Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Getting more bicycles on the road, and keeping their riders safe.

Enjoy these two urban bicycling links, as provided by JP. Apologies if I'm repeating myself; I can recall conversations about these articles, though not attributions. Both pieces address questions of bicycle safety amid autos, beginning with perceptions reinforced by color.

Are Blue Bikelanes Better than Black?, by Lloyd Alter

... In other words, the driver ignores the painted line and treats the bike lane as part of his turf. Perhaps this is a good reason to paint the bike lanes a different colour, as they are considering in Toronto.
The next article considers safety by segregation.

Bicycle Highways: Should cities build specialized roadways for cyclists?, by Tom Vanderbilt.

... Not surprisingly, it's Portland—which may spend $600 million on bicycle infrastructure over the next 20 years, with a goal of upping the cycling rate to 25 percent of all trips by 2030—that has most energetically taken on the bicycle boulevard concept, even piggybacking bicycle-friendly traffic-calming measures onto
storm-water runoff treatments in its "green streets" program.

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