Bike lanes are not good enough

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I like a good bike lane. They separate me from cars when I’m on my bike and make me feel safer than riding in traffic. But they’re not perfect. Cars and delivery trucks will block them. Sometimes drivers open their doors into the bike lane without looking. And they don’t feel safe enough for most people. If we want more people to bike, we have to build better bike infrastructure, and the good news is that this is starting to happen here in the US, believe it or not. But we need to make this happen faster.
Resources:
A. www.northeastern.edu/peter.fur...
B. ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/p...
C. bikeleague.org/sites/default/f...
D. dutchcycling.nl/news/310-dutc...
Produced by Dave Amos in sunny Sacramento, California.
Edited by Eric Schneider in cloudy Cleveland, Ohio.

[@CityBeautiful]

Go to www.rethinkingstreets.com to get the design guides! You'll have to click through to another site to download, but it's worth the effort, I promise!

[@SeanNicholsEh]

These are great resources and I appreciate you bringing them to our attention!

[@RtaincCo]

My city is currently planning on adding bike lanes for the first time due to growth and culture, and it looks like they're planning on doing it right. www.scribd.com/document/380984990/Staunton-Bike-Ped-Draft-Plan-April-2018#from_embed

[@TheLordWeiderUA]

This link doesn`t work for me :(

[@TheRealCartman1]

Yeah, let's promote the awesome bike parking lot in Malmo and ignore the fact you'll be killed by followers of the religion of peace. Cities like Malmo need to stop focusing on feel good issues and deal with real issues affecting everyone like violent crime

[@bestboy007]

0:50 Sorry, but this aren't fearless and strong cyclists. It's called stupidity. "Okey, mom, thanks for taking me. Bye, love you." She then opens the door, and in the same moment a cyclist crashes into the door and girl. Yes... very "strong" cyclist.

[@victormn47]

"the US isn't Europe" - another argument is that both Copenhagen and Amsterdam were super car centric 40-50 years ago.

[@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102]

Also Montréal provides a good counterexample because it's a city with amazing bike infrastracture despite being a North American city with many autoroutes and cars on the road.

[@tstcikhthys]

It would be as stupid as saying "The US isn't Europe" in reference to things like adopting the Industrial Revolution, bikes, or even cars themselves!

[@supernenechi]

I saw a picture of the "Grote Markt" (big market) in Delft from that time once. Currently it's a big plaza totally without cars. Back then, cars were parked there. So weird to think about not that long ago, my own country was what I would now call just badly designed and horrible

[@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102]

@Thomas wide streets/stroads are actually bad for cyclists though because a) they aren't walkable and are built with cars in mind and b) whenever bike infrastructure is built on the edge of a stroad cars are always accommodated in the middle. It's much harder to get rid of cars from the road when the streets are made purposefully wide to accommodate driving.

[@FahrvergnugenTaglich]

I agree. I;m so tired of that argument.

[@atomicsmith]

There are some great isolated bike infrastructure in lots of US cities. What we really need is COMPREHENSIVE network planning for entire cities. I've seen too many examples of an ideal corridor ending abruptly and becoming cycling hell immediately. This is almost worse than no infrastructure because it takes away road space from drivers - creating resentment - while not providing enough benefit to attract cyclists. Less than ideal bike lanes rigorously planned for continuous navigation are better than localized 'perfect' infrastructure.

[@peterslegers6121]

@dandanthetaximan That's a common thing in cul-de-sacs / durchlässige Sackgassen kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqrTnJasmdl8o8k

[@Clowd009]

San Francisco seems to have arrived at some enlightenment on this; while relatively little expensive/very high quality bike infrastructure has gone in, the city is on track to turn over a significant amount of street space to bikes via lower cost "quick build" projects. The pace is so fast its hard to find an up-to-date map of the bike network.

[@hedgehog3180]

That is what the majority of bike infrastructure is like here. The thinking is a bit like with cars really, not every street needs to be a highway so most bike lanes here are either painted (and drivers and pedestrians respect them) on or are just raised bits of the regular street separated by a curb. Then there are a few that are basically highways, there's a street that runs parallel to a motor way here in the city that's mostly closed to cars so it's basically an entire street for bikes and it makes sense since so much bike traffic there. Then further outside the city there are also some separated bike paths that run along longer routes, like say to the hospital. The entire system is connected and it works in a way where if you're inside the city you are always on some sort of bike path and then the longer and more tiring routes outside the city have more purpose built paths that make the routes a bit easier.

[@latenightthinker4737]

We need to start large scale. To get rid of car culture. Don't start with inner city bicycle infrastructure, start with city to city infrastructure. That way we can truly justify not owning a car

[@kawaiidere1023]

Yeah, my area has a bike network, but it cuts of constantly by rivers or roads before getting anywhere interesting

[@Oldschool_Gamer_]

Another argument against the "bikes won't work in the US" and "our cities aren't made for this" is: The Dutch cycling infrastructure hasn't been around for as long as bikes have, our cycling infrastructure projects started in the 70s, and by the 80s-90s bikes were as big a part of dutch culture as our tulips and windmills.

[@icebraining]

Great documentary about the fight for safer streets for cyclists and pedestrians in Amsterdam in the 70s: kzbin.info/www/bejne/j4qZgYR3fpmHkKc Gets me teary-eyed every time.

[@rutgerb]

When did the car take off in the Netherlands? And how did people get around between 1900 and 1960? The idea the country was carcentric is false. An automobile wasnt leading for most of the century.

[@Die__Ene]

@@rutgerb The streets shown in the documentary linked by icebraining reminds me of modern day North American urban streets, car-wise. I realize that the neighbourhood shown must've been one of the worst in this regard but by 1972 standards I'd say that's pretty car-centric. If the country as a whole wasnt car-centric yet, it seems it was heading in that direction if not for the bike intervention.

[@rutgerb]

@@Die__Ene true. I think i was having my period or something

[@peterslegers6121]

@@rutgerb Here´s another video with some statistics: kzbin.info/www/bejne/enzFg39shNWcnMk The Dutch got some more wealth in the 1960s and they bought their first car and television whenever they could. In the early seventies the amount of children's death by traffic had risen so high, that car traffic was described as the year round hunting for small game. In the 60s most town squares became car parks. Urban planners made plans like Bakema's Plan Pampus, which had a central 14 car lanes highway and a monorail, surrounded by islands with high rise buildings. Even old town halls like in Eindhoven were torn down to make way for cars.

[@loonatic1011]

Advisory bike lanes (ABL)? In Belgium the term for those advisory bike lanes "Moordstrookje" has been voted word of the year 2018. A literal translation is "murder strip". In Germany we have tons of those. An official name for them is "Schutzstreifen" (literal: protection strip) but cycling activists call them "Schmutzstreifen" (dirt strip) or "Scherzstreifen" (joke strip). What is wrong about them is that they indicate "this is where bikes should be" and "the rest is car space". Two things happen as a consequence: Firstly, whenever someone rides outside of this ABL, motorists view them even more as obstacles because they assume that the cyclists belong in their strip. So if you want to turn left or overtake another cyclist and move out the ABL for that you are honked at, cut off, yelled at, and endagered even more by motorists than on regular streets without ABL. Secondly, motorists assume that so long as they drive outside the ABL they can overtake cyclists that are in the ABL. Since there is no buffer zone between ABL and "car space", this leads to dangerous close passes at high speeds. ABLs only are safe in a world where streets without any biking infrastructure are safe too: A world where drivers accept cyclists as viable part of traffic and as human beings that must not be endangered. In the world we have though none of that is the case and therefore ABLs are what Belgians call them: murder strips. ABLs are what lazy traffic planners do, when there is not abundant space and they are too big of a coward to take some space from cars or they want to brag about how many km or miles of cycling infrastructure they have created but at the same time are not given any money by politicians. Paint is cheaper than actual traffic construction. But PAINT IS NOT INFRASTRUCTURE. So please stop telling people that advisory bike lanes are good. They are simply dangerous, lazy pieces of pseudo-infrastructure.

