Five More Bad Arguments Against Bike Lanes

[@ethakis]

Even if you’re a driver you should want bike infrastructure because it means fewer cars on the road and the bikes get separated from traffic

[@Lafv]

True. Fewer cars on the road, and also fewer bikes in their way… what driver doesn’t want that?

[@UzumakiNaruto_]

Turn severely underutilized suburban sidewalk infrastructure into dual use pedestrian/bike paths and repave it with asphalt and you gain hundreds of kilometers of new bike infrastructure with relatively minimal work. And also cyclists will be biking completely separate from cars which is a win win for everyone.

[@williamhuang8309]

... so you don't have to worry about hitting someone.

[@paulnadratowski3942]

@@Lafv The bike lanes eliminates parking i no many cities and that is why many don’t want it.

[@franciscobates]

I drove once in Denmark... Their bike infraestructure is so good that it is virtually impossible to run over a cyclist. So apart from finding parking, it is quite easy to drive there.

[@woutervanr]

"You should stop this social engineering. People just want to drive" - People who have been socially engineerd to want to drive everywhere Nearly everyone just wants to get where they're going as easy and quick as possible, mode doesn't matter, and that is possible with more space efficient transport like bikes or trains. This is just a fact.

[@xaiano794]

The proof of this is to ask the person asking this that if the store was literally next to their house, like literally 20 yards away, would they still drive? People just want to be able to get places and the problem people have who are against bike infrastructure is that they have been conned into thinking that this will be bad for them, it'll make it harder for them, when in fact it makes things better for them even IF they still want to drive.

[@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102]

Unfortunately city zoning bylaws mandate minimum off street parking spaces for all vendors and separate everything by use, which spreads everything out and makes cars the most attractive transportation method. If that's not car centric social engineering I'm not sure what is.

[@MashZ]

@@zUJ7EjVD Also this idea of car as freedom works on them because they couldnt go outside alone to explore the world until they were 16+ and had their own car. While in the rest of the world 6 year olds can walk to their school, playground or to their friends house

[@UzumakiNaruto_]

@@donnerwetter1905 ' It is no freedom to be forced to drive around in a cage with wheels in order to do anything.' I disagree. Having the ability to go where you want to go, when you want to go is an AMAZING freedom. Driving in the comfort of your own vehicle, listening to music and not having to worry about violent and/or crazy people, people who want to rob you or cause you harm and dealing with rush hour crowds. Yeah who wouldn't want to experience that on their daily commutes? 🙄 🙄 🙄 Public transit isn't the complete solution. Having our city planners and developers making better more pedestrian friendly communities is the best solution. Take the development in downtown Toronto and replicate that in the suburbs and we won't need a ton of transit when most things you need will be within walking or biking distance or else you might only have to make a short drive or bus ride to get where you want to go to.

[@recyclespinning9839]

Correct. Also there is the added dimension of car manufacturers actually controlling the government. When you actually kill people for oil , I dont know what higher power there is. !?

[@AyadKhalil]

I'm really grateful that video creators like you and NOT JUST BIKES exist. Thank you for your effort into making cities a more cyclable and walkable place. Even if it's only by raising awareness to the issue

[@markplain2555]

The problem with "Not Just Bikes" is that he ridicules North America. If he had to stop doing that - I would enjoy his videos.

[@Javier-kv3eg]

@@markplain2555 I mean his ridicule of NA comes from his experience growing up and living here.

[@squidcaps4308]

@@markplain2555 Once North America stops being ridiculous... Also, if the youtuber is from north america, they are going to be talking about north america.

[@ryanarmishaw3305]

@@markplain2555 I love the fact that he ridicules North America. We are a bunch of mouth-breathing dummies when it comes to city building and bike infrastructure. And he can do it 'cause he is from here.

[@giorgio7388]

Yep. They are our champions

[@syiridium703]

Don't you just hate it when you need to go grocery shopping and the shop is on the other side of the continent, therefore you can't use a bicycle for that trip? Apparently, based on the first argument, this happens to some people a lot.

[@sysbofh]

I don't want even to think about it. I do almost all my shopping by foot: food, clothes, etc. In a 600 meter radius I find almost everything I need: shops, grocery stores, drug stores, medical doctors, parks... It would be awful to need a car for any of this.

[@MarijnvdSterre]

Just don't forget the cooking oil, you would have to go back!

[@sysbofh]

@@MarijnvdSterre That would be a 50 meters walk. No biggie.

[@fatrobin72]

To be fair from what I have heard about America... It could be a few hundred metres as the crow flies but require a 10 mile drive each way while crossing a busy stroad... followed by crossing a desert of car parking spaces... And thus be completely impractical for a bicycle (and it is most certainly not the infrastructure at fault... /s)

[@sysbofh]

@@fatrobin72 It IS the infrastructure at fault: roads are infrastructure - they shouldn't be made this way.

[@delilas2398]

If people bike on sidewalks it's most likely because either there is no bike lane, or there is one, but it sucks.

[@spindriftdrinker]

Yes, I plan to go out and do just that in a few minutes.

[@4GregF]

I live in Vaughan, just north of Toronto. If I'm biking around my subdivision, I bike on the road. There aren't many cars, and they usually give me lots of room. But, If I'm biking along a main road, I'm on the sidewalk. The speed limit is 60km/h, but 99% of the people go faster (70 or 80 km/h), and there isn't even a "bike lane" with a painted line to separate me from the traffic. I'm not riding on the road under these conditions.

[@KRYMauL]

Or the speed is two high and the sidewalk should just be widened to accommodate bikes i.e. Livermore, CA Highway 84.

[@KRYMauL]

@@4GregF Honestly widening the sidewalk on one side and letting cars park on the shoulder would be the easiest fix for this.

[@williamhuang8309]

@@4GregF 80km/h??? That's crazy. I like to look at speeds as a ratio: In this case, the ratio of the speed of a pedestrian to the car would be 1:20. I'd say 1:10 is the upper limit for what's safe or comfortable if there is a narrow sidewalk and no buffer, 1:12 for if there is a wide sidewalk, and 1:14 if there is a buffer. Still, cars passing at 80km/h is extremely dangerous. North American stroads are basically designed like highways, and some people report seeing drivers drive 100+ km/h.

[@Ardyvee]

Regarding the "learning to drive in traffic", the argument also completely ignores that a huge issue is that drivers aren't used to, don't want to deal with bikes; and anyway, any mistake by a car (even assuming the driver cares enough) causes such a disproportionate injury towards the rider, while rider-rider/ rider-pedestrian injuries are, comparatively, tame. It borders on victim blaming.

[@thomasakagi7545]

I'll support the whole "learn to drive in traffic" thing when car-bike collisions hurt the driver as badly as the biker.

[@NankitaBR]

I can attest to that. I got "run over" by bicycles twice and both times the people were in a kind of high speed and all I got both times were some nasty scrapes on my legs and arms. The doctor said I could have gotten a broken bone or something, or in the worse case scenario I would have hit my head, but that is less likely to happen. While if it was a car hitting me or someone in a bicycle at the same speed things would have been completely different....

[@I.____.....__...__]

THANK YOU. It's ridiculous that people think that bikes are even remotely comparable to cars just because they have wheels. By that logic, skateboarders and people with Heelys should ride in the stroad too. 🙄 It's ridiculous. Bicycles are to pedestrians as MOTORCYCLES are to cars. Duh. 😒 And yes, the problem isn't cyclists not riding in the road correctly, its' the drivers that are the menace, and not just to bikes and pedestrians but to other cars too. 😒

[@I.____.....__...__]

@@NankitaBR I once literally ran over a kid who suddenly jumped in front of my bike (I wasn't even going fast but still didn't have enough time to swerve). The child's leg hurt and got bruised but not broken.

[@NankitaBR]

@@I.____.....__...__ Exactly. If the same thing had happened with a car instead of a bike that kid would have been seriously hurt, if not killed. The people that ran over me were not going slowly, and yet all I got were some serious bruises and some nasty scratches but nothing more.

