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The article you mention isn't related to segregated bike facilities, it talks about discrimination. Car-centered road are not a good biking infrastructure, as
by Fradow 7y ago
The article you mention isn't related to segregated bike facilities, it talks about discrimination.
Car-centered road are not a good biking infrastructure, as cyclist don't feel safe on them, and only a marginal part of the population is willing to cycle when there is no proper cycle infrastructure.
For an example of cities actively encouraging bicycles, go see in the Netherlands, where they decided in the 50s/60s they actively decided didn't want cities to be car-centric.
You'll see a lot of bicycle-only lanes, segregated from the road. And tiny roads, that force cars to go slow.
- anonymou2 7y agoThat's exactly what segregated bicycle facilities are all about, discrimination. Of course in South Africa you were also discriminated by the color of your skin not just by your vehicle of choice. From the article: "When in 1935 a cycle lane was painted on Louis Botha Avenue, the city authorities touted it as a safety solution, but its true purpose was to get black cyclists from Alex out of the way of white motorists." Roads are not car-centered. They are built for vehicles, and bicycles are vehicles. Bike lanes are built to keep us off the road that motorists believe it is theirs. Do you think cyclists didn't ride on the roads in the Netherlands before they built bike lanes? Of course they built them to let "progress" (i.e. the car) pass unimpeded.
- majewsky 7y agoA knife can be used to kill people, yet only a minority of all knifes are used for that purpose. A bike lane can be built because of racist motives, yet only a minority of bike lanes are built because of that.
- anonymou2 7y agoThen why do I always bump into at least on or two car drivers (certainly not all) that harass me when I do not ride on the bike lane but on the road adjacent to it? Why do the motorists care where I ride if it wasn't built to clear the road for them?
- kingosticks 7y agoI think you've slightly misunderstood. It's not that roads are car-centric by definition. It's that some roads are designed solely around cars, and that those roads are not pleasent to cycle on and sometimes dangerous. Bike lanes are there for those that feel unsafe cycling on the road (for whatever reason). I sometimes cycle on the road and sometimes the bike lane on my commute, depending how fast I want to ride that day. Some of my friends only use bike lanes and if that means they cycle more then that is a good thing.
- anonymou2 7y agofine, high speed controlled access freeways may have been built only for cars. But even in that case a regular service road parallel to it is still a much better solution that a bicycle path. I sometimes ride in such a service road.
- kingosticks 7y agoA dedicated bicycle lane next to a busy multiple-lane road is often better than a service road because it's (hopefully) properly maintained, not strewn with bits of broken cars and doesn't stop suddenly at each junction. I would ride in such a service road if the alternative was a freeway but only as the lesser of two evils. There's also the problem of busy junctions within settlements that are designed around cars. This is another example of where alternative bicycle-centric lanes and signalling are much better suited than the regular road.