A friend of the blog writes:
Thought you’d enjoy this, from the people who say, “it’s not about entitlement for bicyclists, and we don’t hate cars” oh really? Yet you say Summit Ave should look like this, congested for one bike rider?
This is what Summit should look like. https://t.co/9cvA7u9k1y
— Father Sonn (@mikesonn) June 15, 2017
Which links to…:
This is what Summit should look like. https://t.co/9cvA7u9k1y
— Father Sonn (@mikesonn) June 15, 2017
First things first: I love biking. I love biking on Summit. And there are days when Summit, especially down by Lexington, does look exactly like that.
But the correspondent is right. When you watch “Urban Planners” (the people who make cyclocentrism possible) when they think nobody’s watching, the level of Urban Minnesotan Passive-Aggression is nauseating. The primary goal is as much about sticking it to drivers as it is about “bike-friendliness”; de-timing stoplights, putting obstacles and chicanes in roads to “calm” (read: snarl) traffic, and giving away traffic lanes to bikes, transit and trains.
Or whatever. As long as the Car People end up getting pissed on.
He works for the Met Council and can’t stand anyone disagreeing with him social media on the issue of bikes.
He is part of the close cadre of high density, bikes over cars, new urbanists that are trying to convert Highland and MacGroveland into an urban Utopia.
Mitch, like you I love cycling. But I don’t get the segment of the biking community that wants to take away from the driving public. They seem to think that a solution is not a win unless it pisses off people in cars.
This design does not work as well, IMO, as promoted. There is a segment designed like this on SE Oak by the U of MN campus. At least once a month, in early afternoon hours, I have encountered cars parked, not away from the curb as indicated, but in “normal” position against the curb, which blocks the bike lane.
Passengers are not used to looking before opening doors, drivers at least generally look before opening, so that a car doesn’t take off their door. So cyclists using this have to be even more aware of doors suddenly opening in front of them, and often there is less room to maneuver around it, because of the curb.
At intersections, the cyclists are even more at risk to turning vehicles, since the vehicles haven’t seen you, because the parked cars screen you from their vision.
And if the cyclist needs to make a left turn, the only real safe way is to become a pedestrian for the intersection, since you can’t reach the left turning lane.
I still prefer to be on the right of moving traffic, as a part of the traffic flow.
Cars and bicycles don’t mix. Urban planners who design paths & roads that bicycles and cars share are nuts. People will be killed.
In forty years of bicycling on surface streets I have suffered, in separate incidents:
-A broken knee.
-A broken arm.
-A fractured skull.
The fight over Cleveland Avenue in St Paul over the last few years was a perfect example. The bike mob didn’t give a damn about the parking spaces taken away for the small businesses on the corner of Cleveland and Randolph. It was an inside job between the bike lobby and city hall. Notices went up at the last minute to announce “listening sessions”, but in reality, the city and counties mind’s were made up.
The uppity peasants of Highland and MacGroveland fought hard, and the city/county ended up re-configuring the side walk to keep some parking spots, not all. Enough to keep the businesses in business? We’ll see.
I wrote to my council person, against the Cleveland lane. I don’t really think it needed, as Fairview has a lane already, but if need, should offset to Prior (east) or one block west ( forget street name).
Writing as a cyclist for the past ~38 years, starting with going to summer swim practice on my Schwinn Bantam (wish I still had that bike!), it strikes me that sometimes it seems as if bike lanes are designed to get me into trouble. You end up entering and leaving the main flow of traffic very often, which means a lot more chances for surprising drivers, which is a main cause of problems. Give me nice wide lanes and my blaze orange jacket, and life is beautiful for me.
I’ve logged over 1700 miles this year on my bike and not one of them in the city. I prefer the safety of wide shoulders and the low volume traffic of rural areas.
Dunning_Kruger belched: “I’ve logged over 1700 miles this year on my bike and not one of them in the city.”
We know, D_K. All of them were logged in the wide open spaces of your empty head.
I’ve lived in a rural county +30 years, not many roads have “wide shoulders”, in fact very few have shoulders wide enough to fully pull a car fully off the driving lane. We just slow down and give the bicycle riders a wide berth out of courtesy. I practice the same thing when I’m on my Harley.
r/K selection at work. The extension of r/K theory to politics explains so much that appears to make no sense to a K.
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/the-theory/rk-selection-theory