FW: 15 mind-blowing bike projects / If only experienced cyclists feel safe in a bike lane, then is it a bike lane at all? / Roads are safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in cities with robust bike facilities
John Cock
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JOHN COCK
Vice President, Planning/Southeast Region | Alta Planning + Design, Inc.
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Creating active, healthy communities
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Sent: Thursday, June 20, 2019 1:24 PM
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Subject: 15 mind-blowing bike projects / If only experienced cyclists feel safe in a bike lane, then is it a bike lane at all? / Roads are safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in cities with robust bike facilities
These 15 mind-blowing bike projects will make you hate your regular bike lane
The projects featured in the new Bicycle Architecture Biennale–from bike lanes through a pond to soaring bike bridges–highlight just how beautiful and transformative bike infrastructure can be when done right.
While some cities still struggle to build safe bike lanes, others are creating infrastructure like a multi-level bike parking garage and an aerial path that connects to transit stations. The Bicycle Architecture Biennale, opening in Amsterdam on Monday, highlights 15 of the most interesting projects. “By showcasing the most dynamic, visual solutions, the BAB inspires a new way of thinking about what cities of the future should look like,” says Adam Stones, strategy director of Bycs, an organization aiming to move 50% of urban trips to bikes by 2030. “And by showing what is possible, it will lead to many more creative solutions being implemented.”
Four of the projects are from the bike-obsessed Netherlands. But Next Architects, a Dutch architecture firm that helped curate the show, points out that the country was dominated by cars in the 20th century, and had to make conscious choices to transform–meaning that other countries can do the same thing. “It is thanks to decades of campaigning against car architecture, against plans without bicycles, that the space for slow traffic and residence has been reclaimed in the city,” says Bart Reuser, founding partner at Next Architects . . .
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If only experienced cyclists feel safe in a bike lane, then is it a bike lane at all?
Thinking about bike infrastructure as usable by cyclists of all ages and abilities changes how you design a city. In Vancouver, the city is trying to shift as quickly as possible to these “AAA” bike lanes.
All over the world, smart cities are reallocating space in streets and budgets in city halls to finally build new biking infrastructure, in many cases dozens or even hundreds of miles at a time. It’s easy to fall into the trap of trumpeting the length of that new infrastructure, with not enough attention to quality. After all, we have so much we need to build to get to where we need to be.
But smart cities also know that quality of bike lanes is just as important as quantity, especially if what’s being built (or let’s be honest–what’s being painted) isn’t really safe, or comfortable. One city that’s showing how both quality and quantity can be tackled in a coordinated way is Vancouver, a city that’s (arguably) become North America’s leading urban biking city . . .
But here’s another important stat you might not have heard before–an estimated 25% of Vancouver’s bike infrastructure is considered “Triple A.” And Vancouver wants that number to get to 100% as quickly as we can.
What is AAA or “Triple A” bike infrastructure? In Vancouver’s design language, it stands for bike infrastructure that’s not just safe, but comfortable, for “all ages and abilities” (hence the three A’s). And as Vancouver’s manager of transportation planning, Dale Bracewell, notes, it’s more than a mantra or brand for our transportation “plangineers,” it’s city policy, a mandate, and a profound accountability . . .
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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/05/190529113036.htm
Cycling lanes reduce fatalities for all road users, study shows
Roads are safer for motorists, pedestrians and cyclists in cities with robust bike facilities
In the most comprehensive look at bicycle and road safety to date, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and the University of New Mexico discovered that it's not the cyclists, but the infrastructure built for them, that is making roads safer for everyone.
"Bicycling seems inherently dangerous on its own," said study co-author Wesley Marshall, PhD, PE, assistant professor in the College of Engineering, Design and Computing at CU Denver. "So it would seem that a city with a lot of bicycling is more dangerous, but the opposite is true. Building safe facilities for cyclists turned out to be one of the biggest factors in road safety for everyone." . . .
Originally, researchers believed that more bike lanes and the increase in cyclists would lead to a "safety-in-numbers" effect: the more cyclists on the road, the more likely drivers would slow down and be aware of their surroundings.
Instead, they found that safer cities aren't due to the increase in cyclists, but the infrastructure built for them -- specifically, separated and protected bike lanes. They found that bicycling infrastructure is significantly associated with fewer fatalities and better road-safety outcomes . . .