old poll

[JayVee]

....

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I'd like a more precise definition of "main roads"...

But for me, I have two miles of dirt/glacial till/gravel driveway and about seven miles of rural county road before I get to a state highway. So I'd guess that I have to ride quite a ways before I get to what anyone else would consider a "main road".

 

[rich c]

A main road would be one where cars are buzzing by all the time and you don't feel safe.

That's all of them in my opinion. My biggest worry is distracted driving no matter what the traffic count is!

 

[Nova Haibike]

I have absolutely no way of avoiding any heavily traveled roads from my house, not without riding on the terrible sidewalks/side paths.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

A main road would be one where cars are buzzing by all the time and you don't feel safe.

So by that definition I normally don't drive on "main roads" at all. While sometimes I might encounter heavy and/or scary traffic, usually I encounter fewer than a dozen vehicles over the whole twenty miles of riding. Last fall there was a logging operation for a few weeks so three or four of those dozen vehicles were massively overloaded log trucks and right now there is a lot of firefighting rigs -- but since the air is so bad I'm not currently riding (3 of the last 7 days have had "hazardous" air, and the best I've seen in the last two weeks is "unhealthy" air -- I've got a box of N95 masks by my front door right now).

That's all of them in my opinion. My biggest worry is distracted driving no matter what the traffic count is!

That kind of depends for me. I can tolerate pretty heavy traffic if there is a decent shoulder free of debris and I never need to take the lane. But if the shoulder is poor and there are blind corners it can get pretty damned scary.

 

[Barry S]

I've only got 2 possible routes into work and they both have high traffic volume during commute hours. The shorter one, by nearly 2 miles, lacks a bike lane eastbound to work and there's not enough road shoulder to safely "share the road" so I only use it coming home because it has a westbound bike lane. Go figure. On the longer route into work, I share the road for the first 4 miles and then transition onto a multi-use path (MUP) that parallels the roadway for the next 3 miles and then into a bike lane for the last mile.

The ride is so much more enjoyable with my RadRover and the Supercell fat tires make for a smooth ride. However, I'm more cautious about road debris than I was with my Trek and its 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires. I didn't think twice about rolling over small pieces of glass and riding in the "gutter" when sharing the road. I don't do that anymore.

 

[ebikemom]

Hmmm, it's hard to answer this survey, but here's a breakdown of my commute...

Residential streets: 1 mile
Paved, mixed-use path: .8 mile
Residential streets: 1 miles
City streets: 2.3 miles
Residential streets: 2.3 miles
Paved, mixed-use: 3 miles
City streets: 1 mile
University campus streets and paths: 1 mile
Total: 11 or 12 miles

They are working on a bike path, though, on an old rail corridor that will transform my commute--it should be open in a few years, and then my commute will look something like this:

Residential streets: 1 mile
Paved, mixed-use path: .8 mile
Paved, mixed-use path: 13-14 miles (estimated)
City streets: 1 mile
University campus streets and paths: 1 mile
Total: 16 or 17 miles?

The new commute will be longer, but almost no riding around cars, so I look forward to it!!!

 

[PDoz]

Nah, if I go nth I cross this road after half an hour on the single line tracks. ( they weave in amongst the roadside trees) , but then it'd be a few hundred km of mountain roads before we get to the next town. So I guess I often put the bikes in the ute to ride places?

 

[Cowlitz]

Where am I going?

 

[Figs]

I tell people my town IS a bike path. There are two heavy traffic roads in Granbury. Highway 377 and 144. I never go on 144 because there is no shoulder. I use 377 way to get to other areas of town and some shopping, but it has a shoulder that is literally the size of a car lane. Everything else is residential and farm, both have very little traffic.

It’s not a pretty place to live, but good for bike rides.

 

[larry-new]

All my cycling is road riding, but getting around busy roads is a priority...I had 0.2 miles of four lane road before 38 miles of great country riding, but it took more concentration than the whole rest of the trip.

