I am excited to see more of what DC is doing when I visit there this week and see how "a bucket of Portland is being spilled on the Capital". The cycletracks that are being constructed there are the main arteries that are going to feed the city with cyclists. Bicycle ridership generally increases 18-20% when cities add cycletracks, but only 5-7% for bike lanes. New York's cycletracks also reduced injuries by 56%, crashes by 48%, injuries to pedestrians by 29%, and injuries to cyclists by 57%. Pennsylvania Avenue is getting bi-directional cycletracks running down its median, 9th Street (a 1-way) is getting a new bike lane on the right side and a contraflow lane on the left, I and L Streets are getting buffered bike lanes, and many other streets are getting restriped with narrower travel lanes and new bike lanes.
I admit that not all of these facilities will be successful and I am sure that redesign will occur, but although they are not ideal, they are better than nothing and may be the best way to get cycletracks implemented on a broader scale. Cities that are implementing bike boxes, contraflow bike lanes, center bike lanes, turning lanes to the left or right of bike lanes, bicycle only lights, sharrows, chevrons, driveway markings and two-stage crosswalk cycle track turns, mixing zones... are going to be the cities that increase ridership and get the United States into the game of urban cycling. It will require some education to say the least, but good changes are on the horizon.
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Sorry to see you got so much flack on the CO blog. For what it's worth, Dallas has had a similar issue...
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2009/10/bicycle_race_angela_hunt_expla.php
I think they are primarily concerned with safety, not increased ridership, where planners are more concerned with increased ridership. But you even said in your post that these facilities require education, which is on point.
For all their talk about overcoming 'fear,' They really don't themselves, and I think their rant about defensive riding highlights that. Saying that you could have prevented the crash by assuming the worst in all drivers is promoting a life of fear in my book.
JT, thanks for sharing the Dallas information. The CO group has a good mission here in Orlando, and hopefully through continued discussions and presentation of statistics, we can come to consensus. The cycling world is too small to alienate any riders.
ReplyDeleteKeep in touch or share any other information that you have on riding. Thanks