BIKE: Dedicated bike lanes -- a mistake?

[Lane Wimberley]

Folks, 

Sniping aside, I for one am digging this discussion, and am hopeful
that I can take something useful away from it.  (<GULP!> Ah, such
die-hard naivete!)  I hope we can find an answer to Jeb's question,
and am really interested in the results of the study that Rob
participated in.

Here's my second post for the day.  After Rob posted the link to John
Schubert's editorial yesterday, I sent John a question.  Here's the
exchange...

In a message dated 3/29/05 1:18:44 PM, lane writes:

<< I just read your article about the re-design of Shoal Creek
Blvd. in Austin, TX.  In that article, you suggested sharing the road as
a preferable solution (via signage and/or sharrows).  One of the
alternatives explored by the city but ultimately rejected (on
questionable grounds, in my opinion) was to eliminate parking from one
side of the street, allowing 2 car lanes and 2 bike lanes in some 30-32
feet of remaining road space (assuming the single parking lane was 8-10
feet wide).

What do you think of this solution? >>

I don't like it.  The bike lane next to parking would STILL be in the door 
zone.

Please pay close attention to two hidden assumptions that need to be brought 
out into daylight and put in front of the firing squad:

(1) "Not as much in the door zone" is safer.  WRONG.  The slightest overlap 
between car door and bike WILL cause an accident, and can easily cause a 
fatality or very serious injury.  What you get is a diversion-type
fall.  The bike's
handlebars get caught in the car door, and the bike is steered out from 
underneath the rider.  The rider is thrown to the pavement,  often towards the 
center of the street.  If there's an overtaking motor vehicle at that
moment. . .
well, that's how Dana Laird was killed.

So I'm not interested in dimensions that are just barely enough to have a 
near miss most of the time.  I want absolute clearance all the time,
and I don't
want to have to disobey a traffic control device to get it.

(2) "An unsafe bikelane is better than no bikelane."  WRONG.  Why are we 
taking people's tax dollars to instruct them (via this traffic control
devioffer
comfortable shy distances.  Cars aren't expected to drive within inches of each 
other side by side on the highway; there are buffer zones between pedestrians 
and the roadway; etc.  We also need shy distance for the pedestrians who are 
entering or exiting the driver's side doors of their cars.  A door zone bike 
lane eliminates this shy distance, which is both uncomfortable and dangerous.  
And for what end?  The convenience of overtaking motorists!

While I don't know the intricacies of parking on Shoal Creek, I expect that 
eliminating half the parking would have been a hardship for many people.  Why 
pick that fight when it's so much easier to teach cyclists how to ride properly?

John Schubert



On Wed, 30 Mar 2005 16:16:14 -0600, Thorne <jeffrey.thorne> wrote:
> Discussion!  Love it.
> Some basic principles, bike lane neutral:
> http://labreform.org/blunders/b5.html
> 
> A critique of a study:
> http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/SharedUse_critique.pdf
> 
> A wide curb lane vs. bike lane study:
> http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/tfhrc/safety/pubs/99035/intro.htm
> (whoops, compares apples to oranges--but partly in Austin)
> 
> A critique of that study:
> http://www.johnforester.com/Articles/Facilities/BLvsWCL.htm
> 
> Another critique of that study--by a listed author:
> http://www.humantransport.org/bicycledriving/library/critique_blvswcl.pdf
> 
> A discussion of plusses/minuses of bike lanes:
> http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/lanes/wachlane.htm
> 
> I hope the discussion will be fruitful.
> 
> Jeff
> 
> 
> ------ Original Message ------
> Received: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 03:35:21 PM CST
> From: Mike Dahmus <mdahmus>
> To: Fred Meredith <bikin-fred>Cc: forum
> Subject: Re: BIKE: Dedicated bike lanes -- a mistake?
> 
> Fred Meredith wrote:
> 
> > At 10:53 AM -0600 3/30/05, Mike Dahmus wrote:
> >
> >> From my experience arguing this very issue (on USENET among other 
> >> places):
> >>
> >> Most of the people who argue that bike lanes are almost always bad 
> >> tend to be in one of these groups (or combinations thereof):
> >>
> >> 1. focused with laser-sharp precision on the needs of current 
> >> (experienced) transportational cyclists (i.e. don't think or care 
> >> about kids, novices, elderly) - tend to be people who live in areas 
> >> where cycling just tends to happen by itself and doesn't need 
> >> promotion or encouragement.
> >>
> >> 2. inexperienced with suburban cycling conditions (i.e. why would you 
> >> ever need a bike lane or marked shoulder if roads are laid out in a 
> >> grid pattern with design speeds of 30 mph) - tend to be 
> >> disproportionately European, some Amercan adherents among Forsterites 
> >> mainly in the northeast or midwest United States - areas which 
> >> haven't seen much growth since the 1960s or so. IE - these are people 
> >> who never have to ride on roads like Jollyville to get where they 
> >> want to go.
> >>
> >> 3. careless about the needs of the city to ensure good traffic flow 
> >> for all users of a corridor - i.e. sometimes the bike lane exists to 
> >> increase the likelihood that motorists can maintain some reasonable 
> >> level of speed, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing. IE, these are 
> >> people who think the city shouldn't care that automobile traffic 
> >> would often and suddenly be restricted to 10 mph or so on any given 
> >> street since some motorists don't effectively know how to pass 
> >> cyclists without the help of a stripe.
> >>
> >> They also tend to neglect statistical thinking in their arguments - 
> >> focusing, for instance, on the average passing distance they get from 
> >> motorists in wide curb lanes vs bike lanes, rather than looking 
> >> deeper to the 10th percentile case. See 
> >> http://www.io.com/~mdahmus/trans/bl-wcl-pd.html for more details.
> >
> >
> > Mike, I am so glad you have gone to the trouble to do so many 
> > scientific studies involving Shoal Creek Blvd and similar roadways in 
> > order that your arguments can be so well grounded in "statistical 
> > thinking." Otherwise, one might have thought that you were pulling 
> > some of this stuff right out of your ... in support of what you have 
> > already chosen to believe. 
> 
> This type of retort isn't helpful at all, Fred. I'm surprised that the 
> person who spends more time here than anyone criticizing others' 
> behavior would stoop to such a low.
> 
> I wrote my page about passing distance on Shoal Creek to explain a 
> hypothetical to some people who just weren't "getting it" when we were 
> discussing how EVEN IF the average passing distance is larger with wide 
> curb lanes, bike lanes might STILL BE SAFER. In other words, they 
> assumed that if the average pass was larger, then effectively all passes 
> would be larger (of course this is ludicrous, but it did, in fact, happen).
> 
> I used my estimate of passing distance during my own commutes on Shoal 
> Creek - this was honest recollection.
> 
> This is, in fact, thinking of the problem using statistics. If you can 
> think of a better term than "statistical thinking", go right ahead.
> 
> For those tempted to take Fred's chiding to heart, please note that 
> despite his high-horse, he did not add any content to the discussion. 
> None. Zero. Just attacks on me, including the implication that I was 
> "pulling some of this stuff right out of your ... in support of what you 
> have already chosen to believe."
> 
> I would love to have an honest discussion about the place of bike lanes 
> versus wide curb lanes versus shared lanes. In fact, one could even have 
> been continued from the very posting Fred found so odious, since I 
> included a heck of a lot of the typical reasoning on the bike lane side 
> in my note. But the person to which I responded was looking for reasons 
> why the "no bike lane guys" thought the way they did, and I provided my 
> opinion on the matter.
> 
> - MD
> 
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> 
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-- 
"Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the
human race."
- HG Wells