who made the bike route???
 

well the ride was good today. but everyday I ride. I wonder who makes the bike routes throught the city??? I went for a bike ride and found out that the bike route is the same routes trucks take.. wtf why do they do that. Really I couldn't belive it today when I was passed by a ****ing semi. So I turned off the street lucky I did to. I looked back and saw about 4 more trucks taking the same route. Wtf does anyone know why?? :twitchy:

Cities often find themselves facing two different and sometimes contradictory goals when designating roads as bike routes:

1. Highlight roads that are pleasant for cycling.

2. Highlight roads that are useful for efficient bicycle travel to important destinations.

The most pleasant roads for cycling are often those with the least traffic, but the reason for less traffic it that they are less useful for through travel to popular destinations.

Some cities focus on trying to make the most useful roads more pleasant for cycling, such as creating wide outside lanes or striped bike lanes on busy arterials. They then mark these roads as bike routes, despite high volumes of truck traffic and high vehicle speeds, because, from their perspective, they designed them with bike traffic in mind, and want credit for doing so. And sometimes cities will create bike route maps that are nothing but an expression of where they have put in extra pavement width or striped bike lanes, regardless of how pleasant or useful those roads are for cycling.

It's nice that the cities are thinking about cyclists when engineering important roads, but realistically, the most pleasant cycling routes are often normal streets with no special cycling-related design features, just less traffic.

Ask your city transportation department who creates the bike routes and the process behind it. You may be able to help participate via the public input process in the future.

buy a mirror, learn to ride defensively, and get more time in with these semi's. Sometimes you need to take the lane; other times you can be off to the shoulder. It just takes time to get used to riding with traffic. Although accidents happen, vehicles have an interest in not hitting a cyclist. Wear bright neon colors if it makes you feel better.


Of course, the local MUP along the river is more pleasant but it also doesn't go anywhere I need to go. It's more for leisure riding.

truckers have their own logic for road choice. There is a road through here that they closed to trucks because there is a "substandard" bridge. I'm pretty sure it's because there is a town right at the bottom of either side of the mountain on that road, and they really got tired of trucks crashing into things. The alternative route is dead flat and just a few miles longer. I really don't understand all the car traffic on that route for that matter, I took it once and it takes at least double the time that the most obvious route takes.

FWIW... In my experience, I'd take a road full of truckers any day over distracted soccer moms, distracted private passenger drivers on cell phones, motor home side mirrors, punks in sports cars... the list is endless....

My normal lunch route is a two lane 45mph road that I share with semi trucks. For the most part they are better drivers than your average motorist. Of course, exceptions exist.

I've had no trouble with professional truck drivers. U-Haul drivers, on the other hand....

Me too.

Professional truck drivers in Hawaii use to be JAMs until 1998, when the insurance companies got ahold of the union and threatened to pull out of the state. Union knowing what would happen to them, turned the driver attitude around.

The rent a truck drivers, non-union drivers and tourist bus drivers are still JAMs.

U Hauls and RVs frighten me

They are usually very good about giving me plenty of room on the roads.

I agree one hundred percent. I ride in an industrial park every morning and they go out of their way to share
the road with me. I often pull in a drive way and dismount so they know to go on. They are trying to make a
living and I don't want to slow them down.

Lots of good advice there. Some days I like to mix it up with traffic. On other days I prefer the quiet of the longer residential streets.

I too think it is rude to take the road just because I can.

Have had no problem with them just freaked me out. but now I take a road that says no trucks it has a sign with a pic of a truck and a red line thought the truck. but the other day a huge truck passed me on the road. I knew I just saw the sign and to make sure I wasn't seeing things on my way back home I saw the sign there. I'm thinking of calling it in and say hey I see truck on this road everyday.

+1 Plus the resulting push is great !!

LOL this thread especially caught my eye , the operator of a cmv(commercial motor vehicle) such as myself is very courteous of bicyclists/4wheelers. Truck Drivers on the other hand are not always so courteous and may from time to time take roads they not supossed to b on just to avoid going thru the port o entry/scalehouse. Call him in man if he's a truck driver he's making us operators look bad.

As an operator/truck driver i try to be courteous to cyclists (and all other traffic on the road). Because its the right thing to do , but also because my job depends on it. There does seem to be a few folks out there that graduate (truck driving school) and turn into super truckers tho , so their is 2 sides to that coin lol. Sorry man wasnt trying to hijack your thread. good luck out there lol

As an operator/truck driver i try to be courteous to cyclists (and all other traffic on the road). Because its the right thing to do , but also because my job depends on it. There does seem to be a few folks out there that graduate (truck driving school) and turn into super truckers tho , so their is 2 sides to that coin lol. Sorry man wasnt trying to hijack your thread. good luck out there lol

Is it strawberry? I hate strawberry.