randya

Video from Mayor Sam Adam's Office, PDX Oregon, center of the USA cycling universe

On the Right Track

also at:
https://www.sfbike.org/main/video-saf...-cycle-tracks/

I like Catherine!

Bekologist

buffered bikelanes =bikelanes 2.0

yep, looks good. how are they riding btw, Randya? I should come down with the bike for a couple of days.

Digital_Cowboy

What about the perpetual blind spot created by the line of parked cars? How many drivers are going to see a bike on the cycle-track due to the parked cars? And how many are going to know what the green box is for?

Also will cyclists be required by law to use the cycle-track or if their skill and comfort level is up to riding with traffic are they still free to do so?

From the comments section I like the idea of reducing the overall speed of all motor vehicles and more fully integrating bicycles into the flow of traffic where they belong.

I liked the buffered area between the bike lane and traffic better then the cycle-track idea.

B. Carfree

I'm with you, Cowboy. Those bike tracks are losers. There is no way a car-critter can see a cyclist when they make a right turn. I'm just imagining what happens when a cyclist is traveling at 25 mph and a slower moving car decides to turn across that blind zone; been there done that but I'm getting too old to land those flips with a one and a half twist anymore. I also hate the left-turn scenario. If you survive to the turn box. you are marked out as second-class, get to come to a complete stop for no good reason and then get to be passed by a bevy of fume-spewing cars accelerating from the intersection. This is a major fail.

Their animation conveniently shows all of the parked cars fitting well into the spaces and the cars being driven staying outside of the buffer zone in the buffered bike lanes. Here in Eugene, anywhere there is a bike lane in a curve, the line is worn away by the car tires. Also, approximately 50% of the motor vehicles here are SUV's and pick-ups that do not fit into the spaces lined out on the roadside. Those small buffers simply would not work here without rigid enforcement, which we are not getting anytime soon. Parked cars to the right of a bike lane create a bike lane that is worse than useless, it is dangerous and potentially lethal. If they want to allow the car-bound to store their cars on the public right-of-way, there is a need to put a buffer that is at least as wide as the longest door between the bike lane and the parking spaces.

Digital_Cowboy

Not to mention that for those of us who use clippless pedals we'd have to unclip one foot while turning from the cycle-track. Now granted we all know that one should first practice in a nice soft grassy area before taking to the road with our bike equipped with clipless pedals. But it is still possible that even after getting used to using them for one to take a spill. And for someone who is still pretty much learning how to use their clipless pedals that's a spill waiting to happen.

Not to mention all of those nice friendly and polite cagers. Granted we all know that most of them don't want to hit us, but sadly a large percentage of them don't want us on "their" roads either. Even though at least some of them recognize that we our choice of transportation is legit they'd still rather that we'd ride elsewhere. And as you said realistically when was the last time any of us saw someone in a car check traffic before opening their door to get out?

When I pass any car that is parked on the side of the street I ALWAYS treat it as if there is someone inside of it who is going to open their door without any kind of warning and give it as wide of a berth as I can. Even if it's a car that I've seen in the same spot "forever" I still treat it as if there is someone in it. And instead of the city/county/state "giving" home owners, and renters free on street parking why not require that all homes, condos, apartment complexes provide ample parking for themselves, their tenants, and their guests? And if they want on street parking they have to fill out paperwork and be approved for it and pay a monthly or yearly fee?

Bekologist

the naysaying is a bit premature dontchyathink?

innovate on road planning for bicycle traffic is used in scads of other countries as part and parcel of the series of interventions in public space design that facilitate double digit rider share.


Portland needs to begin looking at restricting on-street car parking and make those cycle tracks as large as Euro cycle tracks.

njkayaker

Dig deep for a negative! If people can't use their equipment in this particular context, they can't use it in any context.

It will be interesting to see how well these work. I think there's some value in trying reasonable things.

mikeybikes

I like the effort. I think its great to see innovative designs like this in the U.S.

Now just to get Denver going on some better bike lane designs... some of the lanes we have... well, suck.

noisebeam

Horrible. That cyclist in the orange shirt sure was lucky the pedestrian was crossing the other way otherwise that right turning car would have most likely turned right in front of the hidden cyclist. That delay because of the ped allowed to cyclist to get into view while the motorist was stopped.

lubes17319

.....or just disappear into thin air w/no signage.

randya

there are no right turns along this segment of cycle track, the entire cycle track is bordered on the right by the campus of Portland State University.

