WPeabody 

Had this crazy dream, though on thinking of it further, it isn't so strange, I'll try to summarize it as best I can.

There was one day a week mandated for non motorized vehicles only where all the major roads were closed to motor vehicle traffic. The freeways were nothing but HPV traffic. However, each of the lanes on the freeway were specific.
It goes without saying the slow lanes were for cruisers, kids, tricycles, and such like. Middle lane for people who can keep a reasonably fast and consistent speed, or for slightly less slow folks to pass the slowest folks, but they had to be willing to slow down if needed.
The fast lane had the velocars, racers, etc. who didn't have to slow down at all.

It was really something to see the freeways filled with pedal powered machines, flowing along at varying speeds commensurate with the lane they were in.

Thought of how easy it would be for people to bicycle from place to place on days like that, when no one was allowed to use motor vehicles unless they were emergency vehicles, and anyone else who had special permission to drive had to stick to the side roads.

Brings to mind also the days in Beijing when motor vehicle traffic was reduced to clear out the air for the Olympics.
Could be, possibly, that if there were enough smart people in power, they could declare a HPV-only day.

Wow... crazy.

Wouldn't that go over like a lead balloon with the general population?

Well, one can only dream.

DBP

It's pretty strange.

I can understand advocating for street closures and the like, but not on freeways. Freeways exist to facilitate the commercial sector - making the production and sale of goods and services possible and cheap. Outlawing commercial vehicles on the roads built specifically for their use is not only a horribly inefficient use of those facilities but would make it almost impossible to provide any type of commercial service.

And what use are freeways to bicycles anyways? Proper bicycle planning puts destinations no more than 3 or 4 miles from likely origins, a lot of freeways go 2 or more miles between exits.

fordmanvt

When I visit LA, I am always floored to see so many vehicles, and 90%+ of them with one person. What they need to do is put up tolls like the NYS thruway. Use proceeds to build a parallel MUP.

As for trucks and SUVs pollution, simply hold them to standards like cars instead of the free pass they get right now.

Bekologist

freeway bicycling downtown Seattle last fall...beautiful views of the sun setting over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSW_fDS4_sQ

cudak888 

Sorry, wouldn't work.

The cruiser folks and the kids would weave into the middle lane,
The folks in the middle lane would get ticked off at the cruiser folks,
The center lane folk would flip off the folks in the fast lane for being generally unfriendly,
Medium-speed riders would complain about being buzzed by fast lane riders utilizing their lane,
Cruiser folk would be yelling at everyone in the medium and fast paced lanes that they're "going the wrong way,"
Critical Massers will take to the highway "en masse" and clog the whole thing down to a snail's crawl,
Fast lane riders will get into TdF-esque fistfights with Critical Massers,
Someone from the Cinzano team will throw a pump into Dave Stoller's front wheel,
and Kevin Bacon will be chased by a drug dealer in an old Ford LTD.

-Kurt

wheel

You want to visit Chicago who uses one day to ride down the freeway.

Arizona hosted parties on sections of the newly built 202 then for the next 1,000 years will have cars on it.

unkchunk

cudak, you forgot the senior citizen riders who forgot their left arm sticking out and then "clothes line" a whole column of opposing traffic.

Allister

I saw what this would be like yesterday on the Southbank to Southport charity ride. They closed down part of the busway for the ride. Beautiful riding, but when you get lots of people that don't really ride very much, especially in traffic*, the reality doesn't exactly live up to the dream.



* the same skills you need for riding with busy motor traffic pretty much apply to bike traffic. The main one people don't seem to have, or don't think applies in bike traffic is the old look behind before changing your line one.

I-Like-To-Bike

Groovy, eh? Far out!

cudak888 

If we put the slow riders in the left-most lanes, they'll clobber each other. Problem solved.

-Kurt

cudak888 

Thought so too myself when I first saw that happen, then I noted that most local automobile drivers fail to do so as well (that is, whilst I'm driving myself, not riding). The "here goes nothing" mentality.

-Kurt

WPeabody 

Agreed, in the real world it wouldn't work for very long, but dreams have a funny way of being rather impractical at times.

Bekologist

they do it once a month summers in many major cities in germany i believe.

hmm..... maybe in america, where people are practically wedded to their automobiles, it would take a bit to make it happen on a semi- regular basis.... Portland's bridge ride is an example of one big city closing the major choke points across the city down once a year...

Bacciagalupe

Check into the Ciclovia. Bogota dedicates huge swaths of the city to non-motorized traffics on Sundays.... https://www.streetfilms.org/archives/ciclovia/

WPeabody 

That's great to see! Thanks for the link! That is certainly more feasable.

WPeabody 

Seems to me that maybe people will be more receptive to such changes, if they feel pressured to do so. Obesity, depression, discontent, economic crisis, price of gas, if left to their own devices, will make people behave worse. But if those who are capable take the initiative and organize more activities to encourage biking, walking and sports, encourage people to get outdoors and exercise, and make it a fun event, it will get people to come out of their "cages", whether in their house, cars, or minds...
I know about that, it took me a while to venture out of my cages and start riding, and it's gradually resolving those concerns I listed above.

I noticed at the post office this morning the people who looked sad and concerned getting out of their SUVs, often overweight and hobbling from inactivity, and then those who came in with a bounce in their step, who had either walked there or rode their bikes, or came in a van with their whole family, and a dozen kids, which I found actually rather amusing. Felt a sense of community there. The difference between living in a "cage" and stepping out of it.

Erm, bear with me, I'm going through that post-ride euphoria I tend to have after riding home uphill, in a headwind, with cars zinging past my left elbow. It was fun.

Falkon 

That wouldn't work for me. All you with HPV shouldn't ride around me anyway.

WPeabody 

Non human powered vehicles.

Square & Compas

Not for nothing but an HPV is also a recumbent. So you want to open up the interstates to recumbent riders only? That could be fun, since I ride one. Or did you mean open it up to bicycle traffic only?

WPeabody 

I thought recumbents and bicycles, along with velocars, tricycles and four wheeled pedal cars were all under the category of HPV. Does it only apply to one type of pedal powered vehicle?

Great... went to look it up and it's also an acronym for the HPV virus, an STD.

PaulRivers

Ooooh...Human Powered Vehicles.

It was a dream - I was trying to figure out why there was a special biking day for people who had a common and minor STD...

WPeabody 

Hey, good idea. One less car, and one less... something. Forgot how the slogan goes.