How's the bike infrastructure where you ride?

[JRA]

Care to at least give us a hint to where you're riding so we know what the hell you're writing about?? Some sarcasm.....

The road leading west from Tillamook and then north along the bay and then back south to Netarts and on to Pacific City is the alternate for the Pacific Coast Route that avoids the 101 traffic for a bit, I live a bit above Oceanside and the logging roads and trails are within the central green space, at least the ones closest to me.

There is a gated road along the east side of that spit that I ride to the tip and then ride the beach back down to Cape Meares with several trails that connect the two to ride on. Not a very populated area.......

 

[Rider777]

View attachment 153280

The road leading west from Tillamook and then north along the bay and then back south to Netarts and on to Pacific City is the alternate for the Pacific Coast Route that avoids the 101 traffic for a bit, I live a bit above Oceanside and the logging roads and trails are within the central green space, at least the ones closest to me.

There is a gated road along the east side of that spit that I ride to the tip and then ride the beach back down to Cape Meares with several trails that connect the two to ride on. Not a very populated area.......

WOW !!!! Now I'm real jealous !
Great...Great crabbing area you live in !!!!
And biking too

 

[steve mercier]

What is a 10 on the scale? In my fantasy world a 10 would be where all the cars and trucks would have speed limiters that only allow the maximum posted speed and were forced to traverse the margins of the roads, while active mobility vehicles have the lions share... sigh... dream on.

 

[Sparky731]

Winter riding in the Phoenix area is great. Yes, we must travel our bikes to most trails, but the local cities and counties have built many beautiful asphalt paths along the many canals and “washes.” They have also adorned the pathways with myriad desert plantings. Our favorites include, Indian Bend Wash, Arizona Canal, and Grand Canal. Tempe, Scottsdale, Queen Creek, Tucson, just to name a few. Easy to ride 20, 40, 60, or 100+ miles on wide, paved paths.

Summer riding in the Madison, WI area is equally great. We ride directly from our house. Nearly 100 miles of paved, scenic paths — some on paved converted railway — in and out of the city. Plus converted railways on crushed limestone extend far out of the city in every direction.

If anyone has heard of Crazy TV Lenny, his thousands of “give-away” bikes initiated bike path demand starting in the 1970’s and ‘80’s. Just a few of our paved beauties include the Capital City Trail, The Capital City Path, the Badger Trail, Lower Yahara River Trail, and Lake Farm County Park Trail. We feel very fortunate. We ride them a lot.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

What is a 10 on the scale? In my fantasy world a 10 would be where all the cars and trucks would have speed limiters that only allow the maximum posted speed and were forced to traverse the margins of the roads, while active mobility vehicles have the lions share... sigh... dream on.

To my mind, a 10 would be existing Amsterdam-level bike infrastructure. Compared to your fantasy, anything current would be a 1/10 at best.

 

[steve mercier]

To my mind, a 10 would be existing Amsterdam-level bike infrastructure. Compared to your fantasy, anything current would be a 1/10 at best.

That is right....we have it all upside down. The car is king when it should be the knave.

 

[mschwett]

What is a 10 on the scale? In my fantasy world a 10 would be where all the cars and trucks would have speed limiters that only allow the maximum posted speed and were forced to traverse the margins of the roads, while active mobility vehicles have the lions share... sigh... dream on.

yeah, a 10/10 would require near-zero risk and universal access to every place with said near-zero risk. amsterdam and a few other flat western european cities probably come close. 0/10 would be no dedicated infrastructure, entirely at the whim of driver behavior and/or legally prohibited from using most of the road network. some american cities probably come close

a lot of people are very generous with their assessment here, which is great that they’re satisfied, but i think we’re seeing a pretty small subset of the population who cycles mostly for pleasure and as such is happy to specifically use the limited infrastructure. a big difference between that and using a bike to go where you NEED to go - work, school, child care or drop off, shopping, at which point you’d quickly realize the facilities are incomplete or poorly designed in virtually every north american city.

 

[mata2maui]

2/10 on the island of Maui. There are no dedicated bike paths on Maui other than a small stretch between Baldwin Beach Park and Kanaha Beach Park, but it puts you out on a busy highway for most of the ride. There is a small section in the Olowalu and Laniapoko areas. In Kihei, Kahului and Lahaina there are bike lanes on the side of some roads, but no physical separation from traffic. Maui is a road bikers paradise but most rides you're on the shoulder without a bike lane. Sadly, many deaths have occurred as a result. The shining exception is the Makawao Forest Preserve area where MTB's share with hikers, but many nice single-track runs can be found there. There are beach side walking paths in front of the hotels in Wailea, Kaanapali, and Kihei, but bikes are discouraged.

 

[steve mercier]

PROBLEM : "Suburban sprawl that was first and foremost designed to keep cars moving rather than people safe. Parkinson's law states that "The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource". SOLUTION : Stop building stuff for cars.

 

[Bicyclista]

Q: On a scale of 0 to 10, how would you rate the bike infrastructure where you usually ride?

Please share the area being rated and give us some idea of the reasons for your rating. If you have a helpful comparison, please share that, too. I'll start....

Coastal San Diego County, California: At least 8/10 overall from San Diego proper to Oceanside.

Wide, well-marked bike lanes on all major and many lesser roads, some with physical barriers; many well-marked shared bike/car lanes where necessary; many MUPs; some totally separated bike paths. Bikes everywhere.

Drivers here are generally used to the bikeways and respect them. Pedestrians and runners are often the biggest threats — especially in touristy areas. Runners seem determined to take over some of the dedicated bike paths — even when they have dedicated pedestrian paths to run on.

