Spinopsys

That’s a good find. I’m sure I’ve seen something like this before (or maybe I’ve just seen Enrique Peñalosa in another video?) Anyway, it’s a discussion well worth having.

I have mixed views on separated bike lanes. We’re getting them in Melbourne, so I’m concerned that they’re going to be done right. More broadly I’m concerned that all cyclists should be obliged to use them, or (more particularly) be prohibited from riding where there are no “special” bike lanes.

I agree that bicycles are (and should be considered by everyone) just an ordinary part of the traffic, and we need to protect that position. But if implemented carefully separated lanes could be helpful, without unduly eroding our legitimate place on the road.

As to the problem of separated lanes and training cyclists, it’s possible that there is no real cause for concern there because it seems to me that it’s unlikely that such lanes would be suitable to install on the sort of roads where road racers train. That doesn’t solve the problem of motorists who want to constrain cyclists ghetto-style to bike lanes, but at least it wouldn’t give idiots the chance to tell a group of high-speed riders to “get in the bike lane”.

But to return to the video, the key message seems to be that if a city is going to do separated lanes it’s got to be part of an integrated traffic design system, not just a hotch-potch afterthought.

One of the ideas I *really* like is the idea of parking cars to the left of the bike lane (or to the right in Australia and other left-driving locales).

The doco failed to make its case for me. One very brief mention was given to he problem of intersections. Research from around the world has shown that the risks of collision increases between 2 and 12 times when there’s a segregated bike lane present, not good odds!

There’s a segregated on the road home. Last Friday I was having a really bad day on the bike, it was my first full commute since breaking my leg and I was dying, normal speed’s around about 30 and I was struggling to do 20, so I went for the segregated path. That’s the worst thing I could have done. Intersections were essentially blind and I had to cede priority four times for each intersection (filter lanes, etc.) How is that safer for me? I got back on the road toute suite.

Wikipedia’s got a good bit on the subject http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segregated_cycle_facility and there’s a lot of information from John Franklin’s site here http://www.cyclecraft.co.uk/digest/research.html

In closing I’ll say that people frequently point to the Netherlands and their bike paths and think that bike paths are a magic bullet. They’re not, what people fail to understand is that there’s a heck of a lot more emphasis on ceding priority to cyclists in the Netherlands. Hit a cyclist and the onus is on the the driver to prove he wasn’t at fault. The result is an environment where those that bring the most danger to the roads are much more aware of their actions.

[…] This is a good video The case for separated bicycle lanes and I agree with most of it. I don’t want to lose the freedom to be able to choose to use the road to cycle on, however, much better bike lanes are great for increasing cycle use. […]

Here in the UK there’s currently a lot of concern over rewording of the Highway Code to suggest that cyclists should use bike lanes where provided. This could lead to cyclists being held responsible for accidents if they don’t use the lanes even though, as you know, lanes are often less safe and hugely inconvenient.

I agree with Euans summary , especially differentiating the ceding priority to bicylist and onus on the driver. The other primary differential for Australian cities is that the medieval cities of Europe shere segregated facillities are highly developed have extremely narrow streets which are unfriendly to cars. Sure Sydney’s road design is based on 18th century London, but the streets aren’t that tiny as to offer a good opportunity to fully exclude cars in the cities development, they even removed the trams to give cars more room.( and I do remember them). VicRoads have a preferred policy for segregation here in Melbourne. They do not seem to want to understand the statistics of increased injuries and incidents segregation cause, but they will, we’ll make sure of that. Sydney isn’t friendly to bicyclists, you have to address that and perhaps ( I’m not convinced though) some more on road paths will help move the city forward to being more bicycle friendly. In time the wounds will fester again, so be prepared to go through it all again.