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As someone who lives in Portland in what I’d consider to be a 5-minute neighborhood (NE 28th), the bike infrastructure is pretty good, but limited to certain st

As someone who lives in Portland in what I’d consider to be a 5-minute neighborhood (NE 28th), the bike infrastructure is pretty good, but limited to certain streets. Biking on Burnside, Sandy, and much of 28th itself is quite dangerous, and there’s often no bike lane at all. However, there are many nearby streets (SE Ankeny, 30th) which are safe and actually designated as bike streets. But I often see clueless cyclists biking on the major streets instead. I’m not sure what we need to do to educate, because as a daily cyclist it’s really frustrating to see.

NegativeLatency 4y ago
I feel/understand the bit about "clueless cyclists biking on the major streets" but that feels like a failure of infrastructure to me (sort of like how rust is a improvement over c). Anything from: - bad signage & route marking - bad navigation instructions (Apple maps and sometimes google maps sending people down streets they shouldn't be on as a inexperienced bike rider) - longer routes around (Thinking of Sandy here where cars get to drive the hypotenuse while bikes are supposed to bike at right angles to the city grid) - lack of completely separated bike roads (if these existed I would almost never want to mix it up with cars) - lack of options for connecting between bikeways can end up with someone being in a bad spot pretty quickly through accident or intention. I live out a bit closer to the airport and agree it's still a lot better than most cities but still end up biking around and on Sandy which is always unpleasant in its current state. Also even on the bike streets you end up with frustrated drivers who are trying to use it as a shortcut or find it unacceptable to travel a couple of MPH less when they're behind a bike for a few blocks. Specifically not allowing non-local traffic would make the bike/slow streets a lot more welcoming to people in my life who don't want to drive but feel trapped by having to own a car.
- cammikebrown 4y ago
  I get that. I even have to study a map before every trip I go on to make sure I’m staying on more bike-friendly streets. Thankfully, in my neighborhood they’re adding more road blocks for cars (that still allow bikes through).
  - Akronymus 4y ago
    Those blocks can be pretty dangerous to bikes though.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

I feel/understand the bit about "clueless cyclists biking on the major streets" but that feels like a failure of infrastructure to me (sort of like how rust is a improvement over c). Anything from: - bad signage & route marking - bad navigation instructions (Apple maps and sometimes google maps sending people down streets they shouldn't be on as a inexperienced bike rider) - longer routes around (Thinking of Sandy here where cars get to drive the hypotenuse while bikes are supposed to bike at right angles to the city grid) - lack of completely separated bike roads (if these existed I would almost never want to mix it up with cars) - lack of options for connecting between bikeways can end up with someone being in a bad spot pretty quickly through accident or intention. I live out a bit closer to the airport and agree it's still a lot better than most cities but still end up biking around and on Sandy which is always unpleasant in its current state. Also even on the bike streets you end up with frustrated drivers who are trying to use it as a shortcut or find it unacceptable to travel a couple of MPH less when they're behind a bike for a few blocks. Specifically not allowing non-local traffic would make the bike/slow streets a lot more welcoming to people in my life who don't want to drive but feel trapped by having to own a car.

cammikebrown 4y ago
I get that. I even have to study a map before every trip I go on to make sure I’m staying on more bike-friendly streets. Thankfully, in my neighborhood they’re adding more road blocks for cars (that still allow bikes through).
- Akronymus 4y ago
  Those blocks can be pretty dangerous to bikes though.