Originally Posted by
Chimera21
http://www.cityofberkeley.info/uploa...ay_Network.pdf
It looks like they have a decent grid system. Not extensive, but is covers north, south, east, west and you could do a decent loop around the city. It should at least get someone within a few blocks of where they need to go.
I don't see this as being 'bicycle preferential', as cars are still allowed on these roads - reducing a speed limit doesn't exactly strike me as discriminatory. It seems they mostly added lots of large, screaming 'hey, motorist! Pay attention, bicycles use this road!' signage. Which I really, really wish were plastered all over my fair city.
Many of the bike boulevards are also blocked to auto traffic every few blocks (with bikes permitted through). This helps get neighborhood buy-in, because it keeps the high speed "short cutters" out of the neighborhoods.
IMO, the bike boulevard concept (with appropriate signage, and streets periodically blocked to through auto traffic), is brilliant. It's a good way to encourage cycling through quiet neighborhoods (as opposed to trying to mingle with cars on crowded high-speed arterials), and is cheap to implement. I'm on my city's bike planning committee, and have suggested they look into this approach where it can be implemented.