Bikes ARE Traffic
Dec. 4th, 2007 09:34 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rebeccmeisterRight now, the City of Tempe is in the midst of a flurry of traffic-calming planning. It's going to be quite interesting to see how these efforts affect the city's bike-ability. The whole endeavor is forcing me to think more carefully about how I'd like to see bikes and cars interact in this town.
As things stand right now, while riding around by myself I feel safest riding on streets with bike lanes. This gets to be problematic, though, when bike lanes suddenly vanish or I have to exit the bike lane to make a left turn or when I want to get to a destination that's not reachable along a bike route. So I'm not convinced that bike lanes are the best solution--they marginalize bikes by segregating them and allow cars to happily whoosh past at dangerously close distances and dangerously high speeds. They also discourage me from riding along roads without bike lanes, despite the fact that I have a legal right to ride on such roads--instead, I end up sidewalk-riding because I figure that cars aren't expecting to see bikes on the road. I loathe sidewalk-riding, though, because cars don't watch for bikes on sidewalks either and pedestrians don't enjoy being mowed down.
So this is pretty much a shift for me from a "separate but equal" segregationist perspective to a shared-road perspective. I've relied on the "separate but equal" stance because it's pretty much the only way I've been able to function here without losing my sanity. I don't know how far this town will go to REALLY promote shared roads because drivers here love their speed (they certainly pay lip service with signs posted along roads where cars could easily kill bikers). But it would make my life so much better if I could use more of those big, flat roads that my tax money pays for.
This is a pretty monumental sea change for biking in this town, but I think the only way to get more people out of cars and onto bikes is to de-marginalize the bicycles. I shouldn't have to be reliant on bike maps all of the time while lazy drivers zoom conveniently to their destinations. Can this sort of retro-fit happen? I certainly hope so.
As things stand right now, while riding around by myself I feel safest riding on streets with bike lanes. This gets to be problematic, though, when bike lanes suddenly vanish or I have to exit the bike lane to make a left turn or when I want to get to a destination that's not reachable along a bike route. So I'm not convinced that bike lanes are the best solution--they marginalize bikes by segregating them and allow cars to happily whoosh past at dangerously close distances and dangerously high speeds. They also discourage me from riding along roads without bike lanes, despite the fact that I have a legal right to ride on such roads--instead, I end up sidewalk-riding because I figure that cars aren't expecting to see bikes on the road. I loathe sidewalk-riding, though, because cars don't watch for bikes on sidewalks either and pedestrians don't enjoy being mowed down.
So this is pretty much a shift for me from a "separate but equal" segregationist perspective to a shared-road perspective. I've relied on the "separate but equal" stance because it's pretty much the only way I've been able to function here without losing my sanity. I don't know how far this town will go to REALLY promote shared roads because drivers here love their speed (they certainly pay lip service with signs posted along roads where cars could easily kill bikers). But it would make my life so much better if I could use more of those big, flat roads that my tax money pays for.
This is a pretty monumental sea change for biking in this town, but I think the only way to get more people out of cars and onto bikes is to de-marginalize the bicycles. I shouldn't have to be reliant on bike maps all of the time while lazy drivers zoom conveniently to their destinations. Can this sort of retro-fit happen? I certainly hope so.
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critical mass
Date: 2007-12-04 06:44 pm (UTC)Eyewitnesses in downtown Seattle reported recently that during the evening rush hour, traffic was snarled for blocks when a group of individuals chose to use the streets in a manner that prevented commuters from moving.
Automobile drivers, almost all driving alone, simultaneously drove their vehicles into the streets of downtown Seattle and instantly created gridlock, impeding the progress of buses, cyclists and in some cases, pedestrians. Apparently fully understanding and anticipating the consequences of their actions, the automobile drivers nevertheless chose to act in a manner that made movement through downtown difficult.
One frustrated cyclist, choking on the fumes emitted by the automobiles stationed around him, gasped, "I can go 25 or 30 miles per hour on this street. I should have been home by now. Instead, I've moved one block in the past five minutes!"
A bus rider noted: "All the people in all the cars on this street could fit in one bus!"
The immobilization of downtown Seattle streets by automobiles, although executed without central coordination, was highly effective. Commuters are cautioned to expect more such "critical mass" events, up to 20 times per month.
Ted Diamond
Seattle
Re: critical mass
Date: 2007-12-04 08:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-12-04 08:29 pm (UTC)I used to walk to classes at a community college which was a very short distance from my house, and school acquaintances would often pull over when they saw me walking and ask if anything was wrong and if I needed a ride. Pedestrians are not part of local culture... I would so love to see that change.