Living Car Free - Good bike infrastructure 80% of the time

A major impediment to using the bicycle or even a mixture of bicycle/bus as a means of transportation is that it needs to be a year-round capability. You need to be able to get the bus in winter without being exposed to hypothermia and you should be able to bike safely if you want.

For example, Minneapolis, which is colder and more forbidding than Des Moines, has enough infrastructure to let cyclists travel all winter.

I'm wondering what someone would do to improve this in their own city. Maybe with some of the "shovel-ready" money that Obama has been talking about.

What could be done to get you to work in the winter?

plenty of layers and studded tires.

other than that it comes down to local municipalities having their streets and sidewalks plowed during the winter.

I do alter my route to avoid some streets that are icy after the storm.

Punch through some non-arterial streets. Anchorage has cul-de-sac hell in between 45mph arterial roads which, annoyingly enough, the muni feels are well equipped with "bike routes" - sidewalks. The arterials are a bit nerve-wracking to take the lane on, as one might expect from high speed arterial highways, but there are no 'less-travelled local streets' as alternatives in many places - they aren't interconnected.

In Madison, I think the bigger problem is a lack of bus infrastructure. Many stops don't have even a wind shelter, and very few routes have every 10 or every 15 mintues service. Since winter temperatures tend to be so low, it's a real hazard. It just isn't safe to miss a bus, since there might not be a warm space where you can wait a half hour or hour for the next bus. That means many people choose to walk or bike rather than wait, because if you're moving, you stay warm.

The next biggest problem is that the bike paths are kept up by Streets department employees who take real pride in their work. They do an excellent job. On regular streets, the city has very peculiar policies in place so that it is hard to plow. Even an emergency route doesn't get extra care. And city employees can't just tow anyone who parks illegally and prevents them from plowing. The streets are always a mess after snow, and I can't see how the people who take such pride in the bike paths can bear it.

On the news:
"over 1 million new Californians this year!"
On the Science Channel
"building a floating city, airports, schools!"
The Schitzoid blues.........

In Seattle, where I live, winter is typically not a problem; it just rains more in the winter, and you dress accordingly. However, during the past month, it has snowed several times, dumping 12 inches in the last two weeks alone, almost paralyzing the city. Having grown up in Colorado, I've been really surprised that such a moderate amount of snow could mess things up this thoroughly. Bus routes were canceled. Flights were canceled. School was canceled. Streets with hills were closed and became (sometimes dangerous) sledding areas. Cars without chains went nowhere. Bicycling, except for those few well-prepared souls with MTBs with studded tires, became impossible.

Personally, being car-free, I've just walked everywhere recently. (I tried riding once, but it didn't work out.) One day last week, I walked ten miles, just running errands. It works for me, because I'm healthy and have a high tolerance for physical discomfort, but for some of my elderly or disabled neighbors, the last few weeks have basically amounted to house arrest; they haven't been able to go anywhere.

In a recent newspaper poll, readers were asked to grade the City of Seattle's response to the weather conditions. The mayor gave the city a "B." I gave the city a "D." The vast majority of respondents gave the city an "F." Clearly, we need to do better next time. For the time being, though, I've never been so happy to see the return of the rain... :)

In Seattle, where I live, winter is typically not a problem; it just rains more in the winter, and you dress accordingly. However, during the past month, it has snowed several times, dumping 12 inches in the last two weeks alone, almost paralyzing the city. Having grown up in Colorado, I've been really surprised that such a moderate amount of snow could mess things up this thoroughly. Bus routes were canceled. Flights were canceled. School was canceled. Streets with hills were closed and became (sometimes dangerous) sledding areas. Cars without chains went nowhere. Bicycling, except for those few well-prepared souls with MTBs with studded tires, became impossible.

I wasn't thinking as much about "disaster" situations as I was just regular weather events. You can take a few days off, cool your jets and live with the punches. We get to do this regularly in the mid west, especially since our 100 year floods seem to happen about once every 5 years lately. Have some extra food in the house, extra batteries for your bike light and maybe a good book.

However, to survive regular winter events here you need reasonably clear streets, including sidewalks, extra clothing, add-ons for your boots so that you can walk on ice. At nice thing would be to have bike paths cleared on a regular basis and a good pair of studded tires.

Our city was clearing trails for a while, but when we got several snows in a row, they seem to have given up. I've even tried to get through with studded tires, but that didn't work either. My alternate route to work became the subject of a detour that turned it into car city.... which makes for a very unpleasant commute.

To a certain extent, I'm kind of resigned to taking the bus to work lately and just using the bike on the weekend for trips to the library, grocery store, etc.

Shovel the snow from the bus stops so people don't have to climb over a 5 foot snow bank to get on the bus or off it.

Winter is mostly pretty mild here (TN) so the weather usually doesn't hinder cycling much. That's good, because my town of 100,000 has 7 little "buses" that operate only while I'm at work and only go to the areas that are easily biked or walked anyway. Of course, as with most places the biggest problem here is the attitude of the average motorist. And the most frightening thing is that my town is like a cycling utopia compared to the other towns around Nashville.

Punch through some non-arterial streets. Anchorage has cul-de-sac hell in between 45mph arterial roads which, annoyingly enough, the muni feels are well equipped with "bike routes" - sidewalks. The arterials are a bit nerve-wracking to take the lane on, as one might expect from high speed arterial highways, but there are no 'less-travelled local streets' as alternatives in many places - they aren't interconnected.

Sounds like it's time for some guerilla street design--cyclists should open up trails between those cul-de-sacs.

To add to what started this thread.

A friend of mine attends some of the "infrastructure" meetings for the city. She says the mayor of our city is trying to push a concept where Des Moines becomes one of the most bike-friendly cities in the country. So right now, they are embroiled in conversations about whether to go for "bike highway" type design or to simply try to upgrade some of the existing streets with signage and/or bike lanes.

More interesting is that the suburban cities are not really on board with any of this. This is sad since Des Moines itself isn't that bad for cycling. It's the suburbs that are truly pathetic in this regard.

well philly just cut all snow removal so i don't see it getting at better here... fortunately our lovely heat island we've created prevents most of the snow.

well philly just cut all snow removal so i don't see it getting at better here... fortunately our lovely heat island we've created prevents most of the snow.

I predict this won't work very well. What will they do if they get even 6 inches of snow? Shut the city down?