I've got a perfectly good helmet that I recently shelved in favor of a new white helmet...visibility is everything...front and rear flashing daytime lights, and a bright shirt, usually flourescent yellow.

 

[FSRBart]

While my ride to the path/trail is only a couple miles. I do have to ride on a larger street till I get there. It's a major road through the neighborhoods. It's not usually too bad. But does have one bad area with merging traffic where I have to be careful.... But after I get to the path-head, I've got access to most of Metro-Denver's bike paths....

 

[mrgold35]

Very few bike only paths separate from auto traffic. Most paths run North/South and I need to work commute East/West. I use a lot of side streets, snake through neighborhoods, main streets, and side walks on my way to/from work. Only about 1.25 miles of dedicated bike path on my 13 mile round trip commute. I ride the streets at 5:30am and ride the sidewalks home at 3pm (too much traffic with speeds +50 mph by afternoon).

We usually have to share the dedicated paved paths with walkers, joggers, baby strollers, and pets (and little doggie bombs also). The bike friendly dirt trails near the river have the same usual suspects with some adding horses (much larger horsey bombs to avoid). Share the road bike lanes are about the best way to maintain a decent speed without having to play dodge person or dodge poo. The only bad thing about "share the road" bike lanes is all road debris gets pushed into the bike lanes. All my flats in the last year are from nails, screws, glass, and auto parts from accidents in the bike lanes. I even have Mr. Tuffy liners and Stans tire sealant; but, not much help against 3 inch wood screw in your rear tire.

All new residential road construction on main roads are now including a bike lane. Even some older main roads in neighborhoods near city center are being retrofitted with bike lanes as streets are being widen and/or re-paved. The last two mayors both wanted to make our city more public transport and bike friendly. I haven't seen an increase in bike commuters; but, 5X more weekend riders when the weather is nice in the last few years.

 

[ebikemom]

I've noticed in my area there is some re-striping of roads here and there to make the part for cars narrower, with re-striping of bike lanes to show the lane with sort of a striped buffer zone between cars and bikes. Not sure if this striping will make any difference, but (minor) progress.

 

[indianajo]

Indiana is busy destroying bike compatibility of the streets. The city built an extra bike/parking lane on hwy 62 in 1983 with federal money, but installed a fourth mandatory right turn lane on it last year. I asked the councilman to paint bike through lanes on them, he promised to call the street dept. So after that the city added one. So I add 3 hilly miles to my commute and ride a parallel 30 mph road 9 miles of it with bike lanes.
I used to ride the hwy 62 berm from 4 miles out to 9 miles, on a 30" berm, but they put in a traffic circle two years ago which is a death trap even for cars - the 40 ton trucks won't slow down or yield to traffic entering on the right. No traffic lights.
The seven miles of 55 mph road near my summer camp I have to ride with 12" berm, there was a parallel rail track. When they pulled it up land owners built houses on it. If my electric bike ever works I can replace the 7 mile 55 mph 1' berm stretch with a 12 mile much hillier 30 mph road.

 

[AHicks]

I've noticed in my area there is some re-striping of roads here and there to make the part for cars narrower, with re-striping of bike lanes to show the lane with sort of a striped buffer zone between cars and bikes. Not sure if this striping will make any difference, but (minor) progress.

I've seen a lot of creative "bike path" creation using this method. Especially bad where much of the road has double yellow lines indicating limited sight distance. This has to be the most ignorant thing I've seen done by a road commission. Whoever signed off on the order to have this done on some roads is absolutely clueless regarding biker safety. I doubt seriously they would ride the trail in person. In fact, I question if they even own a bike. Maybe they should ask themselves if they would allow their kids to ride this new path? Actually, I have to wonder if something political is involved? Hey, look at me. I've just created a bike path!