[@spindriftdrinker]

What really annoys me is when urban administrations ( like the one in New York City ) lack the ability, competence, will or political clout to actually implement REAL bike lanes ( physical ) and instead - not only deliver PAINT, but then crow about it as if it were a great achievement. I'll grant that creating a paint lane, separated, after a row of parked cars is marginally better than paint alone - but even that "solution" has all kinds of problems compared to the gold standard of physical separated bike paths.

[@markplain2555]

The last time I was in NY - I thought I saw most bike lanes to have a concrete divider - am I wrong? Also NY generally has their bike lanes on the inside of parked car - ie: using the parked cars as a barrier against moving cars.

[@Codraroll]

That's the strange thing about bike lanes: there are so many ways to half-ass them. One step up from the "painted bicycle gutter" is the "only while convenient" separated bike path. It's a bike lane all right, maybe even one in each direction, that's physically separated from the road and even from the pedestrian lane, running parallel to the road for a decently long stretch. And then you get to a a crossroads, roundabout, or other intersection, and the bike path just ends. Maybe the road needs extra space for a turning lane, maybe it was considered too expensive to integrate the bike path into the intersection design, or maybe the designers didn't quite know how to do so. At any rate, you suddenly find yourself among the pedestrians, or worse, among the cars, and have to navigate the intersection as part of mixed traffic. And then on the other side, the bike path may start up again, running until a similar chaos happens at the next intersection. It's a type of system that looks impressive at a glance, but doesn't really address the challenges or risks of commuting by bike. My hometown is full of these bike paths that simply "quit" whenever a challenging situation happens.

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@zUJ7EjVD I've seen ALL the videos on that channel. All it made me be is envious of the Dutch. I even started trying to learn Dutch for the remote chance that I'll ever get to retire there. Meanwhile I have a horrible one hour train commute while the Dutch are commuting to work by bike and have already gotten their exercise in for the day.

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@markplain2555 You are wrong about that concrete divider. I actually mentioned the car divider thing in my original post - but even those are rather rare. They have them in a few main streets downtown Brooklyn for example. I live in Queens, but they do not have them there. I guess that hipsters get more attention. Sadly, a lot of cyclists who use the parked car divider lanes treat pedestrians like shit.

[@PSNDonutDude]

@@spindriftdrinker I do want to point out two things: 1) painted lanes do suck, but are hopefully a way to build a first phase of a bicycle lane. I've seen in my city a lot of these old painted lanes being upgraded, and new bike lanes being built much nicer in recent years. 2) Dutch bicycle infrastructure used to be what we would now consider "bad". It took the Dutch nearly 50 years to get where they are. Many bike lanes started as paint on the road, and it was slowly upgraded.

[@doriandouma]

People get hung up on this 5km thing. My commute downtown is 11km and takes 40 minutes. It's a half hour drive. Those extra ten minutes easily gets swallowed up by finding and walking from parking spaces for a car. You actually have to go pretty far, especially in a city, before a trip becomes non-cyclable.

[@jimzecca3961]

For those in suburbia this is an alien concept since everyplace you go has dedicated parking lots. You don't have to park 200 yards from your destination.

[@vlt96]

@@jimzecca3961 Except some parking lots are huge and add another 5 minutes of walking after 5 minutes of parking, at the destination. If you live in a car-dependent place, you forget how much you walk because of that. I live in a town (not in the US) where the main workplace in the city is 5 minutes away from its main housing, by car. On foot, it takes 15 minutes. By bike, it takes about 7 minutes, flat. By car, it takes 5 minutes + 5 minutes parking + 5 minutes walking to the actual building (+another 5 on heavy traffic). Most people take the car, because they forget to add the 15 minute rush hour overhead (which makes the commute 300% longer)

[@SianaGearz]

5km is the kind of distance i could endure cycling in a very hostile environment with bad infrastructure. In a city with good cycling infrastructure, 15km is not a problem, but probably gets beaten by other forms of transit. 10km plus or minus a few is close to a break even point with other modes of transit. 5km is a baby distance, you can just walk that in 35 minutes. But there are for sure a lot of places where i could not cycle 10km, just no way. Like on those 10km you could encounter 3 highway crossings done as those annoying steep tunnels, roads with no cycling infrastructure, angry drivers, polluted streets (or stroads) where you just breathe exhaust and rubber particulate, all that, that's just too much.

[@Damorann]

@@vlt96 You have a valid point. Problem is we usually don't calculate the door-to-door time but the time we actually spend in the vehicle. It's interesting because the same tends to happen when talking about flights. If we measured the total time spent from door to door, the cyclable distance gets a lot, LOT longer than what we think. Add electrically-assisted bicycles and you get good range for such a small vehicle.

[@SweBeach2023]

Distance is less important than elevation. 5 km in a flat landscape can be easier than 1 km in a very hilly place.

[@shadeblackwolf1508]

You should design your bike network so that your granny can bike for groceries. A good bike network would completely obsolete the need for bikes on roads. But yeah. If a traffic engineer asks if it's safe enough, ask him if he'd let his kid use it without a helmet, unsupervised

[@jimzecca3961]

Nobody seems to let their kids do anything unsupervised these days except ironically surf the internet/use social media.

[@janjochem20]

@@jimzecca3961 i see plenty of kids bike around unsupervised. but i live in the Netherlands

[@shadeblackwolf1508]

@@jimzecca3961 exactly.

[@roaduser6438]

@@janjochem20 Something like 85% of children cycle to school in the Netherlands, in the UK it's less than 3%. My son rides 6km to school. His route is along the A49, a busy A-road. The cycle lane is used for extra parking by motorists, disappears where the road narrows, and gets driven in by motorists who don't appear to be able to drive around a corner without cutting into the cycle lane. For comparison I took my family on holiday to Amsterdam, we hired bikes and rode safely around a capital city with a 7yr old and an 11yr old. The infrastructure there is crazily good.

[@natbarmore]

Counterpoint: A good road network would completely obsolete the need for a separated bike network. That is, I’d rather advocate for making every single street safe enough for my kid to bike on, than simply cede the streets to motor vehicles and create an entire additional transportation network. My granny should be able to safely bike for groceries on the street.

[@knarf_on_a_bike]

The problem with telling us to "learn to ride in car traffic", is that it's being said by those whose down-side in a bike - car collision is a scratched fender. Our down-side is severe injury or death. I've been a bike commuter since around 1993, and I have 5 broken bones from cars hitting me. What value can we put on safe movement through our world? It needs to be a priority! It is a basic human right.

[@yanDeriction]

We invented crash protection for a reason. The best of both worlds in terms of efficiency and safety is to have Wall-E style self driving chairs. As long as humans are allowed to drive, regardless of vehicle, we will continue hurting each other.

[@davidwright7193]

If you are riding for sport on a 40kph road yes you ought to be riding in the traffic as you are travelling at the same speed as the traffic. If you are cycling as transportation you need dedicated infrastructure.

[@xmtxx]

@@yanDeriction Well, the dutch prartically solved this problem. They just make car infrastructure in a way that cars can't go too fast, and protect intersections. It hugely reduce f the dangerosity of heavy vehicles. It's at the opposite of the north american stroads though.

[@tthomas184]

It's also said by young super fit mostly male cyclists who think riding in traffic, the riskier the better, is a great way to prove their masculinity.

[@roaduser6438]

@@xmtxx I love some of their smaller villages in the Netherlands too. The roads for motorists go around these villages leaving the central road/street a safe place for pedestrians/cyclists/children. Compare that to the typical village set up, usually bisected by a road full of cars going straight through the middle. So much more pleasant, safer, social, etc.

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

"Social engineering": the thought-terminating cliché of choice for those who think their own favored kind of social engineering is hunky-dory.

[@I.____.....__...__]

Humans don't know how to live without hypocrisy, it's the only thing they're actually good at. 🤷

[@Damorann]

"You should just bike on the sidewalk." OK, I'll also start walking in the middle of the road as well. Just gotta learn to share the road, homeys. You can hear the entitlement in those statements, as if the car was some sort of god that we shouldn't dare bother... Cars cost more in every aspect, and therefore should be the last type of transportation that is prioritized in any decently densified area. And I say this as someone who drives mostly, walks a little and wishes he could cycle more.

