# Bicycling In Your City



## castermaild55 (Sep 8, 2005)

Bike escalators in Tokyo and Kyoto






Japanese Mamachari





bike for old guys or hill side


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## Clone (May 19, 2010)

joshsam said:


> Underground parking for bikes in Leuven:
> I think this si considered 'normal in the NEtherlands, but I only now a few in Belgium


There is one at the Antwerp central station too.


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## erka (Apr 26, 2003)

^^ Yes, for example in Groningen a big underground parking:






This one in Amsterdam is also quite impressive:


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## NCT (Aug 14, 2009)

In most Chinese cities cycling is still quite common and relatively well provided for. On most roads there is a decent cycle lane, segragated on main roads, but it's always a bit of a bother at junctions with right-turning traffic.


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## brazilteen (Mar 20, 2010)

*SÃO PAULO-BRAZIL*


Bike 6 por Fabiano Accorsi, no Flickr


Bike 4 por Fabiano Accorsi, no Flickr


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)

*Biking in B'klyn*


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ What a waste of space. They should reduce the sidewalk width instead of stealing one parking lane from cars to build that probably underused bike lane.


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## trainrover (May 6, 2006)

castermaild55 said:


> Bike escalators in Tokyo and Kyoto


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## memph (Dec 11, 2010)

I think Toronto's drivers are a bit more respectful than Aukland's. 

Biking through Toronto drivers would almost always allow you to take up one lane on the road if there were bike lanes, although in the suburb of Mississauga they aren't as good, especially on the busy thoroughfares so sometimes I feel that I have to go on the gravel shoulder which is not so nice with a racing bike. In my suburb of Oakville I found it was usually better. If you go on small streets or roads with bike lanes, drivers will typically give you about 1-1.5m of space when they overtake you.

In Toronto the modal split for biking and pedestrians is 1.7%, although inner city neighbourhoods like Leslieville or Trinity Bellwoods are quite a bit better (20-30% I think), but yeah, that includes pedestrians.

Here's the bike path map. 
http://www.toronto.ca/cycling/map/index.htm
It's relatively extensive, with lots of trails in ravines and sometimes hydro (power line) corridors, but there are quite a few gaps, and somewhat of a lack of lanes in the downtown core. There aren't a lot of bike lanes that are physically separated from the street (but still next to it) either, mostly just painted on the road.

You have to wear a helmet, and I think you're not supposed to go on sidewalks, but I still do it sometimes and it's not really enforced. I'm pretty sure there isn't any law about lights or vests.


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## Skyscrappy (Jan 27, 2011)

*Bogotá, Colombia
*


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## trainrover (May 6, 2006)

Bixi plagued by irregularities

The Gazette June 21, 2011

Administrative irregularities, *an illegal organizational structure*, incomplete planning and a lack of oversight are among the problems the city's auditor-general finds with *Montreal's bike-sharing program*. How did Bixi - such a success at home it was exported around the world - become a financial liability?


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)




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## Wuppeltje (Jan 23, 2008)




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## DarkLoki (May 4, 2008)

^^ Cool video:yes:

It's fun to see examples of bike infrastructure from other parts of the world. It seems more and more places are trying to implement bike infrastructure. The greenways in Portland look pretty advanced.

A good read-up on bicycle infrastructure is this blog: http://hembrow.blogspot.com/. The author moved to the Netherlands and looks at our infrastructure in a way I never looked at before since it was so normal for me.


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## georgescifo (Jul 5, 2011)

I am from Kerala in India and here most of the people feels ashamed to travel in a bicycle. They usually prefer motor bikes or scooters. They consider bicycle riding as an act of the people having no money to afford a motorbike, a scooter or a car..


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## erka (Apr 26, 2003)

We now have electronic displays at the central station bike park. You can see how many bikes are stalled in each section of the 10,000 bike-park, and where there is still room for your bike


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)




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## gabrielbabb (Aug 11, 2006)

Mexico City
The government is trying to expang the usage of bicycles by applying the program Ecobici where you can rent bicycles, and opening bicycle lanes in some points of the city, they started in the touristic zones and some central middle-high class zones, but they are expanding more and more specially to the south, in Coyoacan and Periférico you can see a lot of space for bicycles, many people is starting to use them and it has good results but there is still a lot of stupid eople who can't understand that there is a special lane for bicycles even with divisions. 

Also some avenues get closed during Sundays so that people can go and walk or drive by bicycle.


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Skyscrappy said:


> *Bogotá, Colombia
> *


Is that one of Mockus' schemes?


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## alserrod (Dec 27, 2007)

Maybe in the south of Europe, bike is not as usual as in the north, but there are some cities where bikes have been increased in the last years.

In the case of my city, Zaragoza, 700.000 people, the town government opened a new hire-a-bike service three years ago. They started with 30 terminals and every year is being increased. Nowadays there are 130 terminals. They are not enough for all city but citizens notice the service improves every year.


This is a "not updated" map of terminals and bike-lanes. 
I say not updated because last 30 opened this year are missing and some bike-lanes recently opened are missing too.











The system works as this:

- Anyone can ask for the service. Fare is 25 EUR/year and it allows to ask for a bike at any time. There are some fares for visitors while some days only.

- You can ask for a bike at any terminal and leave in another terminal. This has a "competitive reason". You can go to city centre for shopping with nothing by bike and come back on tramway or bus with some bags (should you go with your own bike, you may come back with it). No return journey is required.

- The only request is no more than 30 minutes journey. This is because it is planned for moving and not for "sunday's walks".



Some pics about service and terminals:


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## GENIUS LOCI (Nov 18, 2004)

desertpunk said:


> *More from the Big Apple*
> 
> 
> 
> ...


That reminds me a similar case on a Milan bike route stretch.

from









to


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

alserrod said:


> Maybe in the south of Europe, bike is not as usual as in the north, but there are some cities where bikes have been increased in the last years.
> 
> In the case of my city, Zaragoza, 700.000 people, the town government opened a new hire-a-bike service three years ago. They started with 30 terminals and every year is being increased. Nowadays there are 130 terminals. They are not enough for all city but citizens notice the service improves every year.
> 
> ...


That looks interesting, can you post more photos of the cycle lanes?


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## alserrod (Dec 27, 2007)

El_Greco said:


> That looks interesting, can you post more photos of the cycle lanes?




Sure... it is a pity but google street view is not updated... so I will try to find on the web.

First of all... Zaragoza has an orbital motorway up to 12 km wide and few population out of it.












There are 700.000 inhabitants and a very little metropolitan area in near towns.


This is a picture of city centre. The lines in red are the old city. It is Roman and built in the 24 b.C. as a Roman army camp. Just have a look... it is 1000x600m and all lines are the typical of a Roman camp (and it still there is an old Roman theatre in the centre, as well part of the Forum in the centre).

Zones pointed in blue are best commercial area. We could say, