Originally Posted by
Hypno Toad
To try to herd cats ... I know how to avoid conflict, and now that I work from a home office, I ride at times and routes that avoid being harassed. But (to repeat) that's not always an option and not the point of this thread.
When I was a bike commuter, the last mile into/out of my office was a nightmare ever.single.time. We will never build a bike lane for the last mile to every single destination.
We need to advocate ways to co-exist on the existing infrastructure. That is the point of this thread, finding ways to work with city staff and PD to create a community where using a bike on the road isn't an invite to have a person driving an SUV to punish pass, honk, yell, and generally intimidate people biking. When people that ride bikes 'hide' from the conflict, the harassers have won.
Couple ideas I will work with:
I will create a group ride with local PD to ride some of the common routes, talk about the conflict we experience will riding, and brainstorm with them about ways they can help educate people driving cars.
I have already and will continue to push for updated signs in our town:
Reference:
https://road.cc/content/news/203414-...full-lane-ones
Two comments... in somewhat reverse order. That "Cyclists may use full lane" sign should be much larger... maybe even flashing... with a horn.
Regarding bike lanes in and around tech complexes/campuses/adjacent shopping areas...
the irony of these vast paved areas is that they have the potential to be well protected and well connected bike paths... When I worked in the Sorrento Valley area of San Diego, it was well known that one could easily walk from one business to another by simply walking at the back of various parking lots, crossing curbs and narrow garden strips. I did this with my MTB bike too. I was well out of the main traffic flow, and had easy access to numerous businesses. I did have to jump curbs.
However, a forward thinking city could annex tiny strips of land and make a complete MUP/bike path at these same locations. This is what the bicycle network in Davis is like... in some areas, and is, at a much higher quality, what Oulo, Finland is like.
Cars enter these vast commercial areas from one side, and park in that area. Cyclists enter from a different side, don't interact with cars, and have their own parking and entrance.
We almost have that in our vastly paved commercial areas now... it just takes tying it all together, and removing the minor obstacles... and a commitment to cycling as transportation and supporting the infrastructure to make it work.
The pavement and space are there... the policy is not.