Originally Posted by
Roody
If it went up from 0.5% to 1%, it's a doubling of the number of cyclists. That is impressive.
But the important thing is to maintain that rate of increase. I think you don't achieve continuing increases unless the city is committed to establishing a linked network of bike facilities and complete streets that even new cyclists feel comfortable with.
I can agree with that - if we just have a few random lanes here and there that don't go anywhere useful it's probably worse than having nothing at all.
Here's an interesting bike lane:
http://goo.gl/maps/BRvmb - there is a bike lane on and off for most of that section of road but what you can see in this view is a very short bike lane. It resumes after the bus stop, and the bike symbol you can see in the distance (after six long stripes at the roadside) is the end of the bike lane. Beyond the zebra crossing (the black/white striped crossing a bit further ahead) it resumes again, then stops again right before the junction.
Then you get things like this:
http://goo.gl/maps/LJ6Bo - where the bike lane becomes a segregated bike lane for a few yards and then stops, and because this section is going uphill the cars that have taken the chance to pass the slower cyclist are now on the road, while the cyclist potentially has to stop and yield to them. Just what you need when going up a hill.