Desperately Need References Regarding Bike Lanes

[email hidden] (Cassia) wrote in news:ff35d011.0504272212.3298b77
@posting.google.com:

Quoted message said:

I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and
ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references,
followed by Ontario.

I think bike lanes have their place, especially in urban areas with substandard
lane widths.

John Forester's books have good info on bicycle transit, from both the
cyclist's and planner's perspectives:
1. Bicycle Transportation: A Handbook for Cycling Transportation Engineers
2. Effective Cycling

http://www.bikelane.com/
http://www.transportation.org/aashto/home.nsf/FrontPage
http://safety.transportation.org/plan.aspx searched for bicycle lanes

(Cassia) said:

I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and
ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references,
followed by Ontario.

Talk to Avery Burdett, also see:

http://www.lesberries.co.uk/cycling/infra/infra.html
http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/ has some good info (see
http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/info/vbriese_abstract.html and
http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/info/bhorn_abstract.html, for example)

This is an intersting commentary:
http://www.answers.com/topic/segregated-cycle-facilities

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

email hidden said:

http://www.bikelane.com/
http://www.transportation.org/aashto/home.nsf/FrontPage
http://safety.transportation.org/plan.aspx searched for bicycle lanes

I think that, as so often, the problem comes from one or more groups
of people applying a single definition of "what is cycling". A lot of
local authorities see cyclists as a kind of wheeled pedestrian,
slow-moving and at risk from traffic. They are swayed by people who
give as a reason for not cycling the fact that they are too nervous to
ride on the roads - of course we all know that once that is dealt with
it will, for many at least, be something else which stops them
cycling. The weather, maybe.

The best way to deal with fear of traffic is through effective
training. If they spent as much on training programmes as they do on
bike lanes they would probably achieve far better results in terms of
increased cycling and improved safety.

Guy
--
May contain traces of irony. Contents liable to settle after posting.
http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk

88% of helmet statistics are made up, 65% of them at CHS, Puget Sound

(Cassia) said:

My city has spent several years developing a bicycle master plan that
is about to be passed.
We are at the stage of community input.

They are **entirely focused on bike lanes**.
That is - 1.5 metre painted lines on the road (1.6metre at parked
cars).
It goes on for 45 pages, but that is the essense.

I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and
ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references,
followed by Ontario.

Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride
bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material
is- the better.

Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google
lately and miss many posts.

Here's the plan for Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix). The bike
lanes here are very, very useable. On the roads with parking, the
lanes are wide enough to acommodate cars and still keep bikes out of
the door zone (in most cases - some people who drive land barges
apparently can't park within 3' / 1m of the curb).

http://www.mcdot.maricopa.gov/bicycle/BikePlan/bikeplan.PDF

It's by far the most comprehensive plan I've seen, and it works.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $695 ti frame

Cassia said:

I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and
ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references, followed
by Ontario.

Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride
bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material is-
the better.

Start here: http://www.bikexprt.com/index.htm
Not only is there a tremendous amount on the site itself, but also links
to many other other studies.

Quoted message said:

Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google
lately and miss many posts.

OK, done both.

Mike

Cassia said:

My city has spent several years developing a bicycle master plan that
is about to be passed.
We are at the stage of community input.

They are **entirely focused on bike lanes**.
That is - 1.5 metre painted lines on the road (1.6metre at parked
cars).
It goes on for 45 pages, but that is the essense.

I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous and
ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references,
followed by Ontario.

Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't ride
bikes, the more referenced and official the stats and related material
is- the better.

Private emails would be most helpful, as I have to read this on google
lately and miss many posts.

Some of the most illustrative stuff I've seen yet is here:

http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/index.html

Wayne Pein posts on these forums occasionally. If you want further help you
could email him directly.

Matt O.

Cassia wrote in part:

Quoted message said:

... I would love to get some references on why that is so dangerous

and

Quoted message said:

ineffective. Especially appreciated would be Canadian references,
followed by Ontario.

Since I need to "prove" this to bull headed bureaucrats who don't

ride

Quoted message said:

bikes,...<snip>

I'm no fan of bike lanes myself but, Good Luck.

"All the evidence available suggests that striping bike lanes on the
roadway
has a positive impact on the actual and perceived safety of
bicyclists...
A recent study comparing roads with striped bike lanes and with "wide
outside lanes" confirmed that in addition to creating more orderly
traffic flow,
the striped lanes encouraged safer behavior by cyclists..."

http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/insight/faqs/bicycle_facilities.htm

Bike lanes seem to be effective traffic calming devices for young,
brain-
challenged, or plain bad drivers/cyclists. Personally I completely
ignore
the lane stripes when positioning myself in the street, like most
experienced riders.
That doesn't mean I don't often find myself riding in a bike lane, and
it certainly
doesn't mean I can't appreciate that the presence of the lane stripe
might make me
safer or just more hassle-free with respect to some passing vehicles.

Moritz' survey revealed a small advantage for bike-laned roads over
plain
ol' wide curb lanes, and, not surprisingly, a huge difference between
those roads
and narrow-curb-lane roads. Wide curb lanes are still the cyclist's
best friend,
bike lane or no. Even though Moritz' survey could really be seen to
support the
concept of wide curb lanes, rather than lane stripes, and even though
it is
replete with problems like all other bicycle accident stat
clustermunches,
the survey has been disappeared down the memory hole by bike
lane-haters.
They simply pretend it doesn't exist. This artful ignorance of
available
evidence is exactly what Forester (the original bike lane-hater)
accused the
World of 30 years ago--a conspiracy of sorts to willfully ignore an
accident
survey while making safety claims about bicycle facilities.

Basically, anyone who starts reciting accident stats as if they really
mean
something should have insults and vegetables hurled in their general
direction.
Your town aldermen, ombudsmen, and comptrollers, if they're smart,
might
do something like that to you. Anyone who thinks they have to ignore an
accident
survey to make a point is giving the survey too much credit; anyone who
needs
an accident survey to make a point is giving the point too much credit.

Bike lanes come with some advantages (facilitating road-sharing by
vehicles with
vast differences in speed, encouraging more beginners to ride the
streets) and some
problems (mainly keeping inexperienced riders too close to the side of
the road in
situations that demand they be farther out in the lane). It's not the
end of the world
if your town decides it likes bike lanes. I suggest gently introducing
the
concept of sharrows instead of bike lanes. Sharrows, well applied, may
just give
us the advantages of bike lanes without the problems.

But then, the bike lane diatribes would cease, ushering in an era of
great upheaval
in newgroups across the land.

Robert

r

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005 05:53:23 -0700 in rec.bicycles.misc, Mark

Hickey said:

Here's the plan for Maricopa County, Arizona (Phoenix). The bike
lanes here are very, very useable. On the roads with parking, the
lanes are wide enough to acommodate cars and still keep bikes out of
the door zone (in most cases - some people who drive land barges
apparently can't park within 3' / 1m of the curb).

yes, but...

the streets in the phoenix metroplex were laid out with 60 foot
rights of way IIRC. that really impressed me when i landed at
ASU, such wide streets. older cities with narrower streets can't
make streets wider (or wide) without spending a lot of bux buying
out property owners with buildings right up to the edge of the
narrow street.

there are definitely some urban streets that should never be
striped.