Who is comfortable riding in bike lanes and who is not

[Jerry Foster]

The comments from John, Mike and others re whether bike lanes will attract riders are spot on, and they highlight a gap in transportation planning that is only recently being addressed.

It's a tale of 3 "Princetons" - the municipality features sharrows since there isn't room for bike lanes with onstreet parking, the "postal Princeton" in Plainsboro features multi-use trails and the "postal Princeton" in WW features bike lanes.

Transportation planning for cars works across jurisdictions because there is only one kind of motorist, but research indicates 4 types of bicyclist, classified according to their comfort riding on various types of bicycle infrastructure, see the seminal US paper from 2012:
http://transweb.sjsu.edu/PDFs/research/1005-low-stress-bicycling-network-connectivity.pdf

The 3-"Princetons" problem is actually much worse than coordinating among 3 adjacent municipalities, since some roads are local, some county and the rest state-maintained - coordination or at least agreement is necessary among 3 municipalities, 2 counties and the state.

The advantage of bike lanes is that they are legal travel lanes and dirt (or paint) cheap, but they're a long way from bicycling utopia.

Jerry Foster
 

 

[John Church]

Ideally there would be bike paths used only by bikes with pedestrians either discouraged or even forbidden.  Just as cars and bikes don’t mix very well, neither do bikes and pedestrians.

 

Admittedly, motorists can be arrogant vis-a-vis bikers, but likewise, bikers can be arrogant vis-a-vis pedestrians.  I  would guess that most readers here will have had the experience of walking on the Delaware and Raritan Canal towpath.  We do this a lot and have had many bad frights with fast bikes silently coming up on us from behind with no warning.  So far we have not had any accidents, but we find that we have to constantly keep looking over our shoulders.  It’s very uncomfortable, and it’s terribly inconsiderate of bikers not to warn people that they are approaching from behind.  Pedestrians can suddenly deviate from their intended path and could easily get hit.

 

Unfortunately, hardly any bikers have warning devices such as bells or horns on their bikes, these not being considered “cool” to have.  Who would drive a car without a working horn?  Bikers who ride on paths that are frequented by pedestrians should be required to have warning devices and use them.  Perhaps Jerry and other avid bikers could exert pressure on their friends to change their biking habits for the better this way.   Fair is fair! 

 

John

 

 

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[Sandra Shapiro]

Hemi, thanks for having set up this discussion forum. I do think it’s useful to understand various opinions by having a calm discussion. Thank you, too, for continuing to monitor the content.

Jerry, thank you for helping to inform us about state, national, and international studies. Our transportation network is important for us all and your comments have often led to lively discussions.

John, thank you for bringing up the issue of warning signals and bicycle/pedestrian conflict.

Bicycles in NJ are supposed to have warning devices. Here are bicycle regulations:

http://www.state.nj.us/transportation/commuter/bike/regulations.shtm

Part of the mission of the WWBPA is to educate cyclists and pedestrians to their responsibilities. Jerry and other members of the group do stress this. But getting walkers and cyclists to obey regulations is hard, just as it is hard to get motorists to follow all of the motor vehicle rules. We all try.

I both walk and ride along the towpath and, when cycling, do warn pedestrians when I’m approaching, with the ding of my bell and often with a call “passing on your left" (or right, if the pedestrians are clearly over to the left and it would be hard for them to move to the right).

You wondered if people would ride bikes last week. I was out on Friday, when the temperature only creeped up into the low 40s (my gear included tights, a light-weight fleece, a rain jacket, and warm gloves). It had rained earlier in the week and the towpath going south from Washington Road was full of puddles. My husband and I maneuvered our way around them as well as a few pedestrians as we peddled at a fairly slow paced (about 8-9 mph) into Lawrenceville and then took the spur to part of the Lawrence-Hopewell Trail, most of which is along paved paths, but sometimes it uses bike lanes along roads or lightly-traveled roads with no bike lanes. We exited the LHT to peddle on some other lightly-traveled roads and then up Rosedale Road (part of it has an off-road bike/ped path) into and through Princeton, taking Washington Road back to West Windsor. It’s a satisfying and varied route; I recommend the LHT to all—families with children would especially appreciate the off-road portions, for cycling and/or walking.

One of the purposes of the LHT is to connect residential areas with businesses and this has happened. Here in West Windsor we are also trying to increase connectivity. Building a safe network takes time and patience (the LHT was conceived in 2001 and is now nearly complete, 15 years later). I’ve lived in West Windsor for more than 37 years and have seen some improvements as well as some setbacks. We do keep trying.

Sandy

[John Church]

And thanks to Sandy for the bicycle regulations.  As Hamlet remarked, however, these customs are more honored in the breach than the observance.   Breaking the bike laws is a ticketable offense and can even get you points on your driver’s license.  Does this ever happen?

 

Sandy and her husband must be true bike warriors to have gone out in such conditions.  I venture that not too many others did.  I’m glad that they use their bells.  Far too few bikers do this. 

 

John

 

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[Sandra Shapiro]

Not warriors at all, just enjoying the outdoors as much as we can while we are still fit enough. Friday’s weather forecast had been a bit better than what we encountered in actuality, but it taught me that I can cycle in less than optimal conditions. Still, I don’t use a bike as much as I ought to. More people cycling would help to improve safety.

This week’s blog from the U.S. DOT is titled “Bike-Share Stations Gaining in Popularity, Previewing the Future of Transportation.” Some might find this interesting reading.

Sandy