rydabent

Out here in the middle of the country, there are tens of thousands of miles of country roads. They are mainly used only by the locals, lightly used, and being the midwest the drivers are more laid back. I would suggest they are far safer for cyclist. BTW these are the kind of roads RAGBRI uses for their rides.

FrenchFit 

I moved from a recently planned and developed community (last 30 years) to a much older community. I am shocked how bad the roads are here, they all need replacing and redesign. Perhaps there is a lot of charm in living in an old, well established community, but for cycling "new" seems to have definite pluses. Dare I say, well planned suburbia can offers dreamy rides -- roads are smooth as glass, wide, well planned, smart grading & intersection controls.

Rollfast

The safest place is on a stand in your living room. But you could also have a heart attack or get tackled by a five year old in there.

The universe is an unsafe place.

scott967

In general I agree with you. In my suburb the main drag was designed as 4 lane (2 in each direction) with a wide median and unmarked, but large "shoulder" area so cycle traffic has no impact on MV traffic. Very nice. But the developer/city in their infinite wisdom did not foresee that where the drag connects to/crosses the freeway was a natural choke point. So eventually to alleviate traffic, they paint engineered the road to 6 (narrow) lanes. Cycles must take the right lane. Recently they "sharrowed" a portion of the 6 lane section, and I think that helps clue drivers that if they are in the right lane, expect cyclists (ie., don't complain, you should have moved left). But of course the "sharrowed" section ends at a signaled intersection a ways before the freeway ramp which is also the most dangerous for cyclists (right lane becomes on ramp and middle lane y's between going straight and on ramp). Once you get across the freeway you have the opposite problem, traffic coming off the freeway is in the right lane and cyclist is in the middle lane. This is where maybe some paint engineering could help, but I assume the engineers are afraid to try it.

scott s.
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ButchA

For the Richmond, VA area, I feel that the safest areas are the suburbs. I've ridden all around, scouted out various places, etc... and have ridden in the boonies and also ridden in the city (when they close the streets (temporarily) for a charity ride).

With the UCI World Champion Races are coming to Richmond, the buzz about it has been incredible these past few months. They are closing schools (I'm a school bus driver!), closing streets, etc... and trying vain to not create a catastrophe for everyone heading to work downtown.

Richmond 2015

But with regards to Richmond the various suburbs, go ahead and pop open Mapquest or Google Maps and punch in Richmond. Obviously, ignore I-64, I-95, I-295, 288 expressway, Powhite Pkwy (76), etc... and look at the primary streets.

It is very wise to stay away from the US roads that spiderweb out away from the city...

Route 1
Route 250
Route 60
Route 33
Route 360
etc..

These are MAJOR primary roads with absolutely no shoulder at all! All you really have is a teeny tiny white line on the side of the road. Cars, trucks, and heavy equipment trucks & 18-wheelers, will all go zooming by at 55 mph!!! Worse yet, a lady was recently struck and killed on Mountain Rd (US Route 33) north of Richmond, heading north towards Montpelier.

Looking at Mapquest or Google Maps again, it is wise to view the entire Richmond area as a gigantic loop. I-295 on one side and the 288 expressway on the other. Anything outside those highways is technically deemed as "ultra suburban country living", and you have very nice, winding country roads, with enough room so cars and trucks will see you and avoid you. Go even further out, and you're in the boonies, where you have a backwoods country road with no lane markings on it at all. You might get chased by somebody's dog though, but it is all worth the peace and quiet.

Bines

Here in Watauga, Tx, one of our parks has a one mile MUP around it. Bikes are allowed, but with all the walkers, it's better not to ride on it. We have no bike lanes or posted bike routes on city streets.

Neighboring cities have more MUPs, and some have designated bike routes and even bike lanes.

Watauga is about five square miles with around 21,000 residents. It's mostly neighborhoods. There are five "main drags". Two have nice wide shoulders that make for decent bike travel. The other three are lacking shoulders, bike lanes or even fully laid sidewalks. I'm not sure how that could be fixed. Maybe turn the strip between the street and sidewalk, where there is any, into bike lanes. We just don't have much unused land.

There's a creek, of sorts, that runs through town. That could probably have a MUP added to it.

I dunno. I think about mapping out the most efficient bike routes through the city and at least posting the map online somewhere. Maybe encourage the city to put up bike route signs.

Juan Foote

It seems to me that around here urban/suburban bike lanes and MUP go hand in hand with gentrification and "upgrade" projects. The country is pretty much left to it's own devices. I moved to a rural area where there are an abundance of "share the road" signs (as compared to the rural area I lived before), but don't really see that it makes any difference at all.

Chris516

Zilch, zip, nada, nothing. I don't rely on motorists' to care about them.

kickstart

Yet you use a sign as your avatar.............a little bit of cognitive dissonance here.

noisebeam

The most dangerous 'facilities' are usually put in urban and some suburban areas where there are many turns and driveways. These are places where the existing vehicle infrastructure is usually best left as is.
Rural areas can benefit with added pavement so there is more room to share for everyone.

CrankyOne

The Netherlands (and Denmark, Finland, Sweden, etc.) don't have driveways and side streets?

The Netherlands has as many or in many cases more driveways and side streets and yet they've not only made it work but it is much safer than here.


Here is a good example of a lower use (I think up to 1700 vehicles per day) side street. It is clear who has right-of-way and has proven extremely safe. (Photo: Mark Treasure)