Advocates from Transporation Alternatives, The Project for Public Spaces, and The Open Planning Project join “Gridlock Sam” Schwartz and Enrique Penalosa to call for New York City to consider experimenting with some physically separated bike lanes in the near future.
It’s a good short video, with some nice examples of different bike lane construction around the world. It’s interesting that London is used as an example while there are some serious cycling advocates over there trying to abolish bike lanes (with the idea that chaos leads to safer roads, in a nutshell).
I don’t think all bike lanes are wonderful or necessary, but having some physical separation on major routes would be a Good Thing. Interaction with traffic is (i think) the main deterrent to increasing the number of bike commuters. I can see the potential counter-argument that pedestrians won’t want to cross bike traffic to & from their cars, but i’d be interested to see how much of a problem it is in practice.
While watching the video, i couldn’t help but think that many of complaints about drivers would be solved by stronger enforcement of existing traffic law. Parking and turning on a bike lane should be disallowed, if it isn’t already, and enforced as such. Loading zones could be marked as allowed, otherwise cars ought to stay out.
Likewise, i can’t help but wonder how many fewer people would use a cell phone while driving if police more strictly enforced proper turn signal use?
Our German exchange student made an interesting observation early on in his stay, that most of the cars driven here have automatic transmission, and he wondered why. In Germany, it’s apparently only the old and infirm that need help shifting. In Germany, not many people cycle for transportation (unlike their Dutch neighbors to the north), but at least they shift.
Look at the trends in US car design over the last 20 years – virtually every car sold here now has automatic transmission, motorized windows, power everything. Most people just want to go places in total comfort, while engaging in the mechanics of getting there as little as possible. Watch how people will make multiple laps around a parking lot just to save themselves an extra 30 feet of walking… and that’s on a nice day.
Bicycle commuting flies in the face of what most Americans seem to want from their basic transportation. After all, cyclists are *gasp* outside, and they have to *yikes* pay attention to what they’re doing! It seems like it’ll take some serious carrots and sticks for the average American to embrace bicycling as transport (though we already know better, right?).
What got me thinking about this in a way was driving again last week while the streets were icy, thinking i need to get some studded tires, and hoping it would clear quickly so i could ride again. And it did, and i was out on Christmas eve doing a couple of errands by bike. This bike, in fact:
The Lotus winter bomber is done now. Actually, since this photo, i’ve added a rear rack and the panniers, but i haven’t taken a picture since then. It rides nice, i like the el cheapo 1.5 tires except they really really really really don’t want to seat in the bead on my rims. The rear still has a little dip, but i’m done fighting them for now. It’s a little under-geared at 39/17, but i think i can deal for a while. The position is good, and the handling is ok, though i’m still getting used to the prodigious the wheel flop in tight turns.
Today is a nice day too, but i took the Redwood out for one last ride of the year. It has fenders, but i don’t want it to get the salt bath – that’s what the Lotus is for.
Summary: a very sad story of a cyclist killed by a distracted teenage driver. The cyclist was on the edge of the road, yet was hit with the *driver’s* side of the car while the driver downloaded cell phone ringtones. This was the driver’s third offense for poor driving habits. Both the judge and victim’s family expressed regret that the law didn’t provide for more serious sentencing.
One idea posted in the subsequent comments suggested that the sentence include riding a bicycle for a period of time. While I strongly disagree with the idea that cycling should ever be made into a punishment, there is some serious merit with the idea of requiring an offender to cycle a mile in the victim’s shoes.
Cyclists are in a good position to get an objective view of the full range of driving habits, moreso than even pedestrians because cyclists are not just crossing traffic, they’re part of the main flow. It doesn’t take very many days of cycling in the city to start thinking that a great many of common poor driving habits would be eliminated if everyone would just spend a week cycling (or walking even) everywhere they needed to go. I’d even allow for bike/bus or bike/train usage, as long as the bike was the primary vehicle.
It’s not just the enhanced perspective, it’s the overall relaxation and slower life pace that would make this a valuable exercise. When people only drive a car, and do it every day, they get desensitized to their environment and their speed. With car windows up and stereo on there’s little input from their surroundings, so other cars and pedestrians become obstacles to the driver’s errands.
Since riding my bike the vast majority of my work and household commutes for the past 3 years, i’ve found that when I do drive around town i drive like the proverbial old man, and i’m glad for it. It’s not just getting older or having kids, i really think it’s that 1) i’m not as comfortable driving fast, and 2) i’m much more aware that i’m driving with a stream of people, not a stream of faceless cars.
I actually look at the people driving near me more now, especially at intersections. It’s interesting to see not just what people are doing in addition to driving, but to see their expressions, their mood. It also seems to freak a lot of people out, like i’m invading their home or something. People don’t like to think their in public when they’re driving their car, but here’s the thing: they are.
A current article on the The New Yorker website talks about the extremes of bicycling advocates (pro/con) in NYC. To me, the crux of the article is that there are more bicyclists on the streets there, and less space for them to ride. The perspective of the 90-year-old woman is telling, as she watched the automobile take over the streets to the exclusion of cyclists and pedestrians both.
Sidewalks are really not great places to ride a bike, and i doubt that most cyclists would choose to ride on a sidewalk if they had safe space to ride in the street. I’ve heard the arguments against bike lanes, but that’s really an argument for experienced cyclists who can handle cycling in traffic. It’s the casual cyclists who tend to use sidewalks because they don’t feel safe on the street, or they feel like they’d have to ride faster than they want to on the street. If there’s safe space to cycle at a reasonable personal pace on the street, it’s a safer bet for cars and pedestrians too. Cycling for the streets, walking for the sidewalk.
An interesting take on bike/car relations. A yellow magnetic card with this text on it:
“This magnet was tossed onto your car by a cyclist who felt that you might have been driving in a way that could have endangered their life.
They chose to toss this magnetic note because it can neither damage your automobile, nor affix itself to rubber or glass and will therefore not affect your driving. It serves to warn you.
With thoughtful contemplation and reverence for humanity, we can adjust our behavior to allow for all people to live life.
This is a yellow card, let’s please not let things get to Red.”
How would the driver feel? What are the odds they would spend any time thinking about it?
It was apparently my turn yesterday for a bike crash. Here is a shot of the bike:
No pictures of my face, which stopped most of my own momentum. It’s really not that bad, and the beard masks the swelling pretty well.
Almost home from work, I turned on to Hamline heading north, clear street behind me, 2-3 people waiting at the stoplight in front of me. I saw the light turn green, looked behind to see if i could change lanes (since the right lane is a right turn only in the next block), looked back ahead, and WHAM! I think the car at the back of the line had sat for a few seconds before moving for the light, so i ended up a lot closer to it than i’d planned. And going somewhere between 10-15 when i hit. Repeat after me: don’t assume anything in traffic.
As is obvious in the photo, my front wheel wedged under the bumper, and stopped immediately. I had around 30lbs of farm produce in the panniers, so that helped with the inertia somewhat to push the rest of the bike forward a few inches. I think my face hit the corner of the trunk, then i landed on my hip. I got a small cut between my chin and lower lip, but the real action is inside, where i got a good cut on my gums and a beautiful bruise along the inside of my lip. No broken or loose teeth, thank goodness. I was spitting blood for the remaining 4 block walk home.
Two motorists asked if i needed help, bless them. The first one probably saw the crash from behind, and i’m sure it looked impressive. I didn’t know how I looked at the time, but i didn’t feel that bad. The bloody mouth probably didn’t look so hot though. I declined the ride because i figured it would be more trouble wrangling the loaded bike into a car than i would to just walk the rest of the way.
A few aches today, nothing too bad. I’m supposed to race tomorrow, we’ll see about that in the morning. Did i jinx myself by posting about bike safety yesterday?
An interesting report and analysis of bicycling deaths in the Seattle area. I point to it also because it supports some of my own feelings on bike safety; ride predictably, wear a helmet and be visible.
There’s a gas station that i go by every day, at least twice a day, biking or driving, and i generally make a mental note of the price of gas when i think of it. For years, this station was independent, family-owned, until about 2 years ago when the old man wanted to retire. The kids didn’t want to run the station, so they ended up selling the whole thing to Holiday, who remodeled, and now it’s a Holiday station store.
One thing i noticed right away after it reopened is that under Holiday ownership, the gas prices were suddenly a LOT more volatile. There’s a huge computerized sign, so they can and apparently do change the price whenever they feel like it. I’ve seen price swings of 25¢ ore more from one day to the next. Under the previous owners, the price changes were maybe weekly, often even less often. It now seems like people are either getting screwed or played. There’s no rational supply and demand explanation for this, because it’s a huge operation, their costs don’t go up significantly because of one tanker truck of more expensive gas.
On Monday this week, the morning gas price was $2.11 per gallon. Around lunch time, it was $2.29. By evening, it was down to $2.13. WTF? This isn’t even near the summer peak of $3/gallon. Is buying gas going to be like playing the stock market? Soon people will be lining up at the pump, just waiting for the price to drop by a penny or two before swiping their card to lock in and fill up.
Since attending the St. Paul Bike Summit last month, i’ve been on the lookout while riding for new bike paths around town. Well, i didn’t need to look too far. Right on my street, Thomas Ave, the city has torn up the corner curbs at one intersection and is replacing them with curbs that jut out into the street, essentially making a bookend to the onstreet parking there. There’s probably a better name for these, i just can’t think of it.
This sort of corner curb treatment was a topic at the Summit, as some cyclists felt like the curbs pushed them out into traffic at the corner, in cases where there weren’t many cars parked there. Here though, there are almost always cars parked on this stretch of street, so you would have to do a lot of weaving to stay next to the curb anyway. I understand the complaint, but in reality, when i ride i never really try to be as far to the right as possible precisely because i hate weaving in and out of the parking lane. I’ll pick a line about even with the left side of the parked cars and ride there, whether there are parked cars or not. It’s a lot more predictable, and hence a lot safer.
The second project i noted was some new bike lane striping along a short stretch of Highland Parkway, apparently between Hamline and Snelling. I haven’t yet looked to see if it extends further west, but if it does, that’s fantastic news for everyone who wants to ride from one end of Highland to the other. Wheee! Unfortunately, no new stripes yet for those of us non-Highland types traveling north-south.