Regarding the topic, I'm not required to commute any more, and generally avoid routes that force me to ride in that situation at all costs. A good friend of mine, in his early 70's (but very active!), was riding in a lane like this, and a pickup truck wandered a little too close for whatever reason, resulting in the truck's mirror clipping the friends bike mirror, sending him for quite a tumble. Nothing too serious, a concussion, 3 broken ribs, and a bunch of really colorful bruises. The bigger thing is he lost 3 months of his life screwing around recovering (he's still pretty sore), and the guy that hit him didn't even get a ticket (oops!).

My point is I don't ride on roads where there is a painted line going down the center, bike lane or not, unless there's a curb or something between me and the traffic.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I've seen a lot of creative "bike path" creation using this method. Especially bad where much of the road has double yellow lines indicating limited sight distance. This has to be the most ignorant thing I've seen done by a road commission. Whoever signed off on the order to have this done on some roads is absolutely clueless regarding biker safety. I doubt seriously they would ride the trail in person. In fact, I question if they even own a bike. Maybe they should ask themselves if they would allow their kids to ride this new path? Actually, I have to wonder if something political is involved? Hey, look at me. I've just created a bike path!

Regarding the topic, I'm not required to commute any more, and generally avoid routes that force me to ride in that situation at all costs. A good friend of mine, in his early 70's (but very active!), was riding in a lane like this, and a pickup truck wandered a little too close for whatever reason, resulting in the truck's mirror clipping the friends bike mirror, sending him for quite a tumble. Nothing too serious, a concussion, 3 broken ribs, and a bunch of really colorful bruises. The bigger thing is he lost 3 months of his life screwing around recovering (he's still pretty sore), and the guy that hit him didn't even get a ticket (oops!).

My point is I don't ride on roads where there is a painted line going down the center, bike lane or not, unless there's a curb or something between me and the traffic.

That kind of depends. I agree, that in an ideal world, grade-separated bike lanes would be the best solution on roads with a speed of 30mph or more. Unfortunately, we don't yet live in that utopia.

Narrowing vehicle lanes is a very efficient way to reduce speeds. And reducing the average speed from 35mph to 30mph can make it nearly twice as likely that a cyclist or pedestrian would survive being hit by a car. I agree that other traffic calming elements like curb extensions, barriers in the middle of streets, and even speed bumps are also necessary.

 

[AHicks]

I agree we don't live in and shouldn't expect a perfect world.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about, a road whose lanes have been narrowed to make a bike path lane on each side of the road and endes up with a ridiculous situation. The road that came to mind while reading the note above from ebikemom. This road is Crystal River Florida, which is working hard to get more bike trails. Fort Island Trail (CR42) leads from a (very touristy) retail district and takes a very scenic twisty windy route west out across some tidal flats to a scenic point looking West out over the Gulf of Mexico (stunning sunsets).

Sounds good right? Well this is where things start going down hill. On the way out, there are 2 very popular boat landings - and as the river they are on leads directly to the Gulf, these landings attract some pretty good sized boats, as well as pontoon boats. Actually they fill up the parking lots to overflowing on a daily basis.

Here's a Google map showing the road in the area of the first boat ramp. You can zoom in further to see the bike lanes pretty clearly, and you can head west from here. Notice the cars fill the entire width of the lanes they are in. Now imagine that car is a dually pickup pulling a tri axle trailer with a barely legal width boat on it (or a pontoon boat, also popular) - and it's approaching you from behind (note this vehicle is wider than the lane it's in!). Oh, and he's texting his buddies to see if they're going to meet him at the ramp....

https://www.google.com/maps/place/C...0b9ea35b30946bb!8m2!3d28.902479!4d-82.5926012

 

[Mr. Coffee]

That looks like a road with a higher speed limit and the "bike lanes" are ridiculously narrow themselves. Both of those things are a bigger problem than the width of the motor vehicle lanes.

 

[AHicks]

Actually, the speed limit is 35mph, and additionally I think there are like 9 curves with speed limits of 25mph. Bottom line, it's an accident waiting to happen from one end to the other. VERY poorly done, and in my experience, typical of older roads that have simply been repainted to add bike lanes.