[@troycongdon]

I am not arguing for cars but, in the USA, the reasoning is “I have already paid for the car and the insurance regardless of how much I use it, I might as well get the most use out of it I can.” In the same way that the English language doesn’t have a word for schadenfreude, the concepts of living in walkable neighborhoods are so foreign in the USA that people cannot have a meaningful conversation about the topic.

[@MustraOrdo]

@@troycongdon One word: brainwashing. No other entities does propaganda better than the US government and their petrol daddy. Soviets be jealous, the masses be anxious.

[@user-gu9yq5sj7c]

Some drivers pretend that it's for the safety of non-car people and try to intimidate those people off the road with it. And it does work a little. Like when Not Just Bikes talked about punishment passes drivers give to bikers (or pedestrians too).

[@peepeepoopoo9297]

I’ve biked on sidewalks so many times and never hit a person once you guys don’t need a whole lane it’s really not hard to bike on sidewalks

[@selflesssamaritan6417]

"Why did you park on bike lanes or sidewalk"

[@ThalassTKynn]

"Just ride on the sidewalk" lol my town doesn't even have sidewalks on most streets. Though to be fair they are fixing that along with making more bike lanes

[@FreLuZi]

Glad to hear that they are fixing this nightmare

[@knarf_on_a_bike]

Riding on sidewalks is illegal in many jurisdictions. Although many elderly and less-confident riders do so anyway as roads can be so intimidating.

[@UzumakiNaruto_]

Seriously I've never understood why they don't extend the sidewalk to be wider to include enough space for a bike lane and then repave it with asphalt to be a hybrid pedestrian/bike path? This means that bikers benefit from being completely seperated from vehicles with a raised curve and they don't have to share space with cars whatsoever. 99% of the sidewalks in the suburbs are rarely used. Just repave and repurpose it to be dual use and you don't even have to take space away from cars to gain hundreds of kilometers of new bike infrastructure in a very short time just by allowing cyclists to use extremely underutilized sidewalk infrastructure.

[@tardvandecluntproductions1278]

As a Dutch I really do not understand how the US can even skip on sidewalks in a town. Literally leaving the car as only option, that's no "freedom". I can get anywhere on foot by either a foot path or at least a bike patch where you feel safe to walk.

[@Stratelier]

@@tardvandecluntproductions1278 Because if there's one thing the U.S. people loves more than guns, it's cars. Remember, we have cities literally BUILT around an assumption of individual car ownership -- this vision of "The Future" sold and sponsored by automakers. Assumption leads to expectation. Expectation leads to requirement. Requirement leads to addiction. Addiction leads to ... suffering....

[@alanthefisher]

"we have deadlifting for that" YESSSSS

[@WisteriaDrake]

About the "people don't walk in suburbia" complaint, just thought I should share. I grew up in a suburb that had zero sidewalks, even on major roads. One road was actually nicknamed "Road of Death" due to how many people were struck by vehicles on it. After I moved out, they started putting in sidewalks. Now when I return, there are tons of people walking all over the place. If you build it, they will come.

[@I.____.....__...__]

Funny how people don't use things that don't exist and do use things that do. So strange. 🤔

[@clarence0]

What's your best deadlift?

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Wow, we didn't expect that mentioning deadlifting would make Clarence Kennedy appear! Nothing special, 1RM PRs are 210kg @ 100kg BW and 85kg @ 63kg BW, respectively.

[@clarence0]

@@OhTheUrbanity haha didn't expect you guys to know who I was. Nice lifts!

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Same, you gave us a good laugh! KZbin really is feeling like a small world more and more. Anyways, keep up the great work 🏋️

[@Boo-mj8fd]

This is a crossover of interests I never thought I'd see

[@ReasonableRadio]

Deadlifting scares me more than biking on the laneless streets of Toronto. I herniated a disk deadlifting and it caused me more than a year of severe pain. Deadlift carefully! Either be very conservative with your weight increases, Romanian deadlift smaller weights, or just rely on biking uphill for that big booty

[@SkashTheKitsune]

I want more bike lanes in Australia because that means less cars

[@betula2137]

There should be a whole video on bad excuses against bike lanes in Australia. And bad arguments for cars and the status quo...

[@SkashTheKitsune]

@@betula2137 it's expensive, there's not enough room, the road has had enough roadworks already..., NIMBY!, people prefer cars instead, there's already a public transport, "there's a park, use it", etc Those are the frequent excuses, the only real excuse that is good enough is "there are no bike shops and no people that ride bikes so there is no need" but that can easily be fixed because people always love the idea of "pay once, ride forever"

[@betula2137]

@@SkashTheKitsune Yep, and it's a perpetuating cycle, because the longer you delay any form of bicycle friendliness, then people won't cycle. The roads are designed extremely dangerously, and lack of infrastructure and lack of safety from it are the main reasons people don't cycle. There are so many more benefits in getting people cycling. In Europe they have the principle of "Vision Zero", especially in the Netherlands. Australia needs to rethink what transport is, or else its traffic will remain worse than it should be for its size. Car dependency is responsible, as cars are the absolute least efficient mode of transport by pretty much all metrics. There a heaps of poor excuses against cycling infrastructure, and very few reasonable ones. Fear of change coupled with status quo bias is a common one.

[@I.____.....__...__]

To be honest, Australia is one example of a place where cars actually _are_ necessary. Maybe not in the bigger cities, but certainly out in the middle of nowhere (no, I don't mean the Outback, but the long empty roads between towns). Similarly, the Midwest US. Whenever I see Google Streetview images of places like these, I can't fathom being stranded out there. 😬

[@bernardfinucane2061]

North American sidewalks are comically narrow anyway. They literally look like the street designer drew a line on the diagram and the construction crew poured a little concrete where the line was.

[@ben.taylor]

Painted bicycle lanes are not infrastructure, they're more dangerous than nothing as drivers think you don't need as much space. It's not infrastructure, it's a sign of failure for a city.

[@spindriftdrinker]

Right, and then the administrations put up posters hailing themselves as transportation visionaries, because they allocated a few thousand dollars in paint cans.

[@jakesaari7652]

I think it works when retrofitting existing road infrastructure along with other traffic calming measures. In many areas parking can be moved to provide a dedicated bike path where there once was none. It is a low resource/capital solution that will likely increase support for more separated lanes in the future. Not a perfect solution, but there never is when working with existing layouts.

[@markplain2555]

@@jakesaari7652 You are absolutely right. It is the first step in an experiment to see if the lanes are used by cyclists and if accommodation can be made. Once there is acceptance (and a budget) then more durable concrete barrier (or beautiful plant pots) can be installed. . On Brimley Rd, Scarborough (Ontario), they created dedicated bike lanes using paint and bollards. There was little take up by cyclists and it created congestion havoc. The experiment did not work and they removed the bike lanes. . ie: Bike lanes are not automatic solutions but rather expensive experiments in town planning and the risks in installing them should be complimented. This is a big necessary shift in our transportation infrastructure that improves the health of our city.

[@bitte12pouce]

Painted bike lanes is a first step in introducing a bike culture. They are letting car drivers know that bikes have a right as much as cars to be on the road.

[@Lafv]

I’ve heard this before, but personally I almost always feel safer in a painted lane than in mixed traffic (although maybe not if it’s on a really busy road… then it makes no difference). But on regular city streets, having no bike lanes usually means that there’s street parking, which means I have to dip in and out of traffic from the side of the road whenever I pass a parked car. I also have to worry about being doored if I don’t give the cars enough distance. Of course painted lanes are a bare minimum and still aren’t really that safe, but at least they get rid of (most) parked cars from the roadside and give cyclists a dedicated space.

[@coastaku1954]

9:15 Fun fact, my suburban city of Mississauga is doing JUST THAT on many of it's arterials. Ripping up the old bumpy sidewalk and replacing it with a 8-12ft wide paved Multiuse path, at times with a Centre line and even with a new Sidewalk to keep Pedestrians off of the cycling portion (Which doesn't work and I constantly have to tell pedestrians to get over...). It's not perfect, like they haven't changed the road crossings so they're quite jarring and uncomfortable, and the network isn't fully finished so at times your Path will end, or will change to the other side, but they are actually making the effort and you have to commend them on that.

