Originally Posted by
slagjumper
I live in Pittsburgh, a city with a population of 310,000. Dispite the growing number of cyclists there really arent that many cylcist fatalities. One reason might be that in the city the speed limit is mostly 25, some 35 and nothing over 35 mph, except for the parkway. Another reason might be that our urban streets where built to handle about as many cars as there are now in the city.
That's brilliant -- Pittsburgh looks like a really fun town to bike in. It is my view that the easiest and cheapest way to make a town bike friendly is to have a citywide speed limit of 30-35 mph (25 mph in residential areas) and to reduce the width of all main roads. A number of cities have converted four lane streets into three lane streets with center turn lanes and wide outside lanes (sometimes with bike lanes) without sacrificing capacity. I guess the center turn lanes are helpful because those waiting to turn are no longer holding up cars that are going straight.
I'm not a huge fan of most bike specific infrastructure, but I'm a big fan of de-highway-ifying the streets so that cyclists can comfortably use them.