5 ms·

People drive 25 mp/h or 40 km/h on bike lanes? I routinely drove about 27-30km/h without assist and was already getting worried about breaking speed and people

by y4mi 5y ago

People drive 25 mp/h or 40 km/h on bike lanes? I routinely drove about 27-30km/h without assist and was already getting worried about breaking speed and people entering the bike lane. Going so much faster would be terrifying to me

clairity 5y ago
i do see e-bikers doing 20-25mph (up to ~40km/h) occasionally, and a determined pedal biker can reach those speeds as well. "terrifying" seems a little hyperbolic though. certainly you're likely to get hurt if you crash a bike at those speeds, but that's why safety gear exists, and why we need protected bike lanes to segregate speeds/vehicles. crashing a car at high speed is similarly terrifying, yet we drive cars at high speed orders of magnitude more often. but that's also why we need double-wide lanes, so that faster micro-vehicles have space too. city streets should support a full gradient of travel speeds/vehicles, from walking to car, the normalization of which should reduce the incidence of people blindly entering bike lanes (just as we don't have people jumping in front of cars all the time).
- u801e 5y ago
  > i do see e-bikers doing 20-25mph (up to ~40km/h) occasionally, and a determined pedal biker can reach those speeds as well. At that speed, why not just use the road instead of the narrow bike lanes/paths?
  - sudosysgen 5y ago
    You're not allowed, and people will be absolutely furious at you for doing it. Also drivers rear-ending you.
    - u801e 5y ago
      > You're not allowed VAT 1234 [1] only applies when going less than the normal speed of traffic, which isn't the case on an e-bike. > people will be absolutely furious at you for doing it. People do a lot of things that make other people furious. Riding on the road isnt anything special > Also drivers rear-ending you. It's far less likely than getting hit by a turning vehicle because the cyclist was in the motorist's blind spot. [1] https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1234 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1234
  - clairity 5y ago
    where i live, they do tend to use the road because there aren't many bike lanes/paths around (mostly sharrows or nothing at all).

by y4mi 5y ago

clairity 5y ago

i do see e-bikers doing 20-25mph (up to ~40km/h) occasionally, and a determined pedal biker can reach those speeds as well. "terrifying" seems a little hyperbolic though. certainly you're likely to get hurt if you crash a bike at those speeds, but that's why safety gear exists, and why we need protected bike lanes to segregate speeds/vehicles. crashing a car at high speed is similarly terrifying, yet we drive cars at high speed orders of magnitude more often. but that's also why we need double-wide lanes, so that faster micro-vehicles have space too. city streets should support a full gradient of travel speeds/vehicles, from walking to car, the normalization of which should reduce the incidence of people blindly entering bike lanes (just as we don't have people jumping in front of cars all the time).

u801e 5y ago
> i do see e-bikers doing 20-25mph (up to ~40km/h) occasionally, and a determined pedal biker can reach those speeds as well. At that speed, why not just use the road instead of the narrow bike lanes/paths?
- sudosysgen 5y ago
  You're not allowed, and people will be absolutely furious at you for doing it. Also drivers rear-ending you.
  - u801e 5y ago
    > You're not allowed VAT 1234 [1] only applies when going less than the normal speed of traffic, which isn't the case on an e-bike. > people will be absolutely furious at you for doing it. People do a lot of things that make other people furious. Riding on the road isnt anything special > Also drivers rear-ending you. It's far less likely than getting hit by a turning vehicle because the cyclist was in the motorist's blind spot. [1] https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1234 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/VAT/1234
- clairity 5y ago
  where i live, they do tend to use the road because there aren't many bike lanes/paths around (mostly sharrows or nothing at all).