Cycle Paths or Not?

tenspeed

Mark wrote:

>My opinion is that I would have no objection to a well designed cycle
>path. One that was designed by someone who has actually ever ridden
>one. However 99% of the cycle paths I have seen have serious flaws,
>which make then _more_ dangerous and inconvenient than roads.
<SNIP>
>Another worrying trend is that, the more cycle "facilities" there are,
>the more motorists are calling for cyclists to be banned from the
>road. One petrolhead actually wrote a letter to the local paper
>asking why cyclists are not being fined for using the road!


There's an interesting debate going on in Sydney at the moment.
Council are about to put a two-way "bicycle road" through some narrow
parts of the inner city after running focus group sessions with
noncyclists - who were shown photos of cycleways and thought they
looked safer than the existing shoulder lanes. The new bike road will
run between the old kerb and the parking lane with a new 400mm wide
kerb to separate them

Would welcome UK input:

http://groups.google.com/group/aus....2c4a5d6b36e9b05

All is made the more complicated by a recent pile-up on an arterial
road which has produced a lot of anti-bike "letters to the editor":

http://bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6071

It's my impression that there's still a lot of confusion here in
noncyclists' (and planners') minds between "what looks safe" and "what
the stats show to be safe".

Mark

On Tue, 13 May 2008 21:12:37 -0700 (PDT), tenspeed
<tenspeed@iinet.net.au> wrote:

>Mark wrote:
>
>>My opinion is that I would have no objection to a well designed cycle
>>path. One that was designed by someone who has actually ever ridden
>>one. However 99% of the cycle paths I have seen have serious flaws,
>>which make then _more_ dangerous and inconvenient than roads.
><SNIP>
>>Another worrying trend is that, the more cycle "facilities" there are,
>>the more motorists are calling for cyclists to be banned from the
>>road. One petrolhead actually wrote a letter to the local paper
>>asking why cyclists are not being fined for using the road!
>
>
>There's an interesting debate going on in Sydney at the moment.
>Council are about to put a two-way "bicycle road" through some narrow
>parts of the inner city after running focus group sessions with
>noncyclists - who were shown photos of cycleways and thought they
>looked safer than the existing shoulder lanes. The new bike road will
>run between the old kerb and the parking lane with a new 400mm wide
>kerb to separate them
>
>Would welcome UK input:
>
>http://groups.google.com/group/aus....2c4a5d6b36e9b05
>
>All is made the more complicated by a recent pile-up on an arterial
>road which has produced a lot of anti-bike "letters to the editor":
>
>http://bicycles.net.au/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6071
>
>It's my impression that there's still a lot of confusion here in
>noncyclists' (and planners') minds between "what looks safe" and "what
>the stats show to be safe".

Looks like the Aussies have their share of ignorant & misguided
"do-gooders" too.

--
(\__/) M.
(='.'=) Owing to the amount of spam posted via googlegroups and
(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking most articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
See http://improve-usenet.org

Sue White

"Just zis Guy, you know?" <uce@ftc.gov> whizzed past me shouting
>On Sat, 10 May 2008 23:21:06 +0100, "Adam Lea" <asrl07@yahoo.co.uk>
>said in <tsudnXvWyvVVgrvVnZ2dnUVZ8taknZ2d@bt.com>:
>
>>Presumably we would have to be bound by that law as cyclists too, i.e. bike
>>hits ped, cyclist presumed responsible.
>
>I don't have an issue with that, either, as long as there is a
>get-out clause for little twunts who jump out in front of you just
>to give you a scare, as occasionally happens.
>

Be fair - I was riding across the open area between the Civic and the
street market this evening when without warning the one pedestrian
whipped round ninety degrees and strode smack into my path -
I missed her, but if I'd been looking anywhere else I might not have.
I don't for a moment think she did it on purpose; I think she suddenly
remembered something!

--
Sue ]

Why aren't we demanding regular retests for motor drivers?
It's obvious a lot of them would fail so that'd solve the congestion problem too.