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Tag Archives: traffic design

The Bizzaro World of Courtesy

Yes, you do live in an episode of the Twilight Zone. Submitted for your approval, a world where the people who operate large, dangerous machines — automobiles — are given every courtesy, and,  in their mishaps with people who prefer to walk or ride a bicycle, are given the benefit of the “doubt.” The street [...]

Posted 12 April 2013 † Andy Cline § ecology § safety § traffic § walking ‡ Comments (13) ° Also tagged: , ,

Vote ‘Yes’ For Capital Improvements Tax

Tomorrow is election day, and among the chances you have to make Springfield a better place to live is renewing the 1/4-cent Capital Improvements Sales Tax. Please vote “Yes.” This tax pays for numerous infrastructure improvements including projects that benefit pedestrians and bicyclists. You may have noticed sharrows appearing on the streets of the city’s bicycle [...]

Posted 01 April 2013 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § policy § safety ‡ Comments (24) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

On The Showing Of Photos

What does it mean to show a photograph of a poorly-designed bicycle lane? Recent chatter from the lane-painting wing of bicycle-advocacy-land has taken the publishing of such images to task for the oft-imagined sin of over-generalizing about all bicycle infrastructure. For a good example of this, just read my post from yesterday. Let’s re-visit a [...]

Posted 29 March 2013 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle education § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § cyclingsavvy § policy § safety ‡ Comments (38) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , ,

Of Goals and Point of View

Long-time Carbon Trace reader Robert (also a professional bicycle advocate and educator) asked this question in the comments to my post on the recent deadly right-hook crash in Boston: Do you think that bicycle facilities can be designed in such a way as to eliminate the dangers and delays? My short answer: No. He was [...]

Posted 08 December 2012 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § cyclingsavvy § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (88) ° Also tagged: , , , , , ,

Where The Danger Is

So you’re riding along in bicycle lane thinking you’re safe because, well, isn’t that what we’re led to believe? Isn’t that why bicycle lanes are painted in the first place? They are not painted to solve any traffic problem that exists, i.e. help the orderly and safe flow of traffic according the well-establish rules of [...]

Posted 06 December 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle crash § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § news § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (25) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Irony

So, yeah, wrap your head around this: If novices will only ride if we paint lanes because they feel safe in lanes, are we not, then, defeating the purpose by correctly ending the lanes before the intersections and indicating central travel lane positioning with sharrows? Novices won’t command the street because they “need” a bicycle [...]

Posted 11 September 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § safety ‡ Comments (29) ° Also tagged: , ,

Bicycle Lanes: Gotta Love Close Passes

What started as documenting another new bicycle lane turned into a textbook example of motorist behavior. Take a look… How did you like the squeeze play toward the end — entirely caused by the bicycle lane. If I had been controlling the lane, the motorist behind me would have waited until it was safe to [...]

Posted 10 September 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § safety ‡ Comments (15) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Bad Education

Just in case there was any lingering doubt about the new paint on Cherry… Think of paint on the road as an education. This lane and bicycle marking teaches different things to different types of people. To motorists who know little about bicycling, it teaches them that the gutter is the appropriate place to ride [...]

Posted 10 September 2012 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § news § policy § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: , , ,

There’s Something Happening Here

UPDATE: I have confirmed that the paint on Cherry east of Glenstone is intended to be a bicycle lane. The engineer I contacted said that the lane should have been painted 5.0 feet from the face of the curb and 3.0 feet from a pavement seam such as the edge of gutter. What it is ain’t exactly [...]

Posted 02 September 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § traffic ‡ Comments (28) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,

New Lane Feature: Broken Glass!

So the City has painted a gutter lane on a perfectly good street thus, in my opinion, turning it into a no-so-good street. Why not-so-good? As the video shows — and every bicycle lane advocate knows — cars tend to sweep the streets. So gutter lanes fill up with all kinds of debris. The narrower [...]

Posted 18 August 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle video ‡ Comments (28) ° Also tagged: , , ,

More New Bicycle Lanes

The following video shows a short section of new bicycle lane on S. Jefferson just north of Battlefield Rd. There are lanes on both sides and a bit farther to the south — exactly like the short segment you’ll see in the video. This segment of Jefferson is outside the urban core in the south-central [...]

Posted 08 August 2012 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § bicycle video ‡ Comments (6) ° Also tagged: , , ,

Things Are Getting Worse

I believe we’ve entered an era in which things are going to get worse for bicyclists before they get better. The tectonic pressure to paint bicycle lanes has become so great that it no longer seems possible to even debate the merits or the claims of safety. Check out this article from Yes! magazine. Here’s a [...]

Posted 08 August 2012 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle education § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § policy § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (29) ° Also tagged: , , , , , , ,

Your Tax Dollars At Work

There are new bicycle lanes on parts of Fremont and Jefferson. Here’s a look at the new section on Fremont: There are two problems in an otherwise acceptable section of bicycle lane (although I fail to understand what traffic problem this lane solves). First, there are several yards of door-zone lane near the intersection of Fremont [...]

Posted 06 August 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § traffic ‡ Comments (15) ° Also tagged: ,

Safe? Sez Who?

So, yeah, everyone just assumes that segregated bicycle facilities are safer than the street because, well, duh! Maybe not so much. Take a look at this list of studies complied by Ian Brett Cooper at The Desegregated Cyclist. Here are few highlights: “An additional problem is establishment of a visual relationship between motor vehicles and [...]

Posted 04 August 2012 † Andy Cline § advocacy § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (3) ° Also tagged: , , ,

What Happened

From the news article: Investigators “are still trying to understand exactly what happened,” Ouimet said. I’ll tell you what happened. A bicyclist got hooked (not your standard right-hook as shown below) in a bicycle track because the infrastructure put him into conflict with turning traffic. He probably died thinking he was safe. Check out the street view [...]

Posted 31 July 2012 † Andy Cline § bicycle crash § bicycle infrastructure § bicycle safety § news § safety § traffic ‡ Comments (41) ° Also tagged: , , , , ,