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I wish more cities in the US would just copy the Netherlands. It’s like night and day seeing the infrastructure and operation of bikes/e-bikes/scooters between

I wish more cities in the US would just copy the Netherlands. It’s like night and day seeing the infrastructure and operation of bikes/e-bikes/scooters between the US and Netherlands. It’s safe, efficient, and actually makes sense. US roads were made for cars. That’s just the honest truth. Cities need to do more than just toss a bike lane on the side of the road and say they are “bike friendly”. That’s not a solution, that’s some half-assed attempt by officials to look like they give a damn.

TulliusCicero 8y ago
Yup, painted bike lanes are nearly worthless. Nobody would accept having "painted walk lanes" instead of sidewalks everywhere.
- wool_gather 8y ago
  Painted bike lanes are not uniformly bad. They can be valuable, provided they're wide enough and actually connect up with each other enough that you don't just end up with "can't get there from here" syndrome. Except for the idiots who think they're double-parking lanes, they do a pretty good job of marking a "watch out, cars" zone. Sharrows, on the other hand, are largely slaps in the face. They're put on slow residential roads where I was perfectly fine riding anyways. Or they're half-assed "look we support bikes" icons slapped right in the door zone onto a stretch of potholes that cars run at 45mph. (My personal favorite is when a perfectly nice marked lane dumps you into sharrows right before a confusing intersection.)
  - TulliusCicero 8y ago
    Painted bike lanes are useful for only a tiny slice of the population: cyclists who are both confident and okay with a fair amount of risk/lack of safety. Most people aren't that; most people are open to the idea of cycling, but only if it feels relatively safe and comfortable, and you can't get that with no physical barrier between you and cars. Nobody puts their eight year old in painted bike lanes on arterials. Agreed that sharrows are essentially useless though. It's not that the idea of mixing traffic has to be bad, but it only works if you have serious traffic calming measures that pretty much force drivers to slow down and drive more safely. Most of the time when sharrows go down, there's absolutely nothing functional changed about a car-dominant street.
    - wool_gather 8y ago
      > only a tiny slice of the population Hmm, very fair point. I admit that, biking support overall being what it is, I'm mostly stuck on making things better for those who already bike (e.g., people like me, obviously). Expanding ridership to other groups seems like another level entirely most of the time, although it would be great! I should try to keep that aspect in mind more.

TulliusCicero 8y ago

Yup, painted bike lanes are nearly worthless. Nobody would accept having "painted walk lanes" instead of sidewalks everywhere.

wool_gather 8y ago
Painted bike lanes are not uniformly bad. They can be valuable, provided they're wide enough and actually connect up with each other enough that you don't just end up with "can't get there from here" syndrome. Except for the idiots who think they're double-parking lanes, they do a pretty good job of marking a "watch out, cars" zone. Sharrows, on the other hand, are largely slaps in the face. They're put on slow residential roads where I was perfectly fine riding anyways. Or they're half-assed "look we support bikes" icons slapped right in the door zone onto a stretch of potholes that cars run at 45mph. (My personal favorite is when a perfectly nice marked lane dumps you into sharrows right before a confusing intersection.)
- TulliusCicero 8y ago
  Painted bike lanes are useful for only a tiny slice of the population: cyclists who are both confident and okay with a fair amount of risk/lack of safety. Most people aren't that; most people are open to the idea of cycling, but only if it feels relatively safe and comfortable, and you can't get that with no physical barrier between you and cars. Nobody puts their eight year old in painted bike lanes on arterials. Agreed that sharrows are essentially useless though. It's not that the idea of mixing traffic has to be bad, but it only works if you have serious traffic calming measures that pretty much force drivers to slow down and drive more safely. Most of the time when sharrows go down, there's absolutely nothing functional changed about a car-dominant street.
  - wool_gather 8y ago
    > only a tiny slice of the population Hmm, very fair point. I admit that, biking support overall being what it is, I'm mostly stuck on making things better for those who already bike (e.g., people like me, obviously). Expanding ridership to other groups seems like another level entirely most of the time, although it would be great! I should try to keep that aspect in mind more.