4 ms·

I love wide pavements as a pedestrian, alas London is in the grip of a cycle paths fetish and in many instances, they eat up pavements with some cases reducing

by Zenst 9y ago

I love wide pavements as a pedestrian, alas London is in the grip of a cycle paths fetish and in many instances, they eat up pavements with some cases reducing pedestrian access and seen some which have reduced the pedestrian area to one foot due to the oversight of sheltered bus stops consuming the other side of the pavement. I'm not against cycle paths and indeed for them, but not when they erode away pedestrian access. That said, been case of many roads paved over for pedestrian only access and they have been fantastic on many levels for shops.

nostromo 9y ago
That's true in Seattle right now too. The city has been building bicycle lanes all around the city -- and yet cycling is down as a percent of commuters for the fifth straight year in a row. We could have dedicated that space to larger sidewalks and greener boulevards, instead of sparsely populated bicycle lanes. (Like London, we don't have great weather -- and we also have lots of steep hills. But city planners keep looking to cycling as our transportation panacea.)
- buswell 9y ago
  Seattle has the insanity of having obligatory bicycle helmet laws. No city has ever had a successful bike-sharing scheme with laws saying you need to wear a helmet. No city with that law has ever had any amount of cycling either. Medellin has plenty of hills and cycling, London has plenty of rain and cycling. Rain and hills won't kill you, unlike the pollution from cars
- Xylakant 9y ago
  Weather seems to be a lesser concern to cycling as both all of the Netherlands and Copenhagen demonstrate. Hills are more of an issue, but given how electric cycles improve, that should be taken care of. All in all, cycling is a replacement for car traffic more than for walking and thus the space allocation for cycle path should be taken from roads rather than pedestrian areas.
- tantivy 9y ago
  Cycling dropping as a share of commuters doesn't tell you that fewer people are cycling. There are also more commuters. Seattle has been rapidly growing, and I'd guess that most new arrivals won't immediately take up cycling in a city that's unfamiliar to them. Building bicycle infrastructure makes cycling more inviting and less stressful for inexperienced riders, which helps shift the balance over time, especially as the network itself strengthens and coverage improves.
Brakenshire 9y ago
Most of the new cycle superhighways are just lines painted on roads, the handful of segregated routes have come almost entirely from the roadspace. It is very rare for cycle paths to come at the expense of pavements, in fact I have only heard of it in the context of CS9. Can you provide another example? The 'grip of a cycle paths fetish' is excessive.
- Zenst 9y ago
  I am of course speaking about my local partofLondon and beenmany a pavement sacrificed to cycle paths and much spent laying them out - yes fetish may be excessive but given some of the plans and work as well as funding at the neglect of pedestrian rights of way, not as excessive in my local area at all. But that's just my perspective as a pedestrian who has never driven. But I'm all for cycle paths, and do feel that many are just bodged in planning and could be better thought out, though do lament how pedestrians are taking a back seat in funding for this current drive in initiative. Maybe fashion would of been a better choice of words, least that is how it seems currently.

by Zenst 9y ago

nostromo 9y ago

That's true in Seattle right now too. The city has been building bicycle lanes all around the city -- and yet cycling is down as a percent of commuters for the fifth straight year in a row. We could have dedicated that space to larger sidewalks and greener boulevards, instead of sparsely populated bicycle lanes. (Like London, we don't have great weather -- and we also have lots of steep hills. But city planners keep looking to cycling as our transportation panacea.)

buswell 9y ago
Seattle has the insanity of having obligatory bicycle helmet laws. No city has ever had a successful bike-sharing scheme with laws saying you need to wear a helmet. No city with that law has ever had any amount of cycling either. Medellin has plenty of hills and cycling, London has plenty of rain and cycling. Rain and hills won't kill you, unlike the pollution from cars
Xylakant 9y ago
Weather seems to be a lesser concern to cycling as both all of the Netherlands and Copenhagen demonstrate. Hills are more of an issue, but given how electric cycles improve, that should be taken care of. All in all, cycling is a replacement for car traffic more than for walking and thus the space allocation for cycle path should be taken from roads rather than pedestrian areas.
tantivy 9y ago
Cycling dropping as a share of commuters doesn't tell you that fewer people are cycling. There are also more commuters. Seattle has been rapidly growing, and I'd guess that most new arrivals won't immediately take up cycling in a city that's unfamiliar to them. Building bicycle infrastructure makes cycling more inviting and less stressful for inexperienced riders, which helps shift the balance over time, especially as the network itself strengthens and coverage improves.

Brakenshire 9y ago

Most of the new cycle superhighways are just lines painted on roads, the handful of segregated routes have come almost entirely from the roadspace. It is very rare for cycle paths to come at the expense of pavements, in fact I have only heard of it in the context of CS9. Can you provide another example? The 'grip of a cycle paths fetish' is excessive.

Zenst 9y ago
I am of course speaking about my local partofLondon and beenmany a pavement sacrificed to cycle paths and much spent laying them out - yes fetish may be excessive but given some of the plans and work as well as funding at the neglect of pedestrian rights of way, not as excessive in my local area at all. But that's just my perspective as a pedestrian who has never driven. But I'm all for cycle paths, and do feel that many are just bodged in planning and could be better thought out, though do lament how pedestrians are taking a back seat in funding for this current drive in initiative. Maybe fashion would of been a better choice of words, least that is how it seems currently.