Originally Posted by bluefoxicy

The research is out there.

Originally Posted by mikeybikes

Where?

Originally Posted by bluefoxicy

There's a few of these around here:



I like this. Especially notice the smooth, well-maintained road.

Originally Posted by Bekologist

here's the classic, Mortiz, 1997

cyclists safer on streets with bike facilities than without.

Moritz 1997 TRB

if anyone wants more grist, here's a fairly exhaustive omnibus to date.....the impact of bicycling infrastructure on cycling crashes: a compilation of the literature 2010 Journal of Environmental Health

Originally Posted by contango

looking at the picture it's far from clear to me just how much of the road is allocated to bikes, if indeed any at all.

Originally Posted by invisiblehand

Thanks, but I think that most of us are familiar with the standard sources of glip glop. ......

Instead, the OP provides figures without cites which makes most of the discussion meaningless.

Originally Posted by Bekologist

oh, i understand the OP has not cited a study. i think they are referring to the danish one that muddled moped operators into the collision statistics.

Originally Posted by bluefoxicy

I like this. Especially notice the smooth, well-maintained road.

Originally Posted by Doohickie

My favorite mode of bike travel is off-road trails where they exist (around here, they follow the river and the street bridges over the river also go over the MUP, so there are very few crossings of busy streets), and cutting through residential neighborhoods. The way a city is designed will dictate whether the latter is possible; if developments tend to have limited access (in the extreme, gated communities), they can't be used for bike traffic. If they can be ridden through from one end to the other with outlets at each end, they make ideal cycling routes. As for the MUP, like I said, they follow the river. The basic infrastructure was set up by the Army Corps of Engineers when the river was rechanneled for flood control. At the tops of the levees, and sometimes at the bases, a stone road bed was installed to allow access by work crews. Once work was complete, the access roads were covered with fine hard-packed gravel, then paved with blacktop in some areas, and now the most used portions are being paved with concrete. A nice added feature is that along several sections there are two separate paths, one generally used by wheeled traffic (the paved sections) and one by foot traffic (the packed gravel).

The city is also adding on-street bike lanes. The most successful has helped create an urban village in a historical neighborhood that is revitalizing and gentrifying. This year the city is adding additional bike lanes in that area, and recently put in lanes along a thoroughfare that has quite a bit of new urban development in an old industrial district.

In some areas, an integral part of the bike infrastructure is provision for bike parking. In the past year, lots of bike racks have been installed in the near southside (the urban village I mentioned earlier) and the program is being expanded into downtown.

The point is... the city is assessing what the best method is to accommodate and encourage bicycle traffic. They revisit changes to determine what works and what doesn't in specific locations. The bike lanes along Magnolia Avenue started out as sharrows, but they removed a motor traffic lane and put in bike lanes instead. While one may argue about the safety and efficiency of bike lanes, in the areas where they have been recently introduced they have helped give bicycle traffic a visible presence, even when there are no bikes around.

Originally Posted by mikeybikes

I'd kill for that smooth of pavement.

Originally Posted by chipcom

It's not an either-or proposition. Whatever is the safest, most efficient and most fun given the circumstances of the moment are fine with me. I also like tail winds, smooth pavement, slight downhills, pie...and world peace.

Originally Posted by Pedaleur

You mean I don't have to choose between VC and incompetence? There's a middle ground?

Why do you hate America so much?

Originally Posted by chipcom

It's not an either-or proposition. Whatever is the safest, most efficient and most fun given the circumstances of the moment are fine with me. I also like tail winds, smooth pavement, slight downhills, pie...and world peace.

Originally Posted by bluefoxicy

That's the point