it was time the city start eyeing bold new revenue sources.

"I've talked in the past about bicycle registrations, bicycle licences or a bicycle tax," Hensbee said in an interview. "Should the bridge commission consider implementing a bicycle toll?"

Hendsbee says it costs a lot of money to build bicycle infrastructure and maybe the city should look to cyclists to help pay for the improvements.

Two design options are being considered to improve access to the Macdonald bridge on the Halifax side.

In the first, a bikeway would be extended to Gottingen Street, then a ramp built to connect it to Lorne Terrace. The cost of that would be $2 million. The second option would connect the bikeway to North Street and cost $2.7 million.

For Dartmouth, council is again looking at two proposals. The first would connect the bikeway to downtown Dartmouth. The second option provides a route to the Sportsplex and Dartmouth Common.

Exact cost estimates and a detailed plan is not expected to go to council until next year, with construction due to begin in spring 2017.

As for a bridge toll for cyclists, Hendsbee says it would be easy to do.

"It wouldn't be too hard to put a MACPASS on a bike helmet," he said.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/bride-toll-bicycles-infrastructure-1.3240011


Thoughts anyone?

If 10% of automobile drivers suddenly rode bicycles, would that save the public more than what's spent on cycling infrastructure?

 

[Deleted member 803]

The short answer is yes, those who benefit from infrastructure should help to allay costs. I know cyclists won't like this answer but nothing is free. My concerns are about undue burden and fairness in how fees are administered, collected, and used. The SF Bay Area is a funeral directors paradise. Would I pay monies if I knew that monies paid would go towards improving safetey and infrastructure for cyclists....you betcha ya.

 

[RavingRoo]

I live within the eastern stretches of Amish country in Pennsylvania (rural suburban Philly), and there is no bicycle infrastructure to speak of. You are lucky if you find a main road that has relatively wide shoulders, otherwise it's small rural roads with no shoulder (typically they don't even have the white lines) only wide enough for a car. If you are on your bike on these roads, cars passing must cross over the center line to do so. It's best to stay on residential roads, but most neighborhoods near where I live are disconnected, forcing travel on main roads. The only bright spot is that there is not nearly as much traffic as there is in the suburbs immediately surrounding Philly. However, the bad thing about that is people tend to drive faster because they think they have the road to themselves.

 

[one4torque]

Houston Texas is dangerous in a car, and more dangerous by bike.

I ride at 4:30am on sidewalks, bike paths, and jogging trails when they are no other humans around.

 

[one4torque]

Part II Houston Biking experience: Just got back from a 4PM ride..... 'attempting' to cross I59 cross walk with white crossing bike symbol emblazoned.... F250 pulls right out in front of me... I point to the walk sign,,, and he yells at me "I"M BIGGER THAN YOU!"....... I let him know he's number 1.
..... biking in houston..... is sooo dangerous......

 

[Tara D.]

Wow! People are crazy here in the US trying to run you over! I wish we had a better cycling infrastructure. There is one part of my trip on the way home from the pool if I am taking the most direct rout where the side walk ends and then oops so does the bike lane!

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

A little e-bike ride I did in Geneva using as much dedicated bike infrastructure as possible. I didn't have my chest mount so the video is a little bit shaky. But as long as you don't view full screen it should be OK. After all, it's a bike, and there are vibrations... I tried to stabilize the video but that looked horrible.

I went from the center of town (train station) to Geneva Airport in under 20 minutes (taking a rather long route). It's entirely doable using a bike... In fact, the Airport has its own dedicated bike infrastructure.

I used a Flyer rental e-bike. It was a little noisy, but the handlebar mount definitely exaggerates the noise...

That's neat!
Theoretically, one could live just using an E-bike (no car) in Geneva?

 

[George S.]

Interesting place. Lots of mid-rise housing, like five stories? Everyone tends to get a little lot in the western US. The city seems accessible. I wouldn't want to push the speed in too many spots.

Camera does OK. I like a chest mount, seems to be stable. I have image stabilization on a Sony action cam. That helps. You can get a very intense overview of a city like LA or NYC from a half hour bike ride. YouTube used to let you put just about anything on a video for music. No more.

Anyway, thanks that was interesting.

 

[Ravi Kempaiah]

It depends on where you live and work. I showed the part of town which is more favorable to bikes (north of the train station). If you work in the business center things are a little more tricky. But once you know all the back streets and study the bike maps, you can go almost anywhere without being exposed to too much traffic. I'll try and make a video of how to get around the business section in the coming weeks. It takes a bit more "strategy" but tons of people do it.

I really like how EU cities encourage people to get out of cars and use bikes. I can only imagine how it is in places like Netherlands!
Few weeks ago, I saw this video about the parking station in Delft. Just awesome!!

 

[David1]

Outside Amsterdam going down the freeways a good distance from the road is an asphalt bike path about 10 ft. in width. With their own little thoroughfare , truely incredible! And about every 300 yrds. up on the freeway is a call box for help in emergencys. Real mind blower is seeing the white Trumpeter Swans sitting on their nests alongside the roads and out in the farmers fields.

 

[Hugh]

Where i live in Winnipeg it's mediocre at best. The local municipal govt has started to build bike paths but they usually don't connect to each other. The main road I use to get to work, what they did was paint a picture of a bike on the right side every few hundred yards and proclaim it a bike path. Sorry but I use the 8 foot wide sidewalk and really pay attention to the many roads and parking lots to go in and out of the street. As soon as possible I get off the sidewalk once i get to some quiet neighborhoods I can ride through. Car drivers are always seeming to be running late and in a hurry