[@user-ed7et3pb4o]

It's good to see Mississauga doing that! My mother's family is from there (she's Canadian, I grew up in the UK) and honestly visiting Mississauga as a kid and realising the difference in quality of life is what radicalised me when it came to car-centric infrastructure lol. I haven't been since 2019 due to the pandemic, but hopefully will visit again this summer! It'll be cool to see the changes.

[@fraserwilson249]

@@user-ed7et3pb4o I can totally see how MIssissauga would radicalise you against car-centric infrastructure. I worked for the municipal government there a few years ago for a short contract and spent a lot of time driving around the entire city and it's almost jarring how devoted the entire place is to getting cars around. Almost the entire city is SFHs, and even their downtown feels suburban. I always felt like it was a placeless place.

[@Alina_Schmidt]

Yeah, often when bike lanes are right next to sidewalks pedestrians walk on the bike lane. (But to be just, I sometimes use the sidewalk to overtake slower cyclists if there are no people walking). But this problem disappears if the lanes for walking and cycling are wide enough for the amount of people using them.

[@Shifter_Cycling]

Great job! I’ve heard all of these arguments in my city and, while they seem to be fading, they are still eye-rollingly familiar. Bike lanes are a vote winner, good for health, cities and the climate. They are a no brainer.

[@rogerw-interested]

"learning to drive in traffic" does that mean cars should learn how to drive in bike traffic? because thats one argument that we rarely hear. bikes were here first, so cars should get over it and learn to deal with it

[@xmtxx]

Haha, never thought about that. That's great, thanks!

[@redknightsr69]

I wish I could have ridden my bike to church this morning. There is 2 miles of a 4 Lane strode keeping us from the bikeable town.

[@smgibb]

I'm going to moving to a house that is within cycling distance of my office. Just a few miles down one road. I was all pumped for a while thinking I bike to work if I wanted to. Then I drove down the road.... Most of it had at least a painted bike lane or sidewalk to use. Not GREAT, but I can get by with that. That is until the last half mile or so. Sidewalks disappear, no bike infrastructure delineation, very busy road with fast moving cars. So, no cycling to work for me. And I'm someone who is fairly comfortable riding in a traffic lane, but on slower moving dense urban streets - not suburban roads with people going 50MPH.

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@smgibb Yup - urban planners will dance around and high-five each other after implementing a partial bike solution - not bothering to consider that nobody is going to commit to a daily bike commute with a chunk of it riding along with cars at highway speed.

[@arthurbaz2]

Great video! Also loved seeing footage from Ottawa, I miss that city! Greetings from Brazil, where we also need desperately more bike lanes...

[@herschelwright4663]

I’m never comfortable sharing the road with heavy traffic, so I would use the sidewalks if there are no bike lanes nearby.

[@jessegee179]

Thank you for making this video, I'm in UK, but these arguments against bike infrastructure seem to be worldwide. You'd think in a little country like UK that cycling would be easier, and it's true that the places we need to go are usually closer in distance, but we're all squished in together with motor vehicles. We have locals preferring to drive 5mins instead of train, bus, cycling or walking paths. In many cases I think it's about fear of bike theft, it's rare to see secure storage for bikes. Our big local Tesco won't install bike lockers for their staff, even though the manager requested it, so customers are out of luck too. There's a small but growing movement to have more safe secure bike lockers, to help leisure cyclists use their beloved bikes for more activities of daily life. Have a great day by bike everyone 👍

[@markplain2555]

Hi me again. I should tell you that I petitioned the City of Toronto to introduce your LTS2 type lanes (before bike lanes ever existed). I won!! . . My argument was/is that car lanes in North American cities (particularly Toronto) are 4 metres or more wide. In Europe car lanes are about 3 metres wide. We inherited our streets from town planners pre-car era and we decided to limited traffic volume by having less lanes lanes by making them wider (probably in the 1940s). We can easily narrow our lanes have enough room for cars an introduce segmented bike lanes. ie: our road grid is ready for bike lanes) . I wasn't expecting the concrete barriers but I am very happy to see the city took it to the next level!! (with concrete barriers) and I am even more happy to see they have commissioned artists to decorate the barriers (bring a little colour to out city). . I am a car driver and I want to share the roads with bikers in an orderly safe fashion. And when I do climb on my bike - I want to feel safe. . Sadly bike lanes are not for all areas. I see the city introduced bike lanes on Brimley road in Scarborough and then took them down. There was no take-up in cyclist numbers on Brimley and it caused traffic congestion increasing travel times for motorists. At least the city experimented and I look forward to the bike lane grid increasing in sie across the city. . Oh and to all other cities in the world (with bike lanes) - you should come see Toronto's bike lane snow removal program - it is totally awesome !!!

[@markplain2555]

I should add that I had been petitioning Toronto to place grass on the new Eglinton separated rail line. If no cars are going to drive over the rail line section (and most likely no pedestrians are going to walk over the line), then place grass in between rail lines - this fulfills 2 objectives: 1. you can more easily lift grass to do maintenance work (than break out concrete) 2. it brings colour to an otherwise concrete jungle of a city. . I don't know if they heard my petition or if someone was thinking the same as me - BUT !!!! if you travel along Eglinton East of the DVP, they stopped using concrete and THEY HAVE PLANTED GRASS ON THE EGLINTON LINE.... YAH !!!! . Go check it out - it looks cool!! . Now if only they could introduce a bike lane along Eglinton in the Scarborough area.

[@jessegee179]

Brilliant, well done from UK 👍 Shame about Scarborough, sometimes the back up transit isn't good enough, sometimes it's disconnected, I like to start in the city and spread it out.

[@dawntreader1247]

this comment is a bookmark, so I can come back to this later

[@38snipshow]

"Your support means as much to us as a protected bicycle lane on an arterial road." Hahaha love it

[@danieldaniels7571]

As someone who walks a lot, bicycles on the sidewalk are very upsetting and dangerous.

[@rewanthr]

This is another great video, with the same arguments I keep making with my motorist friends; now I can just send this instead. Thank you for this video! P.S. What camera do you use mounted on the bike? I was thinking of getting some myself for my bike commutes, and hopefully provide publicly available footages :)

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We use the DJI Pocket 2, a handheld camera whose main feature is its built-in gimbal that provides wonderful stabilization. It provides more control and smoother footage than an action camera mounted to a bike, although it's not waterproof and it's more effort to hold. For longer recordings, you could probably get a backpack or even chest mount for it. Glad you liked the video!

[@nuarius]

"Cyclists don't need their own infrastructure, They should just learn to share the road" I see your argument, and raise you a: "Pedestrians don't need their own infrastructure, They should learn to share the curb"

[@deus_ex_machina_]

Don't give them any ideas...

[@yourex-wife4259]

US small cities

[@johnathin0061892]

They should. Most sidewalks are mostly empty, at least in smaller areas.

[@paianis]

The difference is that pavements and footpaths measurably improve pedestrian safety. Cycle paths...don't.

[@mayastic9570]

I'm happy I live in a country that doesn't argue with needing proper cycling infrastructure. We just expect any rebuilding off streets and intersections to be better for cycling, walking and public transport.

[@sharpless]

When it comes to biking in the "car" lanes, until bike infrastructure is good enough to safely use in all instances, then I think allowing bikes on the streets is needed, even if there are separate bike lanes.

[@Lafv]

For sure. Especially if the separated bike lanes are just painted on the side of the road. Cars block them all the time, and they sometimes collect debris like dead leaves in the fall. Also, there’s a painted lane near my house where biking that close to the curb makes it hard for drivers approaching at stop signs to even see the cyclists that are about to pass in front of them.

[@KRYMauL]

@@Lafv There's a highway in a city near me that has a painted bike lane. The speed is 55 mph and they have what basically is a multi-use pathway for pedestrians on an evaluated pathway.

