Originally Posted by
cyccommute
A road with cars bumper to bumper for even a block is a crowded space. There is very little room on that road for anything else regardless of it's size.
I won't argue with you about "very little room", but I ride in those conditions on a daily basis. The cars can't always move, but I can.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
In the case of bumper to bumper traffic, the cars do crowd the space in exact proportion to the area it occupies. Humans without the cars...whether walking or riding a bike will crowd a space far less because of social norms of keeping a distance from the next person.
Your assumptions about "social norms of keeping a distance from the next person" probably bear no relation to how things are in Boston. Really. People From Away get claustrophobic on our sidewalks.
But you're missing my point. Let's forget about social distance and give your reasoning the maximum benefit of the doubt -- let's say each pedestrian occupies 20 inches of space squared = about 2.8 square feet. A Toyota 4Runner occupies about 98 square feet. Now, your reasoning would seem to suggest that you could put a few dozen of these 2.8 square foot occupying pedestrians in the space of one 4Runner, and there would still be a ton of room to ride a bicycle among them. So...try it. Pack a few dozen peds in the footprint of one 4Runner, and try riding among them. Heck, try it with just a dozen. Now, try filling the pavement with these dozen-pedestrian clusters. Now, let's have them not behave like cars, but like pedestrians instead. Just...imagine it. Not a pretty thought, is it? Anyone who's ever ridden on a MUP among peds would tell you that even four peds in the footprint of a 4Runner is a problem situation.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Although I could not go that fast in on a bikeway due to the erratic nature of people's movement patterns, I couldn't really move much faster on a crowded street for the same reason.
Like I said, I do it every day.
Originally Posted by
cyccommute
However, I don't ride in either of those situations. If a road is crowded with bumper to bumper traffic, I find another parallel route. If a MUP is crowded, I do the same. It's not an "all or nothing game".
What if your MUP is crowded all the time?