Of course, the infrastructure here's not as impressive as Amsterdam's, but top-notch by US standards. In contrast, almost NO bike infrastructure where I am at the moment — Concord, CA, at the NE corner of the San Francisco Bay Area. Decided NOT to a rent a bike here for that very reason. Very few bikes on the streets.

Jeremy, thank you for starting this thread. With all due respect, however, as a resident of San Diego since 1975 I have to disagree with your optimistic assessment of our bicycle infrastructure. I would give it no higher than 5/10. Yes, there are separated bike paths along the San Diego River and around both San Diego Bay and Mission Bay. And there are more and more bike lanes on city streets. But there are large swaths of the city which are hostile to bikes. It is difficult to cross Mission Valley, for example, and you are constantly among car traffic. Similarly, in the Clairemont and Miramar areas, and in the eastern neighborhoods. Most of my friends don't bike because they feel unsafe. Separate bike paths are not totally continuous, forcing bicyclists into vehicular traffic for several blocks. I ride between Encinitas and Hillcrest, and between Hillcrest and the border, and it involves several miles where there is no bicycle infrastructure. We have a long way to go.

 

[AHicks]

PROBLEM : "Suburban sprawl that was first and foremost designed to keep cars moving rather than people safe. Parkinson's law states that "The demand upon a resource tends to expand to match the supply of the resource". SOLUTION : Stop building stuff for cars.

This was tongue in cheek, right? Otherwise, the way I see it anyway, if they totally stopped building stuff for cars tomorrow, that's not going to make it one bit safer for bikes the day after. You would STILL need vast changes made with safer biking in mind... And I'm not talking painted white lines.....

 

[Mr. Coffee]

This was tongue in cheek, right? Otherwise, the way I see it anyway, if they totally stopped building stuff for cars tomorrow, that's not going to make it one bit safer for bikes the day after. You would STILL need vast changes made with safer biking in mind... And I'm not talking painted white lines.....

By the same logic, you shouldn't commit to a healthy lifestyle because it isn't going to make any difference tomorrow. Even long journeys begin with one step.

Ref: necessary versus sufficient conditions.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Jeremy, thank you for starting this thread. With all due respect, however, as a resident of San Diego since 1975 I have to disagree with your optimistic assessment of our bicycle infrastructure. I would give it no higher than 5/10. Yes, there are separated bike paths along the San Diego River and around both San Diego Bay and Mission Bay. And there are more and more bike lanes on city streets. But there are large swaths of the city which are hostile to bikes. It is difficult to cross Mission Valley, for example, and you are constantly among car traffic. Similarly, in the Clairemont and Miramar areas, and in the eastern neighborhoods. Most of my friends don't bike because they feel unsafe. Separate bike paths are not totally continuous, forcing bicyclists into vehicular traffic for several blocks. I ride between Encinitas and Hillcrest, and between Hillcrest and the border, and it involves several miles where there is no bicycle infrastructure. We have a long way to go.

Thanks for that correction. Sounds like I should have narrowed the scope of my 8/10 to coastal North County (Del Mar to Oceanside). I have little experience riding farther south, which is the area you're describing.

Granted, most of the bikeways up here are just paint, but they're well marked and comfortably wide in most cases, and I can usually find a reasonably direct route that feels reasonably safe.

 

[Marcela]

This place runs out of gas there is gonna be a lot of bike lanes

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I guess it's all relative. Just this morning, @ChezCheese:) posted Bicyclist collides with a bear!

Love the final quote from the recovering victim:

The reason I rode in the … forest is just to get away from the traffic, right?” he said. “But after hitting the bear, I mean, it’s probably safer just riding with cars.

 

[Tbill]

I am in a city called Windsor, Ontario. It's on the Canadian side of the border across the river from Detroit.
I'm surprised at the walking/cycling paths that have been built. Nice asphalt.
I won't say the bike lanes on city streets are great but if you want to go for a nice scenic bike ride, it's actually surprisingly good.

 

[AHicks]

By the same logic, you shouldn't commit to a healthy lifestyle because it isn't going to make any difference tomorrow. Even long journeys begin with one step.

Ref: necessary versus sufficient conditions.

Sorry, I disagree. With no huge changes in the way cars are used today (all we are doing, for the purposes of this argument, is agreeing to no further development, right?), with the infrastructure in use the way we know it, bike transportation WILL continue to be a dangerous, if not impossible, for most of us here in the states....

You're talking rethinking, then rebuilding most existing automotive infrastructure. Not very likely going to happen to make riding a bike safer/easier to use as primary transportation.

I am NOT saying I wouldn't welcome a new bike path....

 

[mata2maui]

This place runs out of gas there is gonna be a lot of bike lanes

And folks that would shoot you for an energy bar cuz right now no gas = no groceries (or anything else dependent on interstate trucking).

 

[mata2maui]

bike transportation WILL continue to be a dangerous

Perhaps one of the reasons eMTB sales lead other types in the USA?

 

[Ben J]

Seattle just instituted a policy that every time SDOT has a project that changes signals or virtually anything else in an intersection then it will default to 'no turn on red' unless they can document a specific need for turns on red.

This might explain why Bellevue has changed the light timings in several intersections to let pedestrians go first. It's actually a big hazard to pedestrians, because right-turn-on-red cars are looking at traffic, they see the lull just before the light changes, and try to go. But the pedestrians already entered the crosswalk a few seconds earlier so the cars roll a few feet and (hopefully) slam on the brakes when they see the people. The timing would make way more sense in conjunction with "no turn on red".