[@andreyv116]

Especially when there's no room to pass inside a bike lane

[@paxundpeace9970]

Often due to the fact that a lot of cycling infrastructure is unsafe like sparrows in the doorzone or cyclelanes in the doorzone.

[@sainsay]

Even in the Netherlands, it is allowed to bike on the road. As long as the max speed of the road is 60 kph (about 40 mph) and no bike paths are available or otherwise explicitly banned with signs. most connecting roads between villages or towns will have a dedicated lane even if the town is in the middle of nowhere (if nowhere even exist in our tiny country)

[@lovesmusic91]

One of the biggest changes that I would like to see here in Ottawa is the separation of bike (rollerblade...) from pedestrian along many of the multi use paths. It can be uncomfortable to walk along the Ottawa river or the canal on the pathways. they have become almost a bike highway with a large number of cyclists weaving around the pedestrians at speed. One of the other things that wasn't mentioned that needs to change when it comes to bike infrastructure is at the work end. I never biked to work when I was in a downtown office because there wasn't a place to store my bike, nor was there anywhere to have a shower and change.

[@bearcubdaycare]

The bike-pedestrian interaction can change if cyclists work to change the culture. A decade and a half ago, I saw lots of cyclists passing pedestrians as fast as possible with as few centimeters gap as possible on the multiuse pathway system. Nowadays, in a different city, I see cyclists slow and pass cautiously. Pedestrians in large groups, and dog walkers, seem to also largely behave courteously. Hopefully the mutual courtesy and caution approach will spread to more cities.

[@Alina_Schmidt]

I usually lock my bike on the nearest street sign (or comparable thing) when I don‘t find a rack to park. Then the bike is at the edge of the sidewalk, so it doesn‘t disable pedestrians. And it‘s protected from getting stolen. Maybe most cyclists who ride to work, grocery shopping or to the cinema ride slower than you? For moderate speeds most people don’t really sweat.

[@pedrofernandez8729]

In the 60's thousands of grade school students rode their bikes to school, rain or shine. No mommy with the SUV was available to drive you there.

[@gajorg69]

So grateful I found this channel. I live in Alberta and have always wanted a nice bike commute, but it's never felt safe here.

[@tiaxanderson9725]

"My country is big" So the other day I found myself at Hoofddorp train station (1 stop over from Schiphol International Airport) waiting to get picked up. As I was idly walking about the parking area, I noticed a sign that indicated the bike path was part of LF Waterlinieroute (waterline). This is a 410 km long uninterrupted piece of cycling infrastructure that takes you from Noord Holland to Zeeland. If a country as small as the Netherlands can have 1/10th the width of Canada (roughly) of cycling infrastructure, Canada can have cycling infrastructure that only covers reasonable distances. P.S. This ignores the even longer 610 km long LF Kustroute (coast route) which covers almost the entire Dutch coast.

[@einar8019]

dont also forget that almost everyone in canada lives in 1/10th of the country

[@Teapot-Dave]

Some of the bad arguments here in the UK from the anti-cycling lobby:- Cyclists don't pay tax or registration so shouldn't use the road. Cyclists should not ride on the pavement. Cycle-lanes are pointless because Cyclists won't use them. So I usually respond with "make-up your minds then, where do you want Cyclists to ride?" But as yet I am still waiting for an intelligent response. A good argument for getting more people to ride a bicycle is that there are so many unhealthy overweight people in cars, so any form of exercise is going to improve their health and fitness, and save money on their future health care needs. We have become so accustomed to living in this car-centric society that the mere thought of doing anything else actually scares people. Drive-Through fast food places are the ultimate in laziness and the cause of future cardiac illness, but so many people are unwilling to do even a moderate amount of exercise for their own benefit.

[@ethangillese]

Yes to all of this! Also we should also be widening and smoothing out sidewalks as well for people in mobility scooters/wheelchairs, and to also allow people to comfortable sign next to one another! I think another interesting thing to point out is that the city needs to finance and categorize cycling infrastructure properly, currently Calgary and Edmonton categorize multi use paths under “recreation infrastructure” so we have a lot of great paths but are created in a “loop” lots of the time and aren’t very useful for commuting (unless you have a very specific route)

[@danieldaniels7571]

Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs has surprisingly good path infrastructure as they follow the canals, river, and flood drainage greenbelts that cross throughout the city.

[@ethangillese]

@@danieldaniels7571 interesting! Honestly, it kind of baffles me that a place that warm would be car centric, like I get it if it’s oppressively hot outside, but if it’s regularly 20°C outside and sunny just grab a townie bike and go get ice cream. There was a vote to scrap daylight savings time and keep it always on, and if gone through would’ve messed up so many people, seasonal depression is so common this far North due to a lack of vitamin D. That being said, I start getting heat exhaustion at 15°C due to a lifetime of winter sports and frozen toes/fingers

[@ab-tf5fl]

In general, yes. However, there are some cases where the bumpy sidewalks are caused by protruding tree roots, and lack of space makes it impossible to fix the sidewalk without chopping down all of the trees. In such cases, I would personally rather just put up with the crappy sidewalk, for the sake of keeping the trees and the valuable shade they provide. Especially in the specific example I'm thinking of, which has a traffic calmed street just one block over for people who want to ride a bike.

[@danieldaniels7571]

@@ethangillese It’s never anything “C” outside here because we exclusively use “F” 😜 That said, most people here feel it’s too hot to bike 70% of the year, and most people also find everything is too far away to bike to. But for the small minority that isn’t weak and lazy like that, the path infrastructure is great here. The path along the Grand Canal was just vastly improved for about 10 miles between 23rd Ave & Indian School all the way to Tempe. Myself, I mostly use it for riding electric scooters on.

[@ethangillese]

@@ab-tf5fl yeah that’s where it’s a hard choice, I don’t know what I would prefer, cause those bumpy sidewalks are no fun for people with mobility issues (even if you can walk with 2 legs but just have a knee replacement etc) and is especially bad for those in mobility scooters. So often you have people in mobility scooters going in the painted cycling gutter, which isn’t really good either because of the speed of a mobility device

[@evanrunning9770]

The sidewalk sucks for cycling! Sidewalks in my town are hidden behind obstructive landscaping. Motorists turning in and out of driveways and side streets don’t expect a cyclist approaching at 10 mph. Cyclists are safer when their presence in the right-of-way is obvious.

[@danieldaniels7571]

Even when the sidewalk is clearly visible, motorists tend not to look, instead only focusing on other motorist traffic on the road.

[@YosukeMatsumura]

The main reason I don't ride on the sidewalk is that it's too dangerous. You should make a montage of vehicles that just roll to a stop while exiting a driveway/parking lot with disregard for the sidewalk's existence. Often they don't even start to brake until the front of the car is across the sidewalk.

[@MaartenTeunissen]

As a Dutchie, every time I feel down, I visit this channel. And within minutes I realize: things could be much worse...😅

[@magtirehmahad4277]

Most of the footage is from Ottawa which I'm not used to seeing on KZbin, it gives me that sense of familiarity (Hey I was there yesterday or hey that's my highway exit). I immediately subscribed haha. Keep up the good work guys

[@louiszhang3050]

"Stop the war on cars, not everyone wants to cycle everywhere" I seriously don't get these people. Removing one lane of traffic is not "forcing everyone to cycle". Not have bike infrastructure on 99% of roads is forcing everyone to drive. They think they're advocating for options, but actually they're advocating for the very thing they're against!

[@louiszhang3050]

I will say some cities are opting to widen sidewalks and pave them with asphalt in suburbs where low pedestrian volumes exist as bike infrastructure. I actually quite like this approach but beg buttons are so annoying.

[@TheTrailburner]

An argument I got into with another user on a different video, claimed that "Bikes are play toys and shouldn't be on the streets" The ignorance of that claim was just astounding.

[@pbilk]

Thank you for this video! Small towns are even an urban area. 🙂 Family and kids in small-large towns deserve to safely travel and be active. Whether it's a family bike ride, biking to church, to school, to work (especially teens), practicing for a race, or other reasons. 🙂

[@danbolton3180]

Bikes are tools, like cars are tools. Not every tool does every job well, so put the hammer down and use the right tool for the job.