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

#PaintIsNotInfrastructure

[@larsandtheworld]

Hmm, I like your point. I'm a Belgian, but had to look up the word "moordstrookje". It didn't register with me at first. When I think about the painted bike lanes, I think about the new broad red lanes on smooth asphalt without any white markings or the beige-ish strips on the side of the road. The first one indicitaing that you HAVE to stay in the red and that indeed you are in the wrong if you ride outside of the red zone. The beige-ish ones being a relatively new thing here and being an actual advice lane, but leaving cyclists free to legally ride in the street (keep in mind that "legal" isn't really the focus of my story, it's more an indicator of what behaviour is normalized within the culture). In my experience both work because the red/street system is very much ingrained in the culture, and the colour difference really feels like a wall separating you from traffic. You'll rarely see a car riding in this bike lane and there is typically enough space to comfortably overtake people. With the beige-ish system, if a car is being a dick and driving you of the road, you can always retreat to the safety of the painted lane, which drivers still consider a no-drive zone, even though they legally can consider it part of their space as well. HOWEVER, I do agree with your point. See, the image I formed in my head, is painted bike lanes done right, in a culture that knows how to handle cyclists. Every driver also rides a bike on a regular basis as a means of transportation and historical urban infrastructure has shaped the city in a way that makes coexistence between cyclists and drivers inevitable. But when I looked up what a "moordstrookje" specifically refers to, I was painfully reminded of how things can go wrong. See, Belgium is a tiny country, with more infrastructure than nature. A lot of it is calm little villages or bustling little towns, but connecting all these bike friendly centers, are long intercity streets. These streets, often one- or two-lane in 2 directions, where cars are allowed to go over the 50 and 30 km/h limits of the city centers, designed to quickly drive from one town to another. Now, we're a bike culture, of course there's also going to be cyclists on these streets. But there wasn't any space for them. Houses are often built right to the side of these roads ("lintbebouwing", something we're ridiculously good at), or there are cars parked between traffic and the houses, leaving no space or motivation to build sperated bike lanes. These "lintbebouwing" houses are usually right in between towns and there's no parking anywhere reasonably near, so they really hang on to this parking space. Our solution? Let's cordon of this tiny bit of road with some white lines on the old and pothole riddled macadam. But wait, let's make it worse. Let's make like a super weird design, that gives just under enough space to cyclists, but paint everything in a way that makes it feel even narrower and unsafer than it is, with a weird 4 line pattern. Now, technically this design is chosen because it uses official road markings telling cars they have to stay out of the lane, but that cyclists can come onto the road. However, in practice it leads to the opposite, as described above. Soit, I'm getting lost in my own rant, but I'll get to my point now. Loon Attic's critique is definitely valid, I can give plenty of anecdotal evidence to their story and I'm sure there's some hard evidence to support your point too. But in my experience paint CAN (it doesn't always) work. I 100% agree that our aspirations should be infrastructure, I find it can give a solution to many many problems. But I also think we should keep considering paint and street signs, as they are easier to implement politically, and focus our attention equally to education and culture and other forms of soft infrastructure. Think of it as walking before you learn to run. In a lot of Europe, we have reached a steady jogging level, and no doubt that we should be campaigning for the sprinting stage of hard infrastructure. But I can imagine that Northern America is only just learning to go on a proper hike, and that the small victories that ABL's can offer will do more in the short term changing of mindset and behaviour, which will in turn allow bigger changes to allow them to reach our level of infrastructure and more. Who knows, they might even avoid all of our mistakes and come up with new systems we end up learning from! Then again, the Americans seem to have a knack for fixing things until they break, and you are left with two groups of people hating each other, which is another story entirely. Anyway, didn't expect this to become a whole soliloquy on political strategy, but here you go. Hope you can get something from reading this, I definitely enjoyed reading Loon Attic's views. Peace!

[@snoopyloopy]

Actually, advisory bike lanes are fine if done properly. The problem is that the American implementations are trending toward building them with center lanes which are precisely the width that the Dutch have found to be the most dangerous. Also, they're not really intended for extremely busy roads, so that's an additional area where they might be getting misused.

[@alexq6404]

We had one in the UK near me and it was removed within a year because there were about 6 deaths from cars squeezing past cyclists. I shudder every time I see the mark where the paint used to be

[@greedtheron8362]

The term I've seen thrown around is 'Painted Bicycle Gutters', murder strip seems a little on the nose.

[@veganmonter]

Jay Foreman made a good argument about special bike lanes in London. Copenhagen and Amsterdam don't have a bunch of crazy bike people. They just have special and segmented bike lanes. Edit: Even though London is a dense city, not too many people bike because, just like here, they don't want to bike next to cars. London doesn't have those special bike lanes.

[@matilim2529]

@Tim Huizinga yeah but most streets in London don't have bike lanes, and many of the ones that do are these depressing little things that are like less than wide

[@Mira_linn]

@Tim Huizinga but raised from street level by a curve stone just like a sidewalk what makes them feel more separated or separated by parked cars and even the red pavement helps with keeping cars from blocking the lane or sliding into them

[@veganmonter]

@Tim Huizinga You know I was thinking about when I visited Tokyo, you walked and biked on the side streets. You shared the road with the cars. However, the speed limits are (I believe) 30KMH (~18MPH) on most side streets. I never felt unsafe walking down the middle of a road (except for those sneaky electric cars). Here in Los Angeles, I would NEVER feel safe walking down a side street. Even if the limit is 25MPH and speed bumps are every 100 feet; cars go WAY too fast down streets. Perhaps most American's are too impatient behind the wheel? And also people don't expect some guy wobbling around in the streets after a few rice wines at his favorite Izakaya. I remember walking down some street one Friday night in Tokyo: a group of salarymen where walking shoulder to shoulder drunk and happy. Behind them was one REALLY patient driver. In the US (especially LA), a driver would be blaring their horn and doing everything in their power to get around them, even if it involved knocking down trash cans.

[@custardo]

This is indeed something I noticed as well. An attempt has been made, but it's not enough. You just cannot create a decent cycling infrastructure using paint alone. It would be a lot worse if London didn't have such a dense public transport network, but I have to say the Brits sure do love their cars.

[@veganmonter]

@Tim Huizinga I didn't think about education. I know there is the Dutch Reach method of opening a door. When I'm in Santa Monica, I actually practice it after I almost whacked a guy on a Bird scooter.

[@randybuttigieg6776]

I had the unique opportunity to talk to a city planner while on a long distance ride in 2012. He was from my city, he told me after asking me where I was coming from/going. He mentioned all the great projects the city had undertaken to increase cycling safety. At the time they had lanes that would start on the road then combine with the sidewalk and vice versa. They weren't separated from traffic very well either. He asked me what I thought of them and I told him it was better than nothing, but was frank that the city could do much better. Fast forward some years and the city has started putting in separated lanes and making a real effort towards cycling. Wish I could meet that guy again and thank him.

[@chrisw443]

downlaods pdfs, turns on cities skylines, *HEAVY BREATHING*

[@bestboy007]

0:50 Sorry, but this aren't fearless and strong cyclists. It's called stupidity. "Okey, mom, thanks for taking me. Bye, love you." She then opens the door, and in the same moment a cyclist crashes into the door and girl. Yes... very "strong" cyclist.

[@harrysarso]

@@bestboy007 are you actually trying to blame the biker?

[@bestboy007]

@@harrysarso blaming for what?

[@bestboy007]

@@therealdeemz_ blaming both :D but the cyclist will get the damage. the little girl which opens the door won't

[@juch3]

@@bestboy007 blaming cyclist for using the road they are legally allowed to use, typical

[@MariusRenn]

But also, make sure bike lanes are FUNCTIONAL and lead somewhere. Too often here in the USA I feel biking is considered recreational only. In my town they just added a new transit station (woohoo!), with bike parking (woohoo!), but with bike lanes leading out into large express-ways, where there are abandoned (boo!). We have to be serious about biking and actually make them usable - not just an afterthought to car-centric projects.

[@CityBeautiful]

YES

[@georgefrench6876]

We just love to add sharrows in my city and pat ourselves on the back saying: look we’re connected to the downtown core

[@FPOAK]

"There's no reason to treat bikes and scooters any worse than we treat cars." Exactly! There's a pervasive notion that cars have a monopoly on the use of roads and the rest of should just grateful for any space they allow us to have. It's almost a "might makes right" type of idea, and it seems to be the philosophy behind a lot of bad street planning. Fresno recently built a Bus Rapid Transit system and extended the curbs at bus stops so that the bus blocks a lane of traffic and reduces loading times. Many locals are indignant over the idea that the city would do anything that makes driving even _slightly_ less convenient (like having to briefly move over one lane to get around a bus), despite the fact that most cars only have one person in them and most buses have many more than that. It's often just treated as a self-evident truth that the convenience of somebody in a car ought to take precedence over the convenience of bicyclists, pedestrians, scooter riders, and public transit users.

[@jayarecallens]

Chimfish it annoys people in Fresno that are stuck on the notion of a car-centric perspective.

