Commuting - How Many "Controlled Intersections" On Your Route? (avg/mile)

Some of us ride through dense urban landscapes with a stop sign on every corner. Others ride rural secondary roads with miles between intersections.

These differences probably color our perception of our commting experiences more than we may have thought. This poll is to get a sense of how diverse our experiences really are in this regard.

My route includes 56 stop signs or lights. It's 13 miles, so my answer is 4-5. When someone mentions a very high average speed on their commute, I usually wonder how often they have to stop or slow down, compared to me.

It might be useful to post your typical average speed along with your number of controlled intersections. Mine: 14mph/56.

RichC

On my ride to work I go through 30 controlled intersections, the majority of which are controlled by traffic lights. And I cross one railroad crossing. Today was the first time I've ever had to stop for a train. Wasn't bad though, only waited about 45 seconds.

On my ride home I go through 29 controlled intersections.

No wonder it takes cyclists so long to get anywhere. Gotta stop for all those traffic lights that are for controlling "motorized" traffic. :mad:

My route is 14 miles, has about 40 controlled intersections (the first 5 are stop signs in my neighborhood, within 1.5 miles of home,) I usually average about 14 mph without a headwind.
I wonder how much hills count?

Rich, you expressed it as, 14mph/56. Shouldn't that be, 14mph/13mi/56?

Anyway, I would say, 14mph/40, or 14mph/14mi/40. That's an average of 2.8 per mile.

My "free part:" the Stone Mountain to Atlanta bike path would be expressed as follows for a commute downtown--

10mph/18mi/150.

:fun:

Great...now I'll have to count mine on Tuesday. Do I include the Stop signs/lights that I run?;)

I spent many years preaching about cyclists following every traffic rule, but now I'll bend/break a rule every now and then in order to get as much space between me and the autos out there.

I have 13 significant intersections on my 17 mile commute, with either lights or enough traffic that I have to stop. There are about 25 4 way stop signs at intersections with minimal traffic that I slow for, but dont stop. Intersections where I go across the top of a T I dont even slow down. I choose a route to minimise intersections. My average is about 14mph.

I commute 12.2 miles. There are 27 intersections and 5 controlled by lights. I cross 4 artial roads that are 4 lanes (2 each direction)

I hadn't thought about until I saw this poll, but I have a lot of lights to go through. I could cut a few lights out, but sticking to a river trail, but that would add more "uncontrolled" intersections to my ride.

I favor the controlled intersection vs. the uncontrolled.

Having ridden th same route for years, I've learned the timing of the lights so that I rarely have to stop. But this has an obvious effect on my average speed; I'll slow down half a block before an intersection in order to time the green. Yes, there are a couple of places where I can make a light if I hammer, but generally timing the lights more frequently involves slowing down than speeding up.

My average speed on suburban/rural road rides is always higher than it is on my commutes. Fewer intersections.

I was particularly curious about commuters who don't go into the city.

RichC

I have some pretty good stretches with <1 traffic control per mile, and others with 5-10. In terms of safety, I would far rather deal with traffic controls or traffic-calmed intersections than with high-speed freeway-style merges and diverges.

I'm not sure about this one - I think it must be the difference between Us & UK roads - I took the short but busy route this morning (12 miles) and only had one set of lights to contend with and no stop signs. In terms of junctions where I didn't have right of way, about five within the first mile or two, then only about four for the next eight miles but about 10 for the last couple (middle section was half dual-carriageway and half country roads).
Speeds on this route varied between a 4mph, get off and push hill (Mt Ventoux, pah, try Boughton- Dunkirk ;) )and 30mph down part of the A2, only averaged 12mph.

Richard

when i used to live in Portland, i had about a 2 mile commute and something on the order of 30 intersections, 3 lights and about 15 stop signs - or about 10 stop signs if i took the main road but it was not as pretty... so i guess that's about 8 stops/lights per mile... my avg speed was obviously not very high - i think about 12mph...

for my current 6.5mile commute in Munich i have 2 diffeent routes i take. i would guess i have about 10 lights and about 10 intersections where i must yeild plus a train crossing(i can walk under the tracks if a train comes b/c it's faster than waiting), plus i ride about 2.5 miles through the park... so about 20 in 4 miles or or about 5 controlled intersections per mile... i'll try and count today and see what i come up with. my average speed is about 24km/h or 15mph but it fluctuates a lot (fastest time is 21 minutes so about 30km/h or 18mph average) depending on whether i make the lights or i have to slow down to yeild or not at the non-light intersections...