[@dwc1964]

and as such, for moving large numbers of people around a densely populated urban area, the automobile - however powered or piloted - is the _worst_ tool for the job

[@LisaBeergutHolst]

Don't forget that the "job" is the result of deliberate policy choices.

[@The_Deaf_Aussie]

With the rising cost of Fuel Price (Perth, Western Australia).. I decided to buy an eBike for commting to work and back home everyday. The trip is 18.8 km, and took me 30 mins. And I saved $50 worth of fuel. Its been a week now.. and not only its fun, refreshing(?) but its totally worth the effort/investment. Note: my route has about 30% bike lanes.. so remaining 70% of riding is on the road.. which is no big deal. I wear seafty vest so that motorist can see me. And I obey the rules of the road, and make sure that cars can drive around me safetly etc..

[@GalladofBales]

On my bike ride yesterday I had a motorist yell out the window, "use the sidewalk!" at me. Obviously in that situation I don't have time for a response to someone driving away, but seriously "walk" is right there in the name! The sidewalk as it stands now is for pedestrians and they should be able to use it safely without faster vehicles. This was on an arterial road with 2 lanes in each direction, so me taking one lane leaves a whole other lane for cars to safely pass, and yet they still get mad at me. Maybe the painted bicycle gutters that randomly stop and end need to be upgraded to continuous separated bike lanes, but I don't see these drivers advocating for that

[@applefav101]

I don't get why drivers don't want bike lanes... more people biking means less people on the road to create traffic

[@TheTrailburner]

Those drivers who don't want bike lanes, don't want bikes on the road at all. Their selfish argument is that the road should be all for themselves and no one else.

[@Phazon8058MS]

2:47 Wow, I'm surprised to see such huge support for more bike infrastructure in Winnipeg! Highest of all the major cities! Count me among the Winnipeggers that wants more bike infrastructure!

[@NaturallyRC]

Thanks for your generous offer to box up bike infrastructure arguments! And just imagine city counselors sitting down to watch videos like this, and part 1. Hope springs eternal.

[@fatrobin72]

"biking is no fun..." On a multi lane, busy main road with no alternative infrastructure. There fixed that 6th one for you...

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Ha yeah well the act of biking then... learning to bike, getting those training wheels off kind of fun.

[@fatrobin72]

@@OhTheUrbanity Being dyspraxic... Learning to ride a bicycle was hard and for a lot of the time as a kid not fun (watching everyone else succeed while you don't understand why you can't)... Getting back on a bicycle as a adult who understands their body... Damn that was freeing not having to wait for the hourly bus to go to the town 3 miles away... Though many of the encounters with traffic on that country road... Were also not fun.

[@izzelyy3189]

Bikes are too slow for roads and too fast for side walks. The only solution is to dedicate portions of the roads to bikes. And I'm not talking about stupid painted lanes. We need real infrastructures with a physical separation between bikes lanes and roads. Otherwise, it's just traffic mayhem where everyone is thrown on the same path like in Paris (where I live) where everyone hate each other.

[@bertrandpiche7599]

Fully agree with your views. I used to bike a lot when I was younger and without disabilties. I wish I could return to do so. As such, I fully support cycling in a city.

[@Yoshikarter1]

"Car-dependency is never by nature, but is always by very meticulous design."

[@adrienrenaux6211]

In Belgium, we have a lot of what we call "chaussées" which are old roads that go between towns and villages that have been widened to make it a network of local roads. They are usually one car lane in each direction with sometimes a middle lane for turning. In a lot of towns, the town has developed along this road and it creates a stroad-ish environment (not the same as the classic American stroad but similar problems). In these roads, it's so common to have a sidewalk that has a sign that tells cyclists to use it, and cities will call that cycling infrastructure. There would arguably be too little bike/foot traffic on a lot for these to justify both a good sidewalk and a good cycle lane, but I think a good wide multi use pathway would be ideal for that

[@kailahmann1823]

We have these in Germany as well (very slowly moving to become optional) - often connecting to a bike path along the road between the villages. I see them as a compromise for roads, where you can be lucky, if the cars only drive 50 and other modes of transportation are rare - and actually there's quite a lot of bike traffic on these. In a city you'd never be allowed to cycle on those, but the pedestrian traffic volume there is just another universe.

[@chronenojysk5107]

Y'know Car Heavy Infrastructure is so ingrained in people's mind that they would drive their car down the street just to get some basic groceries. My Grandma lives like a 6 minute walk behind a Supermarket and when I decided to just go by walking, she INSISTED that I should drive. I really did not understand why I needed a car if there is a dedicated side walk and low car density in the neighborhood.

[@Lennartnieuwland]

In the Netherlands we have (had) to take a bike test as kids. If you don't pass you can take the exam again. But it's hard not to pass. If you don't pass or never had the test you can still bike as if nothing happened. You don't get a license after passing. I bring this up because the cities in Canada could just copy our test, they would watch the test once and get about 20 parents to volunteer and they'd be set.

[@Alina_Schmidt]

We have such a test too! I was one of two kids who didn‘t pass and I was quite sad about it. The only result was my parents were encouraged to practice more. (They didn‘t really, I wasn‘t thaaat bad.) Fast forward more than 20 years: I only had one accident on a bike yet. Luckily only minor bruises. It was the fault of the car driver by the way.

[@georgeemil3618]

The last time somebody yelled at me to ride on the sidewalk reminded me of the day before when my helmet camera recorded somebody who was riding on the sidewalk on the same stretch of road. I wish I had kept that video showing her being cut off by a motorist making a right turn as she approached the intersection and was about to cross. This is one of the things that are much less likely to happen when you take the lane.

[@yanDeriction]

intersection crossings are just bad. good infrastructure always puts the crossing at mid block. mid block crossings are a longer distance for whiny pedestrians, but no problem for a bike.

[@PeterSdrolias]

The more I bike, the less I want to drive.

[@samuelfrade2652]

A "May Use Full Lane" sign along with sharrows is better than a painted bike lane in every way. If I want to ride on the edge to facilitate passing, I do that. If I want to ride toward the center to discourage unsafe passing or to prepare for a lane change or left turn, I do that too. The sign plus a sharrow gives me options, a bike line encourages edge hugging rather than varying one's position in response to circumstances.

[@stephensmith1509]

Absolutely cackling about the Laurier repetition

[@alainterieur4837]

Also an argument that I hear really often is that cycling is not necessary since we have good public transit and cabs are available. But good public transportation and cabs are not entirely void of problems: 1) Using public transportation can be slower than cycling, since buses can get stuck in traffic, sometimes have low frequency, and in some cases need to make detours due to the layout of the network of lines 2) Public transit doesn't operate 24h/7 3) Public transit doesn't go everywhere, especially in remote or low-density areas 4) It's also not very practical if you need to transport a sizeable amount of cargo 5) Cabs are really expensive, and since you have to call the agency and wait for a cab to arrive, it can be slower than cycling 6) Even if cabs were affordable, all these new cabs would just cause congestion, and they're not great for the environment 7) You don't get much exercise with either of those And besides all that, allowing people to use the mode of transportation of their choice is pretty important. And everyone benefits from it: fewer cars on the roads, safer streets, better public transit that won't get stuck on congested roads, better air quality...

[@davibergamin5943]

8)public transit could be way better

[@thelanittaja4765]

Creating multi-use paths works really well in medium to low traffic suburban streets/roads. In most cases, it's just a matter of widening the sidewalk to be minimum of 2 meters (7 ish feet) so that bikes can pass each other comfortably. It's not necessary to separate pedestrians and cyclists, as long as (pedestrian and cycle) traffic volumes are relatively low (the situations where one would like to pass a slower road user when there is oncoming traffic are quite rare). This also works well alongside arterial roads, where foot traffic is relatively low (most people decide to cycle or drive). Multi use paths are also great in places that see high foot/cycle traffic some times during the day, for example around schools. However, multi-use paths don't work well in city centers with high foot traffic. Oh, and the reason why some people want to keep their right to ride on the road even if there is a cycle lane, is that it forces cities to build bike infrastructure that's actually good. Otherwise, the city can just paint a "cycle lane" next to parked cars or slap a multi-use path sign on a narrow sidewalk. I can't blame them, having seen some absolutely horrible pieces of "bike infrastructure" in different cities. For this reason, it's healthy to add a clause to the law that one must use a cycle path if it exist, it's in operating condition, and it's safe to do so. You shouldn't force cyclists to always use bike path, as long as you don't have proper regulations on what can be considered and labeled as bike lane/path.