[@Strideo1]

Originally streets and roads weren't even built for cars. Pedestrians, carts, bicycles, wagons, streetcars, and horses all used the streets in cities until the early 1900's. The auto industry actually started advertising that only rubes and yokels walked in the middle of the streets blocking automobile traffic.

[@TheSpecialJ11]

People treat it as if roads are paid for by drivers. No, they're infrastructure funded by taxpayers, regardless of whether those taxpayers use it. Why is making infrastructure for other modes of transportation any different?

[@ArmyRangerSJ]

Here in Knoxville outside of the downtown they have put down some dedicated 2 feet between bikes and cars or no area for bikes outside of the right side of the road or sidewalks. I biked to work one day through Suburbia and it was fricking scary! I went by 16 wheelers several times going through intersections and was inches away from doors for some places. Others I had to wait like at a bridge head for traffic to cease for 5 seconds...

[@bnorberg988]

@Brutus Tan You don't need a counter argument. Your statement falls flat all on its own.

[@epsospremium6088]

*Cycling improves personal health.* It's like an investment into the healthcare. More cycling infrastructure will reduce the cost of healthcare in US ! The cycling roads also need less maintenance, because they do not suffer as much wear as the road under the car. It's like saving public money, while having a bit more options for trips available.

[@hedgehog3180]

Cycling improves health in two ways, firstly it obviously gives you exercise and some fresh air but secondly the cars that it removes from the roads improves air quality which also improves health.

[@latenightthinker4737]

@ Don't forget how many of us die from car accidents each year and not to mention the money flushed down the drain of hospital bills, insurance, etc. Cars cost this country a fuck ton of money and time

[@namelessone3339]

And bicyclists don't pay license fees, wheelage fees or sales taxes for the construction and maintenance of their lanes--another welfare entitlement.

[@sandypan777]

@@namelessone3339 saving public money = preventing pockets from getting fat.

[@HairyGhostbear]

Although I see your point and I do agree with you, cycling not always improves health. A study done in Brussels (Belgium) showed that cycling in the city center was the least healthy form of transportation, due to the amount of air pollution, combined with the fact that cyclists are close to the source (exhaust pipes from cars) and often breath deeper/more heavily due to the exercise. These factors combined made for a high chance of getting lung-related health issues, even higher than for pedestrians in the same area. So just cycling is not the answer, you need to reduce the amount of motorized traffic significantly as well

[@chrisb508]

I live in a medium sized town in in West Texas and have bike commuted for a year and a half. I still get a lot of warnings from coworkers that I should drive a car because a bicycle isn't safe. I disagree. Commuting to work is win win for me. I can't understand why the people I work with can't see that.

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

BBQ, big truck and oil country..I know!

[@Lillith.]

For an adult it's probably the easiest way to get some exercise.

[@lars1588]

They can't see it because they don't know what it's like.

[@dutchman7623]

I live in a medium sized town in the south of the Netherlands and bike commuted for fifty five years and still do. Most of my coworkers do the same or use public transport to come to the train station and walk the last five minutes to work. Because the office I work in is in center city, it would be very costly to use a car because of parking fees. Bicycle parking is downstairs under the office. And an elevator takes me to the third floor because I had enough exercise for the morning.

[@chrisb508]

@@dutchman7623 I wish we could learn from this example where bicycling and public transportation is encouraged. :-)

[@frillneckedlizard8529]

I guess I am privaliged as someone living in the netherlands.

[@RichardHartl]

As a Canadian, we look at your country as the pinnacle of biking infrastructure. You are definitely privileged in regards to biking

[@cristiansoutside]

You really are. I literally dont even have bike trail

[@Dark__Thoughts]

You are, and as a German I envy you. The car lobby is so strong here... :(

[@paulinebelford2645]

I moved to Sweden last year. I'm really impressed with the cycling infrastructure here. Cycling is now my default mode of transportation.

[@lordkent8143]

@@Dark__Thoughts Autobahn and the big three German auto makers. I am not surprised. At least you guys still have better public transit than here in the States.

[@supernenechi]

A sure way to get bikes to work, is to mix residential and commercial properties together. It's not the only way, but it sure makes it work 100% of the time. Build shops and restaurants on ground level, adjecent to the street with apartments on top of them. People can go out grocery shopping every day and it only takes a minute or two to get to a store and pick up what you need. No hour long drive once or twice a week. If you need to get to the other side of town, just take the bike or public transport and you're there in no time! If you make sure people have to drive a long way between services and their homes, you will never have people biking everywhere. It makes no sense to do so then. That's why Americans think biking doesn't work, they're used to everything being so far away. But that's only by design and doesn't have to be like that. In fact, it's only the US and Canada that do it like that to their extremes

[@airops423]

That is one thing I love about living in San Francisco.

[@jodi183]

@@airops423 NYC even better

[@Ryan_hey]

Mixed use development is the best there is. It's slowly becoming more popular in the US...emphasis in "slowly".

[@bbmikej]

I think the whole "America loves their cars too much" argument is a bad one. There are loads of people out there who want not just bike lanes, but increased public transit also. They just are not vocal. We tend to have 2 major misconceptions that alter how we build. The first is that need should lead to construction instead of the "if you build it, they will come" thought. Just because no one is actively campaigning for things doesn't mean there isn't a want. We feel like we should build only after the need is shown. This video does a good job showing how a proactive approach is best. Just because no one is riding bikes on the road doesn't mean people wouldn't, it just means that people aren't comfortable riding their bike on that specific road making them choose another option. The second is more about transit. We have this view that a transportation system should make money. Why? It's job is to move people from one place to another, just like roads. But, we don't expect a road to be "profitable". How many roads out there are toll roads; that is truly the only way a road can make money. We should view these things as infrastructure instead of a company that needs to break even.

[@custardo]

I think it not so much the case that Americans love their cars, but that car ownership thought of as a given, and urban planning tends, or tended, to reflect that. Cities have sprawled so much that the car often the only viable mode of transport. You can paint cycle lanes until the cows come home, but no one is going to cycle miles and miles to do the groceries. Compact population centres with amenities close by, that's what creates a cycle friendly environment in the first place.

[@chongjunxiang3002]

Because: If I have a car equip with air-con, leather seats, stereo and generally safety and ego dominance on the road, why I bother use the bike in the first place?

[@chongjunxiang3002]

I bet within 2020, all the road mentioned in this video will revert back to freeway style roads because pressure from their town councils and driver lobbyist.

[@bbmikej]

@@chongjunxiang3002 If you are in a larger city, your car may not be near your apartment. Combine that with having to find a space once you get where you are going. It could be quicker to just bike once you add in that plus traffic.

[@GingerWritings]

@@custardo You are right, that is the big issue. Sprawl created a car-based transit system. The change now is that urban centers are condensing, like here in the Bay Area, and as it condenses, the city centers are turning to bike and pedestrian lanes to fix this. Most of the new apartments are high price, and large, but each new apartment building is like stacking an entire housing development on a fraction of the land. So as the US becomes more and more urbanized, with soon to be 70% of our population in about 2% of our land, we will see this rise. The issue then will be connecting the cities.

[@drdewott9154]

As a Copenhagener I definitely approve of the sidewalk level bikelane. They're shielded from traffic that way, not to mention if a cyclist was ts to stop at a store they find interesting, they won't have some crazy bump to get over. This could even work when the bike lane is right next to the cars as there's still the elevation buffer. Here in Copenhagen most street has a middle ground with bike lanes elevated one bit (about 10-15cm) above the road and the sidewalk elevated another bit so that everyone feels safe while not compromising convenience

[@Maurazio]

in italy there's also a defensive design concept behind it I think, you need a noticeable curb on both sides to avoid people parking, walking or putting stuff in there.

[@zacozacoify]

I think he means definitely not defy Italy.

[@seraphina985]

Arguably it would be better to have a separation of at least a car door width from the kerb though, whether by putting a grass verge or something along there or by putting the footpath closer to the road. Carelessly opened car doors pose a greater threats to bikes than walkers that can arrest their momentum in a much shorter distance, not that they should have to of course but there are plenty of arrogant drivers that don't look who is coming before opening the door.

[@drdewott9154]

@@zacozacoify thanks. I didn't notice my phone had autocorrected it to that.

[@nyankosensei1183]

In my biking experience sidewalk level bikelane isn't great because.. PEDESTRIANS! God they are pain in the butt! As soon as pedestrians feel themselves safe from car traffic you can be sure you will be bumping into them on dedicated bike lanes like ALWAYS! It's like they don't give a shit about making someones biking uncomfortable. So my two cents: you should build road level bike lanes (uncomfortable for pedestrians) for fast riding and mixed usage sideways for slow riding. Making sidewalks level bike lanes is basically a waste of money and space.