(well, except for at the very beginning of the cycle track, where there is a 'normal' bike lane to the right of a RTOL at the entry point (the RTOL becomes the parking lane to the left of the cycle track at that point))

Glynis27

If those "Launch Pads" for left turning are as small as they look, I can see people having problems with them. Most people would need to slow down quite a bit and would hold up or cross paths with bikes coming from behind.

It's great that they are looking for ideas, but I still can't see anything being better than just riding in the road.

randya

the cycle track is not for racer boys or Lance wannabes

mikeybikes

You mean, apart from cycle tracks encouraging more bicyclists to ride, right?

SweetLou

"We think they'll help cyclists at every skill level feel safer on the road."

Yep, that seems like what will happen according to the studies I've seen. Cyclists feel safer, but they really aren't. They are actually in more harm than before the tracks. But who cares about reality, it's all about what we feel, instead of teaching people safe riding.

kludgefudge

This is about the only kind of situation I can think of where a "cycle track" would be my idea of a best option. no right turns and no close by alternate thruway that you could designate as a "bike boulevard" uninviting to motor traffic, due to the university campus. I don't think this type of infrastructure would be appropriate for a roadway with real intersections though.

EDIT: I also wanted to mention that the "CG" portion of the video showed the cycletrack being used on a street with cross traffic. thats what the little green boxes were for. Its all well and fine that this particular cycletrack doesn't actually need this, but the idea was put forward in the video that "cars allready have to look out for pedestrians when making right turns". this does not guarantee the same level of safety for cyclists. you don't have to be some kind of "spandex racerboy" to travel at 20kph or so. Cars are not used to checking for that sort of higer speed traffic on their right side when making a right turn, let alone with that traffic lane on the other side of a line of parked cars. Maybe in practice this isn't as big an issue as some of us are imagining it to be, but still. It's an issue.

mikeybikes

Care to share with us one of these studies?

randya

Actually, the 'South Park Blocks' are only one block west of Broadway. As is - or even better, if cars were removed from the Park Blocks - there would be an ideal bike boulevard just one block west. The Park blocks continue right up through campus.

However, that doesn't mean there shouldn't be facilities on Broadway, too. Cycling will only be mainstream when every public street is safe to cycle on.

https://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

SweetLou

Sure, the Copenhagen Study. That study shows that accidents between cars and bikes are reduced between intersections, where there was already a low amount of accidents. But accidents at intersections increased a lot. But the bicyclists believe they are safer because of the tracks.

There is a Swedish report that shows that raising and coloring intersections had no long term effect on accident rates, they remained higher than riding on the roads.

genec

Now the interesting thing about that report is this:

Later in the report this statement is also made:

Nowhere in the report does it compare the RATES of increased cycle/moped use to the increase of collisions. Is there any correlation between more users and more injuries?

And one has to ask, why are men less effected by these cycle track collisions than women?

Bekologist

Gene, that Copenhagen study is a thinly veiled pro-parking study that actually shows a reduction in the indexed accident rate in copenhagen and suggests greater signalization at the intersections would likely increase cyclist safety.

Wait a sec, sweet lou -

you mean the swedish study that concluded

safety unchanged, more defensive motorists and more confident cyclists engaging in public right of way bicycling? is that what you were talking about?

Increasing ridershare while keeping accident rates flat ? A win-win. that study does suggest improved signalization of the intersections could lead to even greater intersection safety but the safety dynamic has changed for the better, as traffic speeds were reduced thru the intersections and greater yielding behaviors towards bicyclists.]

both studies suggest improving signage and intersection signalization has the potential to increase intersection safety for cyclists.

i suspect this type of analysis will lead to better design of americanized cycletracks. i like the bikelanes 2.0 myself but every indication is that separated lanes on major routes and traffic calmed streets otherwise are what works to truly increase active transportation and public mobility by bicycle.

cudak888 

We have a subforum for VC, why not one for the bike lane nannies?

-Kurt

Bekologist

maybe they need a subforum for pissants too!

What's YOUR vision of public right of ways that can support double digit ridershares, Cudak?

what's your vision of building road networks that could support much higher numbers of riders, say seniors on trikes heading off to the neighborhood early bird special - the status quo in florida is good enough ?

genec

The reality of US roads is summed here:
https://bicycledriving.org/about/the-...cycle-planning

Bekologist

i don't think simply 'widening the arterials' is going to cut it, gene.

this is a promotion of buffered bikelanes and cycletracks at appropriate locations in Portland, and design features being incorporated into streetscape design to facilitate larger segments of the population feeling empowered and facilitated to bicycle for transportation - versus autocentric barriers to roadway bicycling.

WOLs are significantly different from cycletracks and both may well have their place in well thought out roadway infrastructure that facilitates bicycling in communities.