[@KRYMauL]

It also makes sense for highways like Livermore, CA highway 84. Seriously there's a bike lane on the side of the road.

[@JustaGuy_Gaming]

Two big issues with side walks are driveway and obstructions. Driveways are obvious with cars pulling out, either blocking the sidewalk while waiting or pulling out with out looking. Obstructions like mail boxes, trash cans or power poles in the already small sidewalks is also a huge hazard.

[@bicycles-as-far-as-im-aliv5725]

This vid is on point even better than the first. 🙌🏾

[@OhTheUrbanity]

Appreciated!

[@OntarioTrafficMan]

Actually the biggest problem with sidewalk riding is not the bumpy surface or conflicts with pedestrians, it's the fact that intersections are not designed for fast-moving vehicles on the sidewalk. Sightlines are not necessarily adequate for drivers to spot cyclists approaching on the sidewalk, and/or there may be traffic conflicts which simply don't work safely with fast-moving bicycles.

[@anneonymous4884]

Pro biking *AND* deadlifting? Based.

[@markanderson3870]

The number one reason I hear used against bike lanes is that not enough people will use them. Someone said this to me in Hamilton, ON, pointing to bike lanes he said were always empty. I said, availability of bike lanes would increase use, but I'm not always sure this will be the case.

[@FreLuZi]

Great Video, thanks for the arguments!

[@MyMerryMessyGermanLife]

I hope city planners find channels like your’s and Not Just Bikes and it makes a difference in policies!

[@CommutebyBicycle561]

Cars should just use the sidewalk. Makes as much sense as the opposite argument. lol

[@mentonerodominicano]

That Ogilvie Road video is so frustrating. Look at all that space reserved for GRASS!

[@adamkatolik1633]

I have to drive because I have kids in daycare near my downtown workplace. But after watching these videos, I realize the better the biking infrastructure the better it is for everyone, including drivers, because it means FEWER OTHER CARS! Also, I realized that what bothers/stresses me the most is not cyclists in protected bike lanes but cyclists NOT in bike lanes. So I support good cycling infrastructure, but also strong rules to make sure that if there is a bike lane, CYCLISTS MUST USE IT.

[@HyenaBlank]

I kind of wonder if it'd help to try and also promote it to obsessive drivers that less cars would mean more gas available too

[@Kevin15047]

Well the thing is, if you make the bike infrastructure decent, I will use it and nobody has to force me to. There is one protected bike path I know of in my city. It's maybe an eighth of a mile long and doesn't really go anywhere. So most of the time, I'm cycling in the road next to it because it's rather pointless. For 1/8 of a mile, it's not worth getting into. Now if this was a network of protected bike path that went to the grocery store, to downtown, to my doctor's office, I would be in heaven. Long story short, too late, if you build a bad bike path and then try to force people to use it, it's like trying to make water flow up hill.

[@HipsterShiningArmor]

if you do a third installment of this series, you should address the idea that bike lanes cause gentrification, because that's one bad argument that I keep seeing over and over again. It might be a little beyond the scope of an infrastructure-focused channel but I do still think its worth talking about.

[@lonestarr1490]

Could you maybe consider putting the city names not on the lower end of the screen? That would be nice, because I rely on subtitles and they constantly get in conflict with the city names. I know I can move subtitles around, but where to put them? The lower end of the screen is arguably the best place for them, while city names could easily go into the upper left corner, for instance. Just making suggestions here. Hope you'll consider it. Otherwise great content! I really appreciate the amount of work you put into these videos in order to provide visual evidence for all the points stated.

[@OhTheUrbanity]

We actually experimented with putting the place names at the top to avoid them being hidden by subtitles (based on another comment you made), but the result made the place names too distracting. I can't guarantee we'll find a better setup than the bottom but we will keep experimenting.

[@lonestarr1490]

@@OhTheUrbanity Ok. Thanks for looking into it!

[@charlesbell74]

Greetings from Silver Spring, Maryland. We have seen a huge improvement in bike lanes here. I can now comfortably bike or drive through the downtown area. The lanes even take you directly to the bus and train station providing easy access to DC.

[@joykennedy3478]

This is why I want to live there 😭. I love visiting the regal theater area.

[@pappy9473]

Thank you. Very educational video.

[@tkejlboom]

I have an argument! All that Americans really care about is money. How does having a bicycle lane contribute to conspicuous consumption or make poor people ashamed of their poverty?

[@m.e.3862]

I think there will be more separated bike paths now that e bikes are being used for last mile deliveries in cities. Also E cargo bikes like Tern make will probably be a more attractive option in the future. Sure they retail for 5k CAD, but that's it- no car insurance, license, gas, oil changes, tires etc. And you can park it upright in your apartment so no parking space needed as well

[@DarkDutch007]

the tires do wear down so you have to replace them sometimes, same for the innertube if it gets a puncture/rip that cant be fixed. You might still want a anti theft/damage insurance for expencive bikes though, but they should be far far far cheaper than the mendatory car stuff.

[@m.e.3862]

@@DarkDutch007 yeah. In QC winter tires r mandatory for cars so you have 8 tires total and you need to store 4 in the off season which is another expense

[@volrosku.6075]

I do like the idea of increasing public transit and biking/walkability of Canada as it would reduce traffic and greenhouse emitions directly. And also show that these options in many cases are preferable to huge projects like the 400 series

[@dernwine]

The correct way (in my opinon) to deal with Bike testing and licensing is to make bike classes mandatory in school. This is a net win: First of all it gets kids active, they learn a phyisical skill, burn off some of that pent up energy in the class room. Secondly it gives everyone a base line understanding of cyclists and the problems they face. Thirdly it will increase the number of people who choose to cycle to school, and remove the need for parents to do the school run. Fourthly it teaches children the rules of the road at a young age, which in turn means that when they're 16/18/whatever age in your country of choice, and start to learn to drive, they already have a leg up, and a basic understanding of rights of way, signalling, and what road signs mean. There is literally no downside to having kids attend a bike class at school, it benefits motorists (fewer cars on the road, new drivers have more experience of road use, parents don't have to rush to school as much to collect children), it benefits cyclists (gives everyone a baseline understanding of cycling, what the dangers are, and how to treat them with respect while driving, and it benfits to community (cost of teaching and testing kids on a basic "road and bike skills class" offset by the reduced cost of road and parking maintenance). ...of course this is selfishly speaking as a kid who attended bike classes in school.

[@tarickw]

Small addition on the 'cycling license'. In the Netherlands all children get traffic lessons and it ends with a cycle trip through the neighbourhood where they can show they know the rules and act proper in traffic. This is the 'cycling exam' were each child cycles on their own and is observed by teachers/parents on their proper traffic behaviour. So a 'cycling license' might be an applied and 'good' thing in a certain way.

[@thomashughes_teh]

Cycling with traffic is like trying to watch television at a boxing match.

[@I.____.....__...__]

IKR‽ This is why riding in the road or even in a bike lane is absurd. WTF wants to ride with cars speeding up behind their backs where they can't see or react to them? 🤦 They actually teach children to walk AGAINST traffic to see the cars, but my schitty is now installing "wrong way" signs on the bike PATHS on the left side of the street (not bike lanes, but bike paths that are an extension to the sidewalk). 🙄

[@derosa1989]

In denser urban areas, people should be reminded the positioning and scale of buildings and roads were designed long before the car was even invented! The whole "roads are for cars" argument is revisionist. Yonge street dates from the 1790's and bicycles were booming by the 1880s, about 3 decades before car use became common. Cities obviously date back thousands of years, cars in cities is was a 20th century idea.

