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Bicycling In Your City

56K views 250 replies 85 participants last post by  desertpunk 
#1 · (Edited)
Bicycling In Your City

How is it to bicycle in your city? Does your city accomodate bicycles? Funny anecdotes? Terrible anecdotes? Post 'em here!





Here's a taste of New York:

 
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#3 · (Edited)
Well, as for the Netherlands, the density of the bicycle network is probably higher than the motorized network both in cities and between cities, since in principle every road is accompanied with a bicycle path, but not every bicycle path is accompanied with a road (parks, bicycle highways, countryside routes, scenic routes)

As for other cities, if there's enough demand the city should accommodate it like every other demand for public space. I still think the Critical Mass approach is very helpful in showing the size of the potential group of users and making physical the need for space. It is an elegant tool, since it only works if there in fact is a critical mass (it is honest in that way). In principle one can force the city to change anything as longs as one can mobilize enough people to show there is enough demand to claim space for.
 
#4 ·
We have the critical mass here in Vienna as well. I am not sure it helps spreading the idea, maybe, but it certainly shows those who are already using their bike that it can be also a fun thing to do and a life style.

Anyway, Vienna has a terrible low cyclist share for a European city (modal split of about 6%). Dunno why but one thing which might be special here is that you have a lot of roads with tram tracks. Handling these tracks is something you really should get used to when using your bike here. Overall things are getting better here however and also the number of people using their bikes is rising.

And the right music for cyclists:

 
#7 ·
The bike network in The Netherlands is due to is flat terrain. On some hilly cities like Heerlen, Venray, Maastricht and Kerkrade, bike use is far lower than in the rest of the country.

I cycle often, usually daily provided it isn't raining, for sport/training purposes only. Otherwise, I use other forms of transportation. The helmet mess my hair, it rains a lot and I can get to places in other ways.
 
#9 ·
Sure, bike use is lower in hilly areas, but in a city like Maastricht cyclists still have a modal share of 20% overall and 30% of distances up to 7.5km. There are barely any cities outside the Netherlands that have such a high rate of cycling..
The high cycling rate in the country can be explained by the active role that (local) government plays in providing safe and sound infrastructure for cyclists.

This is an interesting clip showing the car free inner city of Den Bosch with before and after images from the 70s when everything was designed for cars and now when everything is designed for pedestrians and cyclists. Flat terrain alone is not enough. If that'd be the case cycling rates would be very high in far more places.

 
#11 ·
Thes are great form The Netherlands:

And gosh some stupid comments on youtube wit hthese vids thinking that people in the Netherlands are poor so they have to cycle :lol: :bash:






Copenhagen:

Very nice vid! Need to watch!

 
#15 · (Edited)
This YouTube Channel follows a cyclist (who is a former Brit) living in Auckland and documenting on a daily basis some of the rubbish he has to put up with from drivers simply not used to driving with cyclists.

We don't have many cycle lanes and cycling on the path is illegal so many choose to (as allowed in the New Zealand road code) cycle in the road and own the lane - in other words, treat the bike like a car and take up the whole lane as that is the safe way to do it. There aren't many cyclists in Auckland, but when there are, they tend to be pushed aside by highly aggressive drivers as witnessed in this channel. Here are some examples from this last month (WARNING: PLENTY OF PROFANITY USED):








And this one the result of his complaint cracks me up!



As a former road cyclist myself in Britain I stopped cycling in Auckland as it is too unsafe. This guy continues, and continues to submit videos to the police and good on him for doing so! Perhaps one day Auckland will become bike friendly. :)
 
#16 ·
Oh, we do have some cycle lanes in Auckland. Here is the same cyclist showing them and why they are almost unusable in their current form. Poles everywhere for traffic signs, manhole covers, pedestrians in the cycle lanes everywhere, car doors being opened into the cycle lane, etc. This is the most famous cycle lane in Auckland too - it goes along Tamaki Drive to Mission Bay - one of the most famous inner suburb beaches in Auckland (along with the most popular).

 
#17 ·
I think Belgium and the Netherlands must be the cycling centres of the world. I guess almost everybody here owns a bike and uses it often. I must admit that infrastructure in the Netherlands is much better than in Belgium. In the Netherlands they have broad and good cycling roads everywhere. In Belgium, we also have a lot of cycling roads, but often they are dangerous and not in good shape. There are also some regional differences. Some places are bike friendly, while others are less bike friendly.

Remarkable to me, is that people mostly don't wear helmets or yellow vests (I don't know the exact englisch name), despite all the efforts of government to encourage it. In other countries, for example England, it looks like every biker wears these for his safety. I think it is because in the low countries we have a longer tradition of driving bikes than in other countries. We are just used not to wear these attributes. Most people don't think it is necessary and everybody thinks it looks ridiculous.
 
#27 ·
Brussels is one of those less bike friendly places, but hte mentality is slowly changing. With its inner-city highways it's even quite dangerous to cycle. Moreover it's hilly. Modal share is 1,5% and it is still seen as a political statement to cycle. Few people, however, don't seem to simply realise that in a congested city as Brussels it's definitely the fastest way to get from A to B.
 
#26 ·
In Australia bikes are encouraged but to make it safe you have to wear a helmet and bright clothing......often other road users think you are going to the mardi gras and because a person has to walk in front with a red flag you find it hard to peddle and wobble on your 4 hour ride to work.... heee
 
#31 ·
I already posted this here on SSC but here are some examples of ome bike paths in the Denver area. More bike paths are continuously being added throughout the metro area. There is also a bike sharing program in place as well where you can rent bikes for a certain period of time.











 
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