A letter to the Baltimore Banner’s editor illustrated, for me, a problem in the planning and public perception of bicycle infrastructure.
I am not familiar with Baltimore. From reading Dr. Mark Braun’s letter, however, I get the impression that the city’s bike lanes are as sporadic and episodic as they are in other American locales.
Dr. Braun, who describes himself as a new resident and avid cyclist, says that he cannot understand why residents object to one proposed bike lane, but completely understands why they object to another.
 |
| Photo by Daniel Zawodny |
About the latter, he says two roads that would connect parts of other bike trails are “overbuilt” and would be “incredibly unsafe for children or inexperienced riders. He says the former is a much better choice, as it is a four-lane road where traffic is light but fast, which encourages drivers to speed. A bike lane along that road, he argues, would result in “decreased vehicle speeds” and provide “direct access” to two parks.
In other words, he is saying that on the road where a proposed lane has raised objections he can’t understand, the lane would actually make the road safer for traffic as well as cyclists. And, he understands the objections to the other proposed route for essentially the same reason.
Such considerations never seem to factor into decisions about where and how to build bike lanes in American cities. That, I believe is one factor that causes planners to create bad bike lanes and for non-cyclists to object to good lanes for the wrong reasons.
I did some checking to get a little more info.
ReplyDeleteMy first problem was not being able to get to
the story telling why some people didn't want
a bike "lane". However, the picture does not
show a bike lane. It is a red bus lane with a
sharrow.
I would like to note that roads with on-street
parking lanes would be better for cyclists with-
out bike lanes. It is dangerous to get in or out
of a car into traffic. That is why a city just can't
put a parking lane anywhere. A road must have
BOTH lower traffic volume AND lower traffic
speed. (So far I have not found a road with a
marked on-street parking lane with a speed
limit above 30 mph.)
I would also like to point out that in urban
areas "dooring" account for 20 to 25 per
cent of bike motor vehicle crashes. The center
of a bicycle should be at least 63 inches from
park cars. This would also make the cyclist
less likely to be a surprise to drivers pulling
out of driveways. (The driver's line of sight
would not be blocked by parked cars)
I have found that too many time a "bike
friendly" project is NOT cyclist friendly.