Really, really un-bike friendly cities?
 

I'm going to school in MSU Mankato, MN. Which just happens to be a ****ing BRUTAL town to cycle in. It seems like I am constantly getting things thrown at me. (batteries, rocks, etc) people are constantly calling me a *** (which I'm not all that much of) and tell me to get a car, etc. You know all the good ones. I even got nailed by a car last week on my bmx bike after getting cut off by an SUV.

Does anyone else have to deal with a city like this? I spent most of my traffic riding time in Minneapolis and I never had ANY issues. (except getting hit by a car while standing on a sidewalk, which is a whole other story).

Yup.

"hey Lance! France is that way" *points other way*

thats my all time favorite

what's an un-bike?

Flawed logic, it still makes sense. If they're friendly towards the anti-bike, they must be un-bike friendly, and also un-bikefriendly.

I cannot accept your one presumption.

To wit: un-bike is not necessarily a synonym of anti-bike. 'un' may mean nil and not necessarily opposed to. Therefore, I know that Mankato may be friendly toward a lack of bikes.

they are just friendly to phenomena that are not bikes

could be bike friendly too

luckily i dont have to deal with flying batteries at the moment

and
 

throw back car batteries and yell "get a horse"

i feel this approach should start a meaningful and fulfilling discussion

you'll hug afterward i promise

Okay, okay - and clearly Mankato is an un-battery recycling friendly city.

Holy crap, I hope I didn't recommend that poster looking to transfer to a college with top-notch bicycling opportunities to check out Mankato.

Rochester isn't much better:
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmana...?a=296052&z=23

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmana...?a=296788&z=23

the comment sections made my head hurt.

As somone that grew up there, and will never live there again:

There is no reason to live in Rochester. I could get around fine by bike in rochester, but there is no reason to, because there is no where to go except for maybe a liqour store.

holy crap i say get a horse all the time when i see broken down cars

I ride through Seoul in South Korea a lot. Although not as brutal in terms of outright violence, it seems most Koreans are oblivious to most common rules of the road. Thrown in a bicycle and it's a surefire way to get killed.
And it's not just me riding a bike, I could be riding in a cab, bus, a friends car and i can almost surely count at least one time where they'll blow through a red like it never existed. Hell, I could be walking across the street between two idling cars and the car in the rear will move up just to fill in the space that i'm walking in. I swear i was walking here, but I guess not.

Are we talking Rochester, MN? (since there are other Rochesters, such as NY). Besides riding to the liquor store can't you ride your bike to go get your cancer fixed?

Houston, TX = horrible bike city.... unless you are into driving 30 minutes to ride with some corporate roadie types...

Toronto. Some cycling infrastructure exists but the understanding between motorists and cyclist. No way.

Apache Mall! Silver Lake! umm..... yeah!

I grew up in Mantorville. About 15miles west of you and that "big" city we affectionately called "Roch". Having lived outside of MN for the last 15 years, it blows my mind to hear how much times have changed. Having any MN city listed as being bike un-friendly is really something.

Yeah, out of all the cities I've ever visited, Houston was the worst. Basically freeways, stripmalls, and big box stores. Think I read on BF that they do have bike lines, but only made them to get federal funding for something, and aren't enforced ("get on the sidewalk ***!")

I second this. i have never been so scared on the road, either in a car or on my bike.

Tampa, sarasota, St. Pete. \

Huge distances, every road is a 6 lane, 45 mph (read 65 mph), 5 minute lights, HOOOOTTTTT, SUVs everwhere, all the time.

St. Pete's not as bad as the other 2, but there are so many fatalities.

One of the reasons I moved here was because on my first visit I was blown away by the number of cyclists, you have to go to hell to understand. In Houston, 1997, 2 years before I visited TO, there were less than 100 people commuting to work in downtown Houston by bicycle....in a city of 4.9 million. Bikes were ghosts, seen only beneath recent immigrants, children, roadies (in 2 distinct packs on particular days doing established training rides, beyond that you'd find some at the park, beyond that, nothing) and couriers, of which there were only 50. Even in the university areas there were few bikes and few with the courage to try and ride between UH and the rest of the city. You could ride for a week in the inner city and not see another bike rider. Outside the loop you could ride for a month and see just a few kids riding on the sidewalk. It's better now, but only marginally.

Imagine arriving in TO in early June '99 and seeing the thousands of bike commuters & recreationists? TO is like paradise compared to some southern US cities if your life has much bike in it.

Not to say things couldn't get better, they can, but I'm glad folks celebrate what they have here with Bike Week and all that because it's not necessarily a fact of life that people will ride bicycles, in some places they don't.

So, the anti-bike and the bike combine and cancel each other out, releasing photons?

