@kimu asks a question related to cycle infrastructure:
Q5. I feel like we’ve talked a lot on #BikeNite about bike lanes, but is there other bike-related infrastructure in your community that helps make cycling fun for you? Beyond well-designed protected bike lanes, what’s on your dream list for cycling infrastructure for your community in the future?
#BikeNite A5: what I really want from bike infrastructure is an operational priority to build and maintain a convenient low-stress network that works for all destinations. Not decades of piecemeal watered-down projects that don't even connect. Stop pouring concrete until we've stitched together a working prototype with barrels and planters, or pour it in the centers of the steel bollards for the car traffic filters.
@ascentale@kimu A5: I want more streets to be partially blocked off from traffic.
Portland, where I live, has a lot of “designated” bike roads, but they only have barriers like every ten blocks, and never on cross streets, so people use them all the time.
Give me Barcelona’s superblocks, with built infrastructure protecting the interior. I love being on a bike road that sucks for cars to drive on.
@ascentale@kimu A5. Agree with others regarding cut-through routes. Our bike lanes focus on heavily trafficked main roads. They are nice to have, but I'd much rather wind my way through connected neighborhoods than listen to the constant roar of 50mph cars passing me by. It is fun finding the cut-throughs that exist. We often use them to get between trail-heads when mountain biking, but it would also be nice to be able to get across town using them, combined with bike lanes and bike paths. #bikenite
@cmgrowell@ascentale@kimu One thing I really wish we'd do where I live is pick spots strategically in the middle of neighborhoods and put bollards in the road (or build a nice parklet or something) so cars can't get through, but bikes could. My neighborhood has the problem of a lot of cars cutting through at high speeds between main roads, and of course not having cars on the roads except people who actually live there returning home would also make it a perfect cycle route! #BikeNite
@ascentale@kimu#BikeNite A5: As someone getting back on a bike to run errands, I have found two things: One, is "cut through" routes through neighborhoods which make it possible for cyclists to NOT have to follow along busy car routes (even with bicycle lanes) to get places, quicker; and bicycle racks (which there are not enough of around here...) -- to get people to transition to riding more for going to stores/etc., you really need to have good bicycle racks in well lighted/safe places. That is NOT the case everywhere in my neighborhood. (either, not good racks, not easy to access, or behind a building where bikes can be easily stolen or damaged).
@mmb@ascentale@kimu there are a few here, I just have to figure out what the skinny tires I have are capable of... Maybe that's a future Bike Nite question. (there is a lot of dirt/gravel here, and really not sure what I should or shouldn't try... not really interested in eating dirt, LOL)
@ai6yr@kimu@mmb after doing a lot of satellite-view exploration of cul-de-sacced neighborhoods in search of bike routes, I very much wish that there were cut throughs more universally.
@ascentale@ai6yr@kimu
Yes, my experience is that most of them aren't planned - they often evolved from persistent use of a "goat path". And, worsened by the move away from city-planned grids to having developers make street designs that are contained within their project -- and cut off from neighboring developments.
@mmb@ascentale@kimu This is particularly bad in my town, where people who live near grocery stores (behind their houses) have no way of getting to those grocery stores without walking 3/4 of a mile. Unfortunately many of these developments were built for 1. cars and 2. to "keep the rabble out" (some put icing on the cake and are gated). Thus making them unfriendly to anyone but people with cars.
@mmb Ooh, nice... I should look for those on the map here. Strange those occur, but kinda handy (for cyclists and pedestrians). I have been finding some here, there's a few that require a dismount and short cut down some stairs, but I'll do that to avoid major roads...
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