Bicycle Riding - "City of Angels"

At the beginning of this movie, "City of Angels," Maggie, played by Meg Ryan, is riding her bike to work in Los Angeles. She rides into a busy section of town around a lot of traffic. When I saw that scene, I knew she would be dying by "bicycle crash" sometime later in the movie. Being an avid bicyclist myself, I can understand Maggie's love of riding that bike everywhere she goes. Unfortunately, traffic limits the safety and availability of roadways, and automobile drivers tend to only gasp at bicyclists because they are "hardly seen" and "appear out of nowhere." So, how to see bicyclists...  Media awareness? Advertisements? Jingles about noticing bicycles similar to "Spot the Tot?" I suppose any or all of these may help. I am hoping, however, there could be a more sure, long-term solution to protect this method of commute.

Bike paths began to be considered in the US first in California in 1971-1975. The design of them, however, didn't provide safety for a bicyclist. Since then, bike paths have continued to be constructed, or I should say drawn, on the streets in many cities. A path was drawn on Center Park Drive coming out of Jordan Landing near my home (which I never use, by the way), which has since been re-drawn to accommodate the cars that always drive onto it. And as populations increase and traffic becomes more intense, bike paths are eliminated to make room for another lane of traffic. I know I don't look for them or see them when I'm driving a car, and most traffic doesn't consider them.

Bicyclists move at a rate so much slower than cars and motorcycles that putting them together seems illogical and has proven to be dangerous. Their speed, however, much more matches a pedestrian's. Thus, bikes are found, more often than not, traveling along a sidewalk. This works for those lackadaisical cyclists but not for those who really make it a mobility method.

As I was looking into solutions, I found that some areas actually partition off a section of the road for bikes. They construct a median so that cars cannot drive into the bike path. I also saw that some areas have managed to enforce the non-use of those bike paths by anything other than a bike. Well, those sound like good ideas. And by the way, I'm sure when I was younger the law was to drive against the traffic, not with the traffic. I think that came with the creation of "bike paths."

Notice the regular car/bus traffic on the far right side of the photograph separated by safe-hit posts in a no-flow zone, then the green bicycle lane, again a no-flow zone, followed by tram rails. Finally, the center yellow line indicates directional flow change. On the other side of the yellow line there are tram rails, the bike lane, and then a regular traffic lane.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) has been adding safe-hit posts and creating the impression of greater safety and dignity for cyclists. The SFMTA took that process a few giant leaps forward by adding vibrant green paint to the protected lanes to further distinguish the bicycle-only space. The lanes are part of the SFMTA’s Sustainable Streets division, which has secured permission from Caltrans and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to experiment with various pavement colors and treatments in bicycle lanes, the Market Street Calm the Safety Zones, and other areas of the city.

This photograh shows a bike lane, located in Vancouver, Canada, that encompasses two-directional movement, and, for safety, the bike lane is separated from faster traffic by planter boxes and a 2-foot cement strip.

Take a look at these pictures from around the world. There are many ideas for bike lanes.

France

New York City

Utrecht, Netherlands

Copenhagen, Denmark

Copenhagen, Denmark

England

Copenhagen, Denmark



How about those bike racks?

Copenhagen, Denmark

"Dr. Anne Lusk at Harvard’s School for Public Health studied injury rates on cycle tracks in Montreal, comparing them to injury rates on comparable streets with no bike lane. Her study, published in the journal Injury Prevention, found not only that cycle tracks attracted 2.5 times as many cyclists, but also that injuries were generally more rare.
Not a terribly surprising result. But it’s an important one because the most influential guidelines for American traffic engineers discourage the use of cycle tracks. Jonathan Maus at Bike Portland has more:

It’s my hunch that this study was done just as much to make a policy point about America’s current traffic engineering guidelines as it was to gather statistical data. Here’s a key excerpt from the study: 

“Contrary to AASHTO’s [American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials] safety cautions about road-parallel paths and its exclusion of cycle tracks, our results suggest that two-way cycle tracks on one side of the road have either lower or similar injury rates compared with bicycling in the street without bicycle provisions. This lowered risk is also in spite of the less-than-ideal design of the Montreal cycle tracks, such as lacking parking setbacks at intersections, a recommended practice.”

There is no way this could be true. AASHTO is an organization whose purpose is to promote more driving, more spending on highways, and more overbuilding of transportation infrastructure. For some reason, I can't understand why, this organization would not promote the inclusion of bike lanes in our highway infrastructure. An inclusion would involve tearing up and re-doing every single road in the United States, thus employing people for years to come. Are they just lazy? Or what is the purpose in fabricating the truth. The article continues:

"Will this study end the debate here in the states about whether or not separated facilities are the best way forward? Maybe not. But it’s likely to add fuel to the fire of “Cities for Cycling” a collaboration of planners and engineers from major U.S. cities working to establish their own guidelines so they are able to construct a wider range of facilities — including ones that physically separate bicycles from motor vehicle traffic."

Unfortunately, our United States society has evolved into a place where automobiles take us everywhere we need to go. There are so few bicyclists that it doesn't seem to be a pressing problem, however, the benefit to fitness and cardiovascular health is enormous. Obviously, not everyone can embrace this form of transportation, but we would be much more apt to use it if it was safer and easily accessible with safe paths, locking racks, and how about bike stations where you can quickly fix a flat. The bus/TRAX systems in the Salt Lake Valley, wonderfully, embrace this alternative form of transportation probably because they, themselves, are alternative forms of transportation (all of my children and myself have benefitted from both at one time or another), and the buses are equipped with a rack on the front that holds two bikes. As I watch the buses move around the city, I see that those racks are always being used. Also, TRAX allows bikes in their cars, so bikes ride along with the passengers.

I don't know if any of the suggestions made in this document will ever be implemented around Salt Lake City, but it is hoped that we might consider some improvements to the way we move around because they are needed.