[@anarchyorslavery1616]

playing devils advocate here: you could argue in the same way cities were also not structured for bike traffic, but for horses and carts

[@LanceAvion]

@@anarchyorslavery1616 Secondary devil here: a street which can accommodate horses and carts may not be robust enough for cars, but is certainly enough for bicycles.

[@anarchyorslavery1616]

@@LanceAvion maybe mountain bikes, but those are a modern thing lol

[@LanceAvion]

@@anarchyorslavery1616 I assume you're imagining old cobblestone or brick streets? That's just the coverage, which can be replaced or modified easily. Compared to increasing the width to account for cars as an example.

[@anarchyorslavery1616]

@@LanceAvion well cars are kinda important too, since trucks are the backbone of the supply chain

[@nbartlett6538]

The biggest problem with cycling infrastructure in my city (London, England) is that it's disconnected. There are lots of bike paths but they have a habit of suddenly coming to an end, forcing you into traffic, or going to nowhere interesting. Largely this is because London is governed by 32 independent borough councils. In Barnet borough during the pandemic, they converted one lane of a busy road into a bike lane. But because of remote working and the lack of connections to other bike lanes, it didn't see very much use. Meanwhile motorists complained of increased traffic, and now the bike lane has been removed. As far as I'm aware London is the only major European city where bike infrastructure is actively being removed.

[@themanyouwanttobe]

2:45 Holy cow. I knew Vancouver got heated whenever more bike lanes were introduced but ranking barely above Alberta is surprising. I think videos like this that only focus on the bike infrastructure of downtown Vancouver are really misleading. As soon as you got a little further east into Burnaby, the bike infrastructure falls apart. I'd love to see a video addressing how the different municipal goals in metro Vancouver impacts a connected regional bike network. As someone who doesn't commute downtown, it rubs me the wrong way whenever Vancouver is touted as a great place for bike commuting. On the other hand, way to go Winnipeg! Coldest provincial capital in the country and you're still hungry for more bike lanes. Here you get people saying you can't bike in the rain.

[@Theres_No_PlanetB]

I hate how cars are required to access some areas. Like the only way to enter a Walmart in my current “city” is on a road. In the winter you walk in snow on the hill or in the road.

[@philippemiller4740]

Keep up the good work

[@andrewmurray9391]

On licensing: DUI, texting while driving, getting blow jobs, being angry at your boss and spacing out, running away after you killed someone, running red lights, doing doughnuts on the interstate, racing at 200mph, smoking dope as you ride around, committing acts of terrorism, attempting suicide, and more are all already illegal for licensed cars, including the law that you need to have a license plate. In fact, some would argue half the police's budget comes from the fact most people will violate parking laws if they think they can get away with it, and many do. I'm not sure anyone follows any driving law 2 hours after passing their test.

[@wimahlers]

Some experienced comment of a Dutch cyclist [namely me]: Duh! I know it is not useful, but I have heard all the excuses against a bike infrastructure before. I can even predict the critique to this reply, namely: "But The Netherlands is flat". Other common, and weak, excuses, Where we live it is: Too cold Too hot Too wet Too dry Too windy Streets are too narrow Streets are too wide Our city is too young [car centric] Our city is too old [histoically horse centric] It is not in our culture to cycle Valid excuses are: a) Draconian zoning rules (urban sprawl) b) Lack of (connecting/integrated) public infrastructure (use bicycles for first and last miles) Both can be easily solved. For the latter see, among others: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jquqfZ5jp56ff9E Note: These OV bicycles are rarely, if ever, stolen. That is because they are too distinct. The letters "OV" stands for "Openbaar Vervoer". "Openbaar Vervoer" lilerally means public transportation. The OV-fiets (OV-bicycle) belongs to the Dutch railroad. It is not a generic rental bicycle. It is an extension service for daily commuters. This concept confuses (mainly) tourists. Tourists have to go to a bicycle rental store. Which, confusingly, might be located in or near the same railway station. See, among others: www.yellowbike.nl/tour/bike-rental/

[@mariadebake5483]

And I, also being Dutch, completely agree with you. All those stupid weak excuses we've heard over and over again from people that don't know what they're talking about

[@DarkDutch007]

I mostly see: but the USA (or Canada) is a much bigger country than the Netherlands. yes it is, but even in the Netherlands, most people would not commute by bicycle alone from the top of the country to the bottom on a daily basis...

[@tjmoyes]

The one plus I will give Ottawa is the NCC paths. I live out in Nepean and used to work at City Hall. I could bike from home to work using the NCC paths and very rarely crossed car traffic; however, this isn't good enough.

[@titusstadhouders5336]

car's are integrated into the community. It is the most liberal thing, it stands for freedom. Which I think is complete BS! I am from the Netherlands and you can be very independent as a child. You wanna go to a movie, you don't need your parents to drive, just bike! You can't do that in the US its to dangerous, no infrastructure, so you need your parents because you're to young to drive.

[@SuperNovaJinckUFO]

In conservative areas, they should market bike lanes as an effort to "get bikes off the road". Appeal to suburbanites who are sick of having to look out for cyclists, and having to move around them/get slowed down by them. Call it a pro car thing: giving cyclists their own lanes and dedicated paths will improve traffic and make driving easier. And of course it comes with the added benefit of making biking more accessible and will encourage more people to do so instead of driving (but shh, don't tell them that)

[@smu2mu2]

Bikes and trains just don't work in North America; it's too big. I mean seriously, do you really expect me to bike from Anchorage AK to Miami FL everyday for my daily commute? And why would we build trains that can go 300km/h when you can DRIVE at 1/3 the speed? I want to go long distances and as we all know, slow and steady wins the race!

[@MarioFanGamer659]

Your comment has absolutely nothing to do with this video aside from featuring bicycles.

[@nishiljaiswal2216]

@@MarioFanGamer659 i think he is joking

[@Joesolo13]

Had us in the first half

[@MarioFanGamer659]

@@nishiljaiswal2216 I... can now see the irony. I'd blame it by the various other, unironic commentors who have tainted me a bit, making it harder for me to see the irony.

[@SeanLamb-I-Am]

My city is installing a lot more bike lanes in the last few years. We have several former rail lines that have gone through rails-to-trails conversions, and several streets near me have been the subject of road diets to install bike lanes. There are also a few streets where sidewalks have been widened recently for bikes like you describe in the video. If you get down to Madison, WI, sometime, I'd be happy to tour around with you (although I might not be able to keep up as well on my bike like I used to).

[@giorgio7388]

*insert_city* is not "Amsterdam/Copenaghen/Oslo" . Recently there are the new variations "Paris" and "Barcellona"

[@SianaGearz]

Huh i always wanted to go to Barcelona. Maybe now's the time. Or well next year in summer. I heard about it before, i am aware of historic architecture and whatnot, but this year seeing it here on YT, well colour me even more impressed. In general if i could move to Spain, i definitely would, and Barcelona seems like just the spot.

[@tardvandecluntproductions1278]

London is also improving on their old "here's blue paint to bike on"

[@Pseudonymoniae]

6:08 is very helpful for a common language around bike infrastructure safety. Since starting to ride to work across town regularly, I've encountered some areas that are great and stress free, and others that I am inclined to go out of my way to avoid. There are stretches of LTS2 and LTS3 on my ride. The latter is frankly a little frightening for someone who is safety conscious, and I've considered doing a long detour to avoid it entirely. I see people bike LTS4 in my city when driving. And all I can see is that this looks completely nuts to my eyes, if you have a better option. Both the LTS2 and LTS3 stretches of my ride are due to be upgraded to LTS1 in the next year. I can't wait!

[@pkg24]

I live outside Chicago. I drive a truck for a living. I see here & many places where sidewalks just end. Nothing. Also many city sidewalks are 8 inch 90 deg curbs. Not a slope you can ride over. Also; I used to hate round abouts. Now I love em. I think all intestate cloverleaf should be protected access & exit. & weird at 1st a diverging diamond it's awesome! Professional opinion. Personally if I can't pull my 3 year old behind me safley in a bike trailer, the cycle way is lacking. Car lanes need a diet.

[@johnathin0061892]

The sidewalks need to be converted to allow bicycles. The car lanes need to stay as-is.