This is a post I made on another forum the other day...
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So, my home town of Memphis, TN, is near last on the "bike friendly cities" list. We have a major park located on the outskirts of the city called Shelby Farms, whose major road of access is a tight, two-laned road that intersects with a highway loop nearby. There are "No Bike" signs along this section, effectively preventing cyclists as well as pedestrians entry into the park unless via motorized vehicle.

For two years, a group of advocates for the park wrestled with our city government and road engineers to add bike lanes to allow access, since they would be starting a major overhaul of the entire section of road. And, for two years, they were led to believe that bike and pedestrian lanes were being considered.

Long story short, the construction is well on its way to being finished, with no bike lanes, no nothing. Shameful.

Recently, a law was passed stating that all motorized vehicles passing a cyclist on the road must allow at least three feet of space between their vehicle and the cyclist, or else they will be ticketed. There was an article about this last week in our newspaper, and here are some of the letters to the editor:

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"Roads Not Designed For Sharing"

So we have a new law protecting bicyclists on the roads (June 6 article, "Rules of the road"). In my opinion, a bill should have been introduced making it illegal for a bicyclist to obstruct traffic and illegal for a bicyclist to put motorists' safety at stake. Too many times I have rounded a curve or topped a hill and had to take evasive action to avoid them. I'm referring to the guys and girls who are in the middle of the street simply enjoying their hobby, not the three people who actually ride bikes to work.

Our roads are designed for motorized vehicles, not bikes. Like it or not, our roads here are just not built to accommodate both.

There are laws preventing me from driving a golf cart or minibike on the road, because these toys are an obstruction of traffic. The same laws should prevent the bicycle enthusiast from obstructing traffic.

We pay a substantial amount of money to license our vehicles and we must be licensed to operate the vehicle on the road. Bicyclists pay no taxes, have no license and in general disregard most traffic laws.

If you guys want to enjoy your hobby, I say take it to Shelby Farms or somewhere else where you can pedal to your heart's content without obstructing traffic and putting yourself and motorists at risk.

Tim Taylor

Memphis
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"A neighborhood pain on two wheels"

You can see in the photo with your June 6 article "Rules of the road" that cyclists do not form a single line when motorized vehicles approach. They continue to hug that yellow line and just dare you to try and pass.

If the new law says you have to keep 3 feet away from the cyclist to pass, I guess there will be no passing, because they will not move away from that yellow line. It's no wonder motorists are so frustrated by the cyclists.

Our peace and quiet is shattered each and every Saturday and Sunday by the swarm of cyclists who yell, screech and scream like a bunch of banshees (not to mention the one that throws out his Altoids cans in the same spot every week). You can hear them even in the house, and they keep our dogs upset all weekend. Perhaps they could let us know where they live, and we could come by and cause a ruckus in their yard for a couple of hours each week.

We don't have a problem with the fact that they want to enjoy our rural setting, but please be respectful of our neighborhood. Surely you cyclists want to be good neighbors?

Linda Beaty

Arlington
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"Get off the road and hit the trail"

Maybe the new trails proposed for hikers and bikers will keep some of the bicycle riders off the small, two-lane, winding roads in the county during rush-hour traffic. These roads can hardly accommodate the line of cars during these peak times.

Also, since Tennessee has determined that a bicycle is by law to be treated as a slow-moving vehicle, maybe bicyclists should have to take a driver's test, get a license and tags, insurance and pay a wheel tax. With this extra income more bicycle trails and lanes could be constructed to make it safer for them, and drivers would not have to worry about staying 3 feet away from them.

Carol Williams

Arlington
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While some of these concerns are valid, the tone of this city is overwhelmingly anti-cyclist. Every single time I go out and ride, whether for fun or commute, I get harassed at least once or twice. Last night it was "get a car you ****in *****!" Last week, "get off our road!" about 10 times. And last fall, someone actually followed me all the way home - for about five miles - and into my goddamn driveway, rolled down their window and told me how as a cyclist I was creating a serious problem for motorists on the road and that what I was doing should be illegal.

So, be thankful if your city is even remotely bike friendly. Our government doesn't know what a "bike lane" is, nevermind the idea of promoting healthy, alternative, and safe means of transportation.

That's my rant, just thought I'd share. Some days it's too much.

columbus, ohio isn't that great. but it's not that bad, either, since i see more people ll the time on bikes, even just since i got here in january.

wait...maybe that's why i'm seeing more people. cuz it's not january anymore.

but, yeah...i had a car try to intentionally run down a group of my friends, actually hitting one, been hit by oblivious drivers who just shrug off anything you say about them having a responsibility to share the road, had a guy try to start a fight with me because he almost hit me ("hey, you're the one on the bike, you have to watch out for me! come over here and let me kick your ass!" etc)...the way the city is built is your average, poorly designed american city, built for the car culture...i dunno.

South Florida Sprawl

A+

but anyway, that does sound pretty brutal. sucks.