[@TheReykjavik]

These are great for drivers. One, I don't have to worry as much about hitting a bike rider, and two, every time a person rides a bike instead of driving, that is one less car in my way.

[@jasonreed7522]

If only more people would realize the best way to improve everything about driving is to have less drivers by giving people options to avoid driving.

[@coolundbidda7611]

Cycling is the future of cities and we need to get ready for it. Especially during the current pandemic there is a perfect opportunity to reevaluate the distribution of space in our streets and build Bike-lanes and better intersections more easily. Talking about health, going by bike is also the healthiest form of getting around (that is, if you are not hit by a car due to bad eg car oriented traffic planning).

[@lohphat]

As a biker in the US who's lived both in San Francisco and NYC, NYC is much more bike-able due to lack of hills and density of CitiBike docks. SF is just too hilly for older bikers -- compare with NYC or Copenhagen or Amsterdam, those cities are denser and flat. The car enabled the worse-case in urban planning. I grew up in suburbia and a car in California is a birthright as you can't access employment options without one. Now in NYC, I gave away the car and enjoy not sitting in traffic. It's either walk, bike, or subway. This is the way to beat climate-change.

[@CityBeautiful]

I agree that NYC is more bike-able, but I was in SF yesterday and impressed by the number of protected bike lanes downtown. Progress!

[@rjh00]

E-bikes are the perfect solution for hilly cities, for everywhere else a normal bike i good enough.

[@Maurazio]

sadly hills are an excuse that some politicians love, but nowadays it's not only about traditional bikes, in 10 years we will see a majority of ebikesand escooters etc.

[@ecoKady]

How do you get anywhere in winter on a bike?

[@ericherrero3212]

Also live in SF. Motorcycle is the best way to get around.

[@modolief]

2:05 “[bikes] also don’t take up a lot of space, which literally makes them a good fit for dense urban spaces.” OMG, someone who correctly uses the word “literally”, thank you!

[@senzanome8294]

We need to copy the Dutch bike solution to traffic control. We need to make it safer for children and seniors.

[@RedRocketthefirst]

Yeah.NOT THE DANISH SOLUTION! THAT WILL END UP ONLY KILLING PEOPLE!

[@PixelShade]

The great thing about the US is that you have already built wide roads. That way it will be much easier to adapt for bikes. :)

[@crazyassailant]

Yay, a video on biking infrastructure!

[@michelium106]

Living in the Netherlands where this is a reality. My 30 min commute through a big city is almost all on separated bike paths and roundabouts which prioritise cyclists. If you have any questions hit me up haha

[@DarthHater100]

No wonder bike lanes are so popular in the Netherlands. Over here, if you're an adult on a bike, it's extremely likely that you're a drug addict. Would make sense that a country like the Netherlands, which is full of drug addicts because many drugs are legal, would adopt bike lanes. If your police would crack down on drugs, those bike lanes would be empty, like they are over here.

[@comicbookguy2326]

@@DarthHater100 wtf did you just say? people who ride bikes are junkies? lmao

[@DarthHater100]

@@comicbookguy2326 Or methheads, potheads, crackheads etc. In Canada if you ride a bike, you obviously can't afford a car, and the reason is usually drug addiction or other criminal behaviour. Why else would an adult ride a bike? Maybe a fat boomer trying to catch up on exercise I guess. . .

[@comicbookguy2326]

@@DarthHater100 oh my god, the supidity in this comment is insane, sounds like a troll but at the same time doesn't. people in the netherlands obviously can afford a car and just choose not to because of good bike infrastructure, less traffic for bikes, less polution and millions more reasons

[@r.d.9399]

No way in hell I'm spending 30 minutes on a bike one way to work when a car would be 5-10 minutes. U.S. cities are dangerous as fuck. Chances of being robbed are off the charts when riding bikes or walking.

[@LenoresW]

I'm from the Netherlands and I use a bike everyday!

[@fotinisuperawesome]

Lenores ok epic

[@xmateinc]

Im from the US and I use a bike everyday!

[@joseaguirre744]

Ok boomer

[@TheRealMrSkippy]

Jose Aguirre in The Netherlands many Boomers bike(d) to work every day also, be it an electric bike these days...

[@deezynar]

That's great, but why do you ride a bike every day? It gets really cold there in the winter, and the wind blows hard off of the North Sea. Why don't you drive your car?

[@ethand2731]

Take a look into what is happening down in Richmond Virginia. As an old city the are facing some unique problems but they are going all in with bike infrastructure. So far they have dedicated bike paths going reaching halfway through the city along with many more lanes with vertical barriers between cyclists and cars (sometimes with floating parking). Also they have a dedicated color to all bike lanes to help everyone identify them.

[@PeterAuto1]

sounds similar to the Netherlands

[@rfldss89]

We should definitely start measuring bike efficiency in miles per burrito

[@jasonreed7522]

You could theoretically convert any normal unit to that one. Its just miles per unit energy, a standard burrito worth of calories is probably the hardest part of the entire process because that gives you miles per Calorie which is 1000 calories (a base unit that is equal to 4.81J and Joules are universal) You also gotta figure out the efficiency of food in to exercise out, ask a nutritionist that one.

[@namenamename390]

As Jay Foreman said in his bike episode of unfinished london: "If you build it, they will come!". If there is safe, efficient cycle infrastructure, it will attract many users by itself.

[@johnkamot3237]

I would love to see that considering the UK's weather. Not saying it won't be used, but I wanna see how much money and political will get it done just to see it used significantly less than intended.

[@namenamename390]

@@johnkamot3237 well, search for "unfinished London bikes" and you'll see what current bike infrastructure in London is like, how it got to how it is and how many people are using it.

[@johnkamot3237]

@@namenamename390 The amount of people using it falls by a little more than 70% during winter and a little over 65% during fall according to the UK's official DOT website. I also lived in London for 6 years while woking at HSBC from 2012-2018, so I know exactly how their bike infrastructure is like and don't really care how it got there.

[@namenamename390]

@@johnkamot3237 ok, I didn't know you lived in London, so you probably have a more accurate image than me

[@Grort]

@@johnkamot3237 The Scottish Highlands has the most people who cycle to work and school of all the regions of Scotland, despite pretty bad weather and hilly country. The reason is probably because the roads are quiet enough that combined with multi-use paths between villages and moderate infrastructure in Inverness that you can feasibly use it without feeling in danger. Make it comfortable, make it feel safe, and keep it maintained, and while it will dip in the winter, people will use it year round. I use it year round. It'll be a slower shift, because it involves a shift in culture about how you go to work, but you need the infrastructure there, you need the pedestrianised routes and the cycling routes to be competitive with cars, not less direct and longer distance. It can work if implemented half-decently: we haven't, in general, been doing it with a coherent vision in the UK, and frankly it's sort of impressive numbers are as decent as they are.

[@KyurekiHana]

How do you stay so enthusiastic about this stuff? I live in Seattle, right on a street where the city was trying to install bike lanes which lead to construction equipment being sabotaged. Every improvement the city tries to make here for bikes and pedestrians are controversial.

[@AmbientMorality]

Oh my god 35th. I live near there and I swear I (and my family) was the only household on the block in favor of bike lanes. Shame that the city was spineless.

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

@@AmbientMorality There is a good bit of hypocrisy in the PNW where people claim to be for cycling but really aren't and just drive.

[@AmbientMorality]

Nicholas Littlejohn For cycling, unless it inconveniences them in the slightest.

[@manictiger]

Yeah, there are better uses for that state income tax. Wait a sec, there IS NO state income tax! Some people are just miserable to be miserable. Edit: Oh man, I bet it was fat people. I didn't even think about that: health-envy.

[@stewiegriffin3456]

Alex Abbott controversial for a reason- its a waste of money. just look at the separated bike line on broadway. i dont think i have ever seen a single person biking there. and how much did its construction cost? and how much on street parking does it take away? a whole lot.

[@Vahlee-A]

Oh yeah, I remember crashing into some dude's door once, on Washington Street while I was riding in the left lane about to turn left. The car was parked, with the lights off, and I was riding past the car at about 25 miles per hour. The passenger door opened as soon as I was passing the car and I hit it with my leg and flew off the bike. The door was mangled pretty badly and was unable to close. The passenger disappeared pretty quickly, and the driver tried to make it my fault for not letting him out, saying he had his turn signal on. He did not, because I was watching all the cars around me for turn signals, since they're really easy to see when almost nobody uses them. And if he had been trying to leave the parking space, the passenger wouldn't have gotten out of the car or would have done so much earlier. Tried to tell me he wouldn't press charges on ME. I realize this isn't Washington Street but yeah, that missing barrier would probably turn me off of using the bike lane. I do not want to crash into another door, that shit hurts. A lot.

