I’m just going to take a moment to bitch even though no one asked.
Here in the US, can we stop just painting bike symbols on the shoulder of 55mph roads and call them “bike lanes”? No, what you’re doing is making a suicide lane. Bike paths need to have bollards protecting them so you don’t get casually manslaughtered by some idiot glancing down at their phone. As it stands, I refuse to use these criminally dangerous excuses for “bike paths”. I know the internet hates when I say this, but I absolutely choose to bike on the sidewalk instead and just go in the grass for a minute if I encounter the rare pedestrian on the same sidewalk. I’m not going to risk my life in such a dumb way. We need to improve these.
I fear for my cycle loving wife everytime she rides. She only has a short portion riding on a 40mph road but that is obviously still extremely dangerous. Our infrastructure is quite lacking.
The bike lane has to be proper and safe, or it’s worse than nothing. It’s just a thing that officials can point to and say they did the thing, when in fact they did not do the thing.
Sometimes the hive mind likes to downvote and ridicule me over it because “tHe sIDeWalK iS OnLY fOr pEDeStRiaNS”. Like no shit I get that. But I’m sorry but I’m not risking my life over something so needlessly dangerous.
The problem I have with bikes on sidewalks is not when I’m walking, I have yet to encounter any who tried to run me over, even motorized. It’s when driving, if the bike doesn’t stop at every intersection to check for cars turning, and moves faster than a pedestrian it’s just so dangerous. In the road at least the cars know you are there, you are the far right lane.
But the bike lanes here (most of them) are really awful too. I feel like they need train gates, those arms that come down, at intersections to prevent cars from turning while the bike has right of way crossing the intersection.
We have interurban trails here that connect suburbs to downtown and with the proliferation of e-bikes, there are so many people traveling that way now. I’m a little too far away to be connected to it but my hope is that the approach expands.
A mix of bike paths and bus routes
I’m just going to take a moment to bitch even though no one asked.
Here in the US, can we stop just painting bike symbols on the shoulder of 55mph roads and call them “bike lanes”? No, what you’re doing is making a suicide lane. Bike paths need to have bollards protecting them so you don’t get casually manslaughtered by some idiot glancing down at their phone. As it stands, I refuse to use these criminally dangerous excuses for “bike paths”. I know the internet hates when I say this, but I absolutely choose to bike on the sidewalk instead and just go in the grass for a minute if I encounter the rare pedestrian on the same sidewalk. I’m not going to risk my life in such a dumb way. We need to improve these.
I’m the same. I bike where I feel safe, and that’s as far away from cars as possible.
I fear for my cycle loving wife everytime she rides. She only has a short portion riding on a 40mph road but that is obviously still extremely dangerous. Our infrastructure is quite lacking.
The bike lane has to be proper and safe, or it’s worse than nothing. It’s just a thing that officials can point to and say they did the thing, when in fact they did not do the thing.
Thanks man, I agree.
Sometimes the hive mind likes to downvote and ridicule me over it because “tHe sIDeWalK iS OnLY fOr pEDeStRiaNS”. Like no shit I get that. But I’m sorry but I’m not risking my life over something so needlessly dangerous.
The problem I have with bikes on sidewalks is not when I’m walking, I have yet to encounter any who tried to run me over, even motorized. It’s when driving, if the bike doesn’t stop at every intersection to check for cars turning, and moves faster than a pedestrian it’s just so dangerous. In the road at least the cars know you are there, you are the far right lane.
But the bike lanes here (most of them) are really awful too. I feel like they need train gates, those arms that come down, at intersections to prevent cars from turning while the bike has right of way crossing the intersection.
We have interurban trails here that connect suburbs to downtown and with the proliferation of e-bikes, there are so many people traveling that way now. I’m a little too far away to be connected to it but my hope is that the approach expands.
That sounds awesome. I hope that approach spreads too