Originally Posted by
sggoodri
Given how poorly done the prior literature is, a more scientifically rigorous treatment should be welcomed, if not by urban planners, then by the traffic engineering profession.
The effectiveness of motorist education/enforcement and bicyclist education/enforcement campaigns would be an interesting topic. There are also a number of new engineering designs and social experiments now being conducted with urban bicycling, including shared use markings and painted lanes. It would be interesting to conduct rigorous before/after experiments, user/motorist surveys, collision analyses, etc. for any and all of these.
I could not disagree more. Such a work would put 98% of the population in general, and city planners in particular, to sleep in about 15 seconds. Never forget you are posting to the 2% who really dig bikes. Most people don't give a crap. City planners mostly play lip service to that segment of the voting public who can influence their existance. No doubt a few cities have some bike friendly advocates in power, but they are few. Go back and read your last sentence about user/motorist surveys, collision analyses, etc. Just the sound of that has me nodding off. It is not my intent to be disparaging of you the advocate. I just think such an indepthwritten analysis would end up in the shredder. To be honest, that's where I'd put it and I like bikes. Make your own good luck by riding carefully and understand nothing inlife is guaranteed.