[@CivilGuy]

After cycling through DC I realized the importance of a buffer between vehicular traffic and the bike lane.

[@llamamem]

I live in Mechelen, Belgium. Here they have what it’s called a “bike zone”, where maximum speed is 30km/h (aprox 18 mph) and bike may use the whole width of the lane. Cars are not allowed to overtake bikes. So it is a shared road scheme that prioritises bikes. They started with a few streets and now it’s been expanded to the whole centre of the city. I cannot day that all car drivers respect the rules, but I asume most will eventually.

[@PeterAuto1]

In Karlsruhe, Germany we have the same thing

[@DarthHater100]

So traffic is backed up for miles behind a single biker? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

[@llamamem]

@@DarthHater100 Sure, Jan

[@AssBlasster]

@@DarthHater100 The speed limit is set at a fast speed for a bike, so I hardly expect bikes causing a traffic jam

[@SarsTheSecond]

@@DarthHater100 inbred cager maniac. Speed limnit is 30-40 kmh in cities.

[@katiekawaii]

I love the idea of those raised bike lanes, even as a driver. I don't want to hurt a person riding a bike any more than they want me to hurt them. And I think a lot of streets here in LA have the room for them.

[@porterc5751]

I found this channel a while ago but I recently started college and am studying city planning. A lot of these videos are being assigned in my intro to city planning class. PPPM 205 with prof. Schlossberg!! I didn't know he collaborated with this channel, super cool

[@rayahui3768]

I love the thoughtful videos and discussion you bring to the KZbin community. The enthusiasm and clearly well thought-out scripts are great. I do think you could stand a little farther from the camera if you could in some parts if that's OK. Thank you for your videos. :)

[@Guilherme-J]

The one discussion on bike I rarely see is on the subject of rain. 3 years ago I lived in Joinville, Brazil. The city has many bike lanes and the terrain is mostly flat. I used my bicycle there whenever I could for transportation. But it also rains a lot there, with chunky raindrops that a just wearing a raincoat isn't enough. I didn't have a car, so I depended on buses (that got stuck on jams) and walking for the "last mile" and overall it took way much more time, patience and money (bus fare). But people I knew with cars would switch immediately to them upon rain.

[@Guilherme-J]

​@TiddlyJack I had one of those and was nearly useless in heavy rain, due to logistics issues (like storing it wet), all the dirt and wet shoes, still sometimes the rain was too heavy for the poncho. I had always to try to ride with my head pointing downwards or else my eyes would get hit with too much water, carrying cargo in a backpack meant that the poncho would go over it, unprotecting other parts of the body. Mud and the likes also were damn annoying. I wonder if, in more heavier bicycle traffic thoroughfares, would it be possible to install tilted roofs over the sidewalks (that would benefit pedestrians aswell) and bike lanes. Also the concept of heavy rain may vary from place to place. When I was in Scotland I realised heavy rain for the people there was the equivalent of an okay rain here. Scotland has more wind though.

[@boldvankaalen3896]

@@Guilherme-J We Dutch also have rain trousers with long zippers on the side that can be quickly pulled over your normal trousers. Nowadays you even have goretex ones so you do not get condensation on the inside. However this will not work in the tropics, because for the membrame to work the outside temperature must be lower than the body temperature. Condensation might also be the reason you might think your rain coat did not work.

[@sampistob6522]

Here, in Krakow, bike lanes are literally on sidewalks and the only thing that separates pedestrians and bikers is a drawn line and different colors of pavement. Bikers are treated as pedestrians, not as cars. This way you completely separate cars and cyclists making it possible to create bike lanes even in areas with wide roads, heavy traffic and complex intersections. Though it may be a bit slower jorney for cyclist by it`s much safer and doesn`t affect traffic on roads.

[@jasonreed7522]

I'm a fan of bikes on the sidewalk (separate from people if it is busy enough to cause any safety concerns) and give them a cross walk button just like everyone else. In terms of collision damage potential a biker is far closer to a pedestrian than a car so they should be treated as such and not as a 2 ton steel box of safety. (A car is safe to be in but not necessarily around, i hope that makes sense)

[@Svennoow123]

You are on point promotintg bike lanes! Maybe you should also bring up the argument that increased bike usagage makes for less cars on the road. That makes it also better for cars :)

[@midge_gender_solek3314]

"Strong and fearless cyclists that ride in mixed traffic" *laughs in Moscow*

[@MrLeventepeter1]

Thanks for the video... great examples of much needed infrastructure. I feel that the biggest obstacle is having people understand that bikes are legitimate transportation vehicles not just something for the weekends.

[@HolmAdrian]

2:57 This is actually in Malmö, Sweden, not in Denmark or the Netherlands.

[@dannykraakman2986]

Ok

[@jpe1]

Adrian Holm just the bike garage, or the bridge as well?

[@Realkeepa-et9vo]

What makes sense since Denmark doesn't exist

[@HolmAdrian]

@@jpe1 Just the garage!

[@HolmAdrian]

@@Realkeepa-et9vo Exactly! 😀

[@Crisdapari]

I'm from Colombia, here is a lot of biking culture (amateur and pro sport cyclist, casual "weekend cyclist" and "daily driver cyclist" intermixed) and I want to share some points. In big cities like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, or even in small towns you see a trending of bike infrastructure construction in the last decades, here is a lot of experimentation and experience about this. One big problem is when cities built infrastructure for bikes, but the people doesn't use it because a lot of reasons: Governments use the "budget path of least resistance" building bike lines as an afterthought, poor planing and interfering with parking spaces, highway bridges, pedestrian areas full of commerce, education/culture or even because of crime. In the same way cyclist use the "path of least resistance" and miss use or ignore lines. Here very often governments are proud of having a lot of kilometres of bike lines but doesn't say nothing about the quality and you end up with a lot of friction between cyclists, pedestrians and car drivers. Planning bike routes and lines in a organic way can reduce this. To me as cyclist sometimes is more dangerous a very busy two line bike line than a shared road with cars because a frontal impact between bikes. I'm a partisan of shared spaces in low speed traffic because it generate a space of negotiation instead of segregation ( just with adequate signal can be more economical and work better sometimes). On the other side fast car traffic with bikes where you see people crossing the highway bridges on bikes, it can appear illogic and suicidal but the "official route" usually takes a lot of time, distance or shared space with pedestrians and when you bike everyday a 30km commute is fastest and easiest the bridge (more bike bridges someday finger cross). E-bikers and fast bikers can be a risk for pedestrians too. So many bike lines are built with a "weekend attitude" or a "Netherlands attitude" which is great in some spaces but not for going to work in chaotic Latin American busy city routes. Well planed bike routes usually means spending lots of money, but sometimes that money is not well inverted. In Bogotá for example so many money was wasted in expensive and/or cheap bad planned lines, with the time the bike lines sometimes evolved and improved. I'm glad to see in this pandemic times how bike use increased and roads were converted in a "temporal bike line" but now that "temporal" is becoming more permanent. Try and error is very important to make balances in this complex and systemic regard. Designing ways to make bike routes in a modular way without wasting money to me seems a great solution. I enjoyed this video, so much so that I ended up with this loooong comment. it's a shame I didn't saw this video before. Cheers!!

[@InventorZahran]

My bike gets 17 miles per burrito on a good day, but your milage may vary...

[@walterhaim6447]

Heyy! Thanks for featuring the Penn Avenue cycletrack!

[@romulosouzasantos8711]

Great video, again. Thanks for sharing the guide for free!

[@unclestarwarssatchmo9848]

I have a street with advisory bike lanes in my neighborhood in the suburbs south of Stockholm, Sweden. Make no mistake, these were terrifying to use as a kid. Still a bit freaky I think. But it's still coo how they force cars to slow down, I did not see it that way. Cool video, man!

[@KhAnubis]

Portland actually has very bad bike infrastructure. It‘s somewhat surprising, but most of the time, bike lanes don‘t even exist. I was amazed by how much better they were in places like Berlin.

[@CalvinHodgson]

They've been working on it over the years. Still many streets that are lacking bike lanes. For example, when I go south there are bike lanes on Broadway. Yet, there is none going back north that is within a few blocks requiring me to take a lane.

[@UnPuntoyComa]

Wonderful video. The city I currently live in, Tempe, AZ, as most of Phoenix Metropolitan Area, is made almost exclusively for cars, but there are some recent effords to improve bike-friendliness with bike lanes of almost all of the kinds showed on this video, and I love to ride around in the system of bike sharing they have.

[@2009heyhow]

I live in the Netherlands in a small city. Everyting is in a close distance for me. Work, multiple local grocery stores, the shoping centre, some friends, and even the most eastern part and most western part of this small city is easely done in 20 minutes on a bicycle. No car needed. Basicly only those who needs to be in a different city is using a car. How a about grocery shopping, you wonder? Well, we just go multiple times a week using only a bicycle and only buy what we need within the upcoming 2 or 3 days. We can hold everything on a just a bicycle. In many cases i go to a grocery store the moment i cycle back home from work. So i dont have to spent extra time on it. Everything in my fridge will be fresh. No need to put anything in a freezer to save it for a longer period of time. Everyday i have a bit of working out when i go to work, and because many other people go cycling as well the air in cities is not as poluted like in many other cities in the world. More people on a bike and less in a car will also lower the amount of car accidents. Cyclists dont even have to wear helmets because bicycle lanes are that save.

[@llamaindisguise]

I moved to the Twin Cities last year and I was amazed by all of the bike infrastructure here!

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

Austin just hired their city manager to bring more good ideas!

[@marcvanderwee]

@@NicholasLittlejohn Austin (I guess it is about the capital of Texas) should hire experts from Denmark and the Netherlands...

[@street_ruffian]

I would love for better bike lanes all around the us. In HS, in a Boston suburb, I actually biked to school and biked on side roads and sidewalks. I didn’t like going on the sidewalk as Ik that isn’t what you’re supposed to do but many of the streets are small but extremely busy. Idk what they can do to improve many of those streets but they need to. Now having gone to college and worked in upstate ny (western ny actually) I wish it was even that good. The only plus around here is when there is a sidewalk like no one uses it so no one would really care if you go on it but too bad you probably can’t get anywhere since you’ll need to go down some street that at best you have a shoulder and the drivers go insanely fast. But the thing is they could way more easily improve things in NY than in my hometown because there is a ton of space to take away from the road or off the road in many places. Also been to Cambridge by bike path and while I didn’t see those raised bike lanes the on street ones were pretty good. That’s the thing the state needs to take initiative and do bike infrastructure so that it’s more seamless trying to bike between the countless towns and cities that make up Greater Boston.

[@MissMoontree]

I'm Dutch, I had a 40 minute commute in highschool. I think only 5% of the route wasn't on a bikelane. There was 2x a broad 30 km/h road near the primary schools I had to cross, and a piece short of the more dangerous 50 km/h road where people drove too fast. But the rest was just bikelanes. About half of it was just this big wonderful bikelane that was on two sides of the roads, both in two directions, separated from cars by old trees and separated from pedestrians by old trees. It was beautiful and relaxed, we would just drive with 3 friends next to each other without problems :)

[@leftylou6070]

Nice little show and story here. Good luck with your venture!

[@JETZcorp]

Here's the top problems with biking that need to be resolved before I start doing it. - I am a terrible engine fuelled only by a visceral hatred for the bicycle. - It rains every goddamn day in Portland Until these issues are solved by the local city planners, I'll use my 70mpg car most of the time.

[@Hosentraeger125]

here in germany the elevated bike lane right next to the pedestrian path is the norm, ususally with a green stripe between parked cars and bike lane

[@reynoutdecourt7983]

Learn from the Dutch!!!!

[@boldvankaalen3896]

And it is a pain in the behind! Pedestrians sway into the bikelane and hinder the cycling traffic.

[@citiesskyscrapers4561]

Awesome video! I’d like to see more about how to make streets safer.

[@BlaxKid22]

Yesterday I biked from Philadelphia to Wilmington, DE. Rode on the shoulder of highways and unpaved gravel bikeways more than I wanted to. We have to advocate more people! This video came right on time thanks City beautiful 🚲

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

Are there any safer trails online, how about the national bike route system..any progress? We went from Portland to the ocean in Oregon once, about five hours.

[@RCPrepping]

I bought an Electra Townie electric assist bicycle in March 2022 as an alternative means of transportation. I don't always use the electric assist function, but I am glad it is there when I want it. My alternate is now my main. I only drive my truck if my wife and I have to go somewhere together or if the weather is not favorable. I also lost 36 pounds in four months.

[@JER0EN]

We have advisory bikelanes in my city, it works surprisingly well. It is also weird to see bikelanes in other colors that isn't red or the street color.

[@andrewmurphy5310]

We have some but the roads are so narrow cars are normaly in them

[@AdiposeExpress]

Why would bike lanes be red? I thought they were green if anything, red is for bus lanes.

[@JER0EN]

@@AdiposeExpress Bus lanes are mostly grey where I live, and bikelanes are red.

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

@@JER0EN Red is the new bus lane color, gets attention from drivers.

[@boldvankaalen3896]

@@NicholasLittlejohn Red is the standard bicycle lane colour in the Netherlands. You are probably refering to your home country.

[@TJtheHuman]

I think in rural areas we should have bike trails completely separate from roads. Cars move faster in rural roads and it can be frightening for cyclist to share a road with them.

[@chasemartin4450]

Agreed - but those trails need to go somewhere. Where I live one of the major pedestrian / bike trails connects nothing but a small apartment complex, college campus, and church. Anyone who wants to go into town on either end of the trail is stuck riding on poorly-maintained roads and sidewalks.

[@TJtheHuman]

@@chasemartin4450 a college would be a good place to set up a store and many other things. Trails should also connect parks.

[@eastpavilion-er6081]

2:47 There is a street in downtown Cambridge, UK that has the "two ways for bike, one way for cars" structure. Cambridge has a BRT systsm, and you could bike beside them. Cambridge has the best cycling system in the whole UK (mainly because University of Cambridge convinced the city council to build bike infrastructure for its 40,000 students and 10,000 staffs who mostly commute by bike every day.)

[@PhiTonics]

The raised bike path is a great idea, I really like that one!

[@InternetLaser]

Great vid, but I think it would be cool to focus on things other than direct street design that encourage cycling Public pumps and repair tools, water fountains, quality bike racks, and bicycle oriented design of adjacent buildings. East Dundee, IL, has a couple of great bicycle oriented restaurants placed right next to the bike trail that are just lovely to ride by and set a high bar for infrastructure in the area. The buildings nearby are part of the street too!

[@ajmomoho]

In my experience here in western Canada, biking is at its best in dense urban areas such as downtown Vancouver. If slow moving traffic means that crossing downtown is faster by bike, then that's a huge incentive to cycle. But otherwise in my city, there's rarely an occasion where I'd see biking as beneficial over driving.

[@marcelmoulin3335]

As always, utterly informative, thoughtful, and impeccably presented! 'A+'

[@WilliamWiltraut]

Well done. I really enjoy your videos. The underground bike area you show at the beginning of your video is from Malmö, Sweden - also a very bike friendly city.

[@timsummers870]

I wish this dude came to depressing Latin America and implemented all those advanced thinking urban planning projects. There's so much room for improvement in said depressing Latin America. I subscribed to his channel when I watched his video on Vancouver. He suggested so much perspective on Vancouver's successful urban planning, I was extremely surprised and glad to have watched that video. Thanks for your work.

[@teachingthecode4651]

The cities in China where I've lived generally have amazing bike infrastructure. My quality of life is generally much higher in some Chinese cities. Please do a video about Improving cities like Detroit. Specifically, please make a video for Detroit. Please

[@ruedelta]

Separated slow traffic/local access avenues are downright amazing, but sadly they require powerful urban planning due to its massive footprint. That is just not a thing in the US.

[@haihengh]

As a Chinese who had been biking since 1990s in China to 2010s, biking sux. there are reasons for huge decline of bike ridership. you see good biking infra in China because it used to be the only form of transportation for most people. imagine there is only few cars on the road and hundreds of thousand people riding bike to work or school, it happen back in the 80s and 90s all the time. as people get rich, they get rid of their bikes. biking under hot sun and rain or even snow sux. and most of the time in China is either cold or hot, and people doesn't wnat to spend their energy on commute and fall in sleep during work or class (that happen a lot too). also bike thief is the most pain in the ass thing to deal with, in the 90s, people would beat the bike thief to death whenever they caught one.

[@teachingthecode4651]

I'm here in China right now. The roads are packed with cars and more people drive scooters on the bike lanes than bikes. However there are still plenty of bikes in the bike lanes. Exercise is becoming more popular here with the middle class. Also not every city has poor weather. Here in Kunming things are nice most of the time. There are only three months where it is a little too rainy in late summer. @@haihengh

[@rosesmith6208]

I seen videos of this from that time period it was congested, crowded as all get out and not safe either, being crammed together can lead to easy germ transfer if someone is sick.

[@SurprisinglyDeep]

@@rosesmith6208 In Asia if someone's sick theyre expected to wear a facemask so that when they cough the germs don't spread

[@johnjordan352]

In the City of Indianapolis they have the Indianapolis Cultural Trail which is an 8 mile linear trail that runs through the area's of Fountain Square,Whole sale,East market,Indiana Ave,White River State Park and Mass Ave to 10th street. On 10th near the I-65 overpass you can the Monon Trail about 30 miles north to the Cities of Carmel,Indiana,Westfield and Sheridan in Hamilton County,Indiana. Note: In some areas you can go miles before interacting with Vehicles.

[@tomthornton6259]

Another great video! Where I live at the moment in Spain has proper 'cycle roads' which are seperated from pedestrians and traffic, and covering a good amount of the city. But my main complaint is the quality of some of them. Those built into the pavements are perfect, but some (I'm guessing done more quickly/cheaply) are literally just an old traffic lane, and if your your going in the wrong direction you're cycling or scootering in the drainage channel. Also some I'm guessing are planned as 1 bit just stops before continuing later on, so compared to my native UK its 100% better, but still not without faults.

[@gringojohn2]

I like the specialized bikeways, but I am from Minnesota and with the Snow, ice and very cold and windy winters bicycling is only practical 8 or 9 months of the year.

[@lisat9707]

Same weather here if not worse. Trust me it's totally possible to bike year round. And the odd days it's not Taxis and public transport are still available. Still super cheap compared to even 1 tank of gas let alone car payments, insurance, and the multiple tanks of gas most people need monthly if not weekly

[@gringojohn2]

@@lisat9707 impossible an dangerous to bike when it is below 32F.

[@user-sd5yw8fu7f]

“It won’t work in US” Yeah the same words I hear in Russia “Russians love cars, it won’t work because of winter etc”. People are the same in whole world 🤷‍♂️

[@coolundbidda7611]

Same in Germany. But slowly people are getting it...

[@Ivanfpcs]

There will always be an excuse, sure, maybe some cities aren't in the ideal scenario, but its worth a try

[@napa5235]

I mean, I'm not sure if I would bike in Russia, specially on winter... and I bike in Canada..

[@user-sd5yw8fu7f]

Napa cycling in Russia dangerous even in summer. But the reason is not the climat 😅

[@napa5235]

@@user-sd5yw8fu7f I can imagine, people drive like a bunch of idiots here, I'm sure in Russia is worse.

[@IowaKim]

I live way out in the country in Iowa and biking into the city is quite a challenge. But with the advent of e-bikes it's a consideration since I could add luggage panniers or a trailer to my unit for actual shopping and carrying of goods which is the big part of running to town. I live six miles from a major bike path and it runs 25 miles into town. As I age the thought of using an e-bike under these circumstances is very appealing.

[@texabara]

I commute to work in bike, here in Puerto Rico. There is no bikelanes....i am always explaining my family and friends that I use certain streets with less cars to be safe... ciclyng since 2005 2022 and still riding my bike to my work

[@Cheapchase]

The best bike-protected paths I’ve seen ever were in San Juan, Puerto Rico

[@NicholasLittlejohn]

They likely have a streetsblog.org film

[@jelatinosa]

Where? I live in SJ, PR and most places don't have sidewalks, let alone bike lanes. Maybe a short stretch in Old San Juan for tourists, but certainly not in the actual city or any for actual commuting.

[@benlawrence309]

Yer, In Southampton (UK) we need more bike lanes. There are now so many people on bikes.

[@custardo]

Don't settle for bike lanes, demand proper cycle paths!

[@manuelgaertner2258]

Its the same in Nürnberg, Germany

[@pongop]

Lol that footage of driving in South Asia brought back memories/flashbacks of my visit to India. There were several times where I thought I might die, lol. I have so many stories just of the transportation. That time the auto rickshaw we were in drove on the sidewalk to bypass traffic and pedestrians had to dive out of the way. Or driving up the mountain through the rainy jungle on a one lane road with hairpin twists and turns on metal shuttered prison bus. Good times. They make it work.

[@erik....]

I saw some biking videos from Manhattan.. It's insane how narrow the bike lane is, and very often it's also blocked by cars. It would be extremely efficient if it wasn't for that, and all the crossings of course.

[@Real_Tim_S]

Ah, but in Fremont, CA - they city is finding out that those bollard isolated lanes are not easy to sweep, and they can't fit the giant standard street sweepers in there. So at add the the maintenance costs of the lane markings and fixtures, they had to hire manual sweepers. Cyclists were refusing to ride in unswept bike lanes, driving back into traffic (which was already starved lanes do to the HUGE new bike lanes). It's made for some colorful interactions on the road. In Fremont, they also added gigantic bollard-lined kick-outs, so that making right turns within the confines of the intersection marking is hazardous. I know the local Traffic Engineers are "trying", but they really suck at their job. I'm a fan of dedicated bike infrastructure, but band-aiding it into legacy city designs or forcing it where the uses haven't changed without addressing the other traffic issues is folly. My best example is the installation of Sharrows on the Niles Canyon stretch of Highway 84. Posted speed is 45MPH, yet they put in Sharrows - where cyclists can't keep even 50% of the posted limit, with blind corners and absolutely no evasion space other than on-coming traffic or the creek should one happen upon someone who wanted to take their life in their hands. It's down-right negligent by the Traffic Engineer who signed off on that (@City Beautiful, I hope it wasn't you). In general I'm also not impressed with the "false starts" some Traffic Engineers do, thinking they can have their cake and eat it too with lane markings. Case example, I did read the "Rethinking Streets" study, and I have an issue with the Second Street Long Beach, CA case study. They used a green-belt (lane for dedicated bike use) overlayed with a Sharrow (mixed use, automobile traffic shares with bikes). This kind of mixed messaging is exactly the kind of thing drivers despise about Traffic Engineers. Can you people pick a lane designation marking and stick with it? There was a Federal Design Guide for Separated Bike Lanes back in 2015 (www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/publications/separated_bikelane_pdg/page00.cfm). Personally I think Long Beach should either pay to strip the green paint off the whole corridor, or call-a spade a spade and shut down vehicle traffic in that green lane. It's just aggravating as another type of Engineer to see this kind of mis-use.

[@sirBrouwer]

Here in the Netherlands we have sweeper cars made for sweeping cycling path and pedestrian walkways. For sure they can be of help. Also for the other points. Ask a Dutch city planner they can give you option that will work and could still be cheap but effective.

[@Real_Tim_S]

​@@sirBrouwer, the problem is they only are doing these lane improvements here because they got a one-time grant. Otherwise, the city streets are filled with pot-holes and they can't afford new equipment that needs fuel and maintenance - or paying another grunt to push a broom. My in-laws reminded me this past weekend of something I notice every time I leave and return to this state by road - the roads here in California suck. If you want a head-spinning, neck-breaking, wrist-slitting, look at how California finances its transportation system, this UCLA paper ( www.its.ucla.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2016/08/Gas-Tax-Swap-FINAL-REPORT-052706.pdf ) is probably a good read - it takes us up to jut short of the 2018 fuel tax increase, which you can read about here ( www.reuters.com/article/us-california-infrastructure-idUSKBN1790ZS ). While in Germany, what I consider a pinnacle of road maintenance, if there was a deficiency is a section of the Autobahn, they'd cut out the whole section and replace it from foundation to road surface - in California you'll get a 60 year old section of concrete that is 40 years past its design life so they grind a bit of the surface to make it flat, then they do it again, and again, until a chunk falls out because there isn't enough stiffness in the road surface to support the traffic any more - then they fill that with rushed installed quick patch (a kind of asphalt), which lasts just a few weeks, then they do it again, and again until someone threatens to sue for vehicle damage or gets hurt - THEN they replace it... with a concrete patch... just in that hole. Eventually the federal government will offer a grant and sections of the road will get replaced. In my city (Fremont, CA, USA), the smoothest section of road was the one between Tesla and the Seagate factory buildings in what's left of the industrial district. Back in 2010, What we now call the Tesla plant was a shuttered Toyota/GM partnership called NUMI, and a new solar cell manufacturer was breaking ground due to a massive influx of federal cash. The city elders didn't want to rattle Obama's backside with the standard quality of the roads during his short 30 minute visit, so they replaced the one mile section of Kato Road from NUMI, where the Marine-1 helicopters landed due to a ton of open unoccupied space, to the Solyndra plant (story here: obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/05/26/we-ve-got-go-back-making-things ). That road stayed nice about as long as Solyndra stayed in business (i.e., not long, story here: www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-15160361 ). Then it got cut up by utility and demolition work and it's back to rubble... We just can't have anything nice...

[@sirBrouwer]

@@Real_Tim_S you would think that a nation that is so dependant on cars would have the know how and systems in place to keep the roads top notch. here (the Netherlands) roads have to be of high quality all the time. a good road pays it self back. a bad road will cost more. even back roads are being kept very decent (those are the least maintained roads) it still will be kept safe to drive/cycle over

[@amaziahofjudah9722]

The bicycle the only mode of transportation I am truly confident in. I have a license for both cars and motorcycles, but even smoking a cigarette makes me question my ability to drive them. While a bike, I'll ride in any mental state, any weather, any time of day, anywhere even in rural areas. You can have all the tools you need to fix most problems your bike can have in a backpack. You can adapt to difficult traffic situations so much easier, and you can go insane speeds when you're in shape, without even running the risk of getting a ticket.

[@vladislav54246]

I saw in your video my native city Kyiv. Thank you!

[@CharlesWiningham]

Come to St. Louis! I’ve written two letters to the editor in the St. Louis Post Dispatch about this. As a driver, it bothers me that bike lanes are so close to traffic. Downtown has no separate bike lanes, and no division. There is plenty of bike rental, just not a lot of places to ride. I just got back from New Orleans, and Bourbon street scared me to death. On streets designed for horses and carriages, you now have street parking, pedestrians walking and not looking, Segways, bikes, horse drawn carriages, cabs, and Uber’s and Lyft. Something has to give.

[@closmasmas9080]

USA: we’ll never switch to bikes USA during COVID-19: ooh I can leave my house if I bike

[@memofromessex]

I'm LTS 5, I weave thru traffic with a gap barely wider than my handlebars. I hate cycling still.

[@sebastienberger2890]

My city started to do some changes in the neighborhood to accommodate bike. This made me buy a new bike and start going to work with my bike soon.

[@smitajky]

I ride a great deal and I sometimes need to use a car. Parking is a far bigger issue than moving cars. Parked cars are unpredictable, take up more space and are a hazard. So I am not keen on solutions that reduce road space for driving while maintaining road space for parking. This seems quite backwards and counter productive. If we could get rid of parking on main roads there is ample space for bikes and cars simultaneously.

[@biketoeverything]

Cool designs! We need to get these design guides in the hands of our transportation planners. Any info on how to best do that?

[@dmark1922]

I'm wondering about measures for inclement weather; especially snow/ice, but rain is a biggy as well. All these places would need a backup transportation option for (the majority of) people who would rather not risk slipping on ice or just plain getting wet when the weather isn't agreeable to the average cyclist.

[@AmbachtAle]

I guess you haven't been to the Netherlands. The Dutch ride in the rain. In the dark in the rain.

[@goldenstarmusic1689]

You should cover Richfield Minnesota. The incredible redesigns of the streets and implementations of extensive two way raised cycle paths are outpacing most of, if not any suburb in the US. Take a look at 76th and 66th Streets for example

[@justaguy6216]

The most important thing about bikes imo. Is that it gives more economy mobility for people who don't have a lot of money. Cars act like a barrier to entry for a lot of economic activity. Like where I live, there's a huge mall (2nd biggest in our city) only 2km away from us. It's about 15 mins by bike, but I have to cross huge 4 lane roads to get there or take a massive detour that makes it 30 mins and still have to cross unsafe roads. For something that's only 2km away we have to take the car to get there safe. It's crazy.

[@rubberbumm]

Most Dutch and Belgian folks are basically raised on a bike

[@frisianmouve]

Not the belgians, their cycle infrastructure like most of their infrastructure actually is crappy

[@arnoldwardenaar127]

As a Dutchman, I can say; "Yes, we are, but we're also have the infrastructure to be able to teach the kids to go to school by bike, safely and independently"

[@Robbedem]

@@frisianmouve While Belgian infrastructure is no where near the quality of the Dutch, it's still better than most places. (although there is a big difference between Flanders and Walloon, where the Flanders bike infrastructure is way better, probably because it borders to the Netherlands)

[@hds66nl29]

@@Robbedem We had a 50 year head start. As a city you have to start somewhere and than improve over time, you just can't do it all in one day. At least you don't need to reinvent the wheel, you can ask your northerly neighbour for advise and we will happily share what we have learned over the last 50 years, so you don't make the same mistakes.

[@melissa-annefrigon7973]

And Danish people...

[@yevrahas]

Look! No one in the Netherlands is wearing a helmet. It's counter intuitive, but helmet laws reduce public health. First by reducing the number of people (particularly children) using a bicycle for transportation and getting exercise. And, second by making it more risky to ride a bike. There is strength (safety) in numbers. Having a significant population that rides bicycles increases awareness and overall safety. Macquarie University did a study that indicated the Australian helmet law costs $500M in public health costs every year ("Why Australia’s Bike Helmet Laws Kill People", icebike.org). Improving bicycle ridership will involve more than rethinking streets. A culture change is needed to reverse the detrimental effects caused by decades of helmet laws.

[@Visitor7474]

sounds like you already don't use a helmet .. go to the hospital and talk to a doctor that has fixed cracked heads from people not wearing protection.. Instead of a silly website..

[@Niknamew]

Davis, CA is also a pretty good bike city in terms of its infrastructure

[@lifeyang2]

Great video! Bike lanes in the US has come a long way, but more improvement is needed. FYI: Sacto is my neck of the woods too.

[@viseberg8527]

Anecdote from Helsinki’s bicycle coordinator: The city will get the bicyclists which it deserves. Design good infrastructure and reap the rewards.

[@JaydenEricBeaudoin]

"...You can go for miles on a single burrito! Almost a billion people already have access to one..." And here I'm thinking he's talking about access to burritos.

[@raizin4908]

Despite its great bicycle infrastructure, the Netherlands actually has pretty poor access to burritos. It's a wonder the Dutch manage to power all of those bikes.

[@mk3a]

San Jose is planning a Bike Network equivalent to Rotterdam as of now. They have already started building parts of it at a slow pace. And Yes, the wider roads will have protected (or sometime elevated) bike paths.

[@patricksolomon7473]

Good video. I like the clip of one of the protected bike lane in Pittsburgh.

[@yusefkhan1752]

Another great video. Love the idea of bike only streets.

[@aronenark8184]

Most cities, at least in North America, but including some in Europe, have a poor development mindset regarding bike lanes. They want to build to suit demand, rather than building to create demand. They only build bike lanes wherever people are already using bikes in abundance, because it's easier to justify the cost of a redesign if you can say, "200 cyclists already use this route daily." It is more difficult to convince a city council the cost is worth it if the bike lane use is speculative. The reason many people do not use bikes is because there is no infrastructure in place, but at the same time, these cities will never build infrastructure unless there are lots of people using bikes. It's a positive feedback loop that ensures bike lanes never get built, even in places that could see a lot of ridership.

[@rosesmith6208]

makes sense they are not going to build lanes just so a few people can get out and exercise ride their bikes., sometimes build it they will come idea is lost, it usually doesnt work that way only the people in general can create demand, not the government they are to busy trying to control supply when there is a heavy demand on something if they dont like the demand for something that interferes with their ability to make money off their corporations. but I digress.

[@peterslegers6121]

You need both political will and grassroots demands, in order to change things. That's exactly what happened in the Netherlands in the 1970s. What helps is the knowledge that every shift from car to bicycle, saves society money. Dutch mathematicians concluded that every kilometer cycling saves society 7 (country side) to 41 (city) Eurocents. Taking in the difference in gas prices: NL 7.5 $pg which includes 4.65 $ in VAT or fuel taxes; US $ 2.932 pg. It should save 30 to 84 $cents per mile in the US. Considering the usage of 391.40 million gallons per day in the US, if 1 in every 1000 miles would shift to bicycles, it could save 2.9 to 8.2 million dollars each day. So take that money and put it into the building of cycling infrastructure, town after town, and you can easily make a change. The only problem I see, is that the corporations which finance US politicians, don't want to loose their millions of subsidy.

[@EJGentleman]

Fantastic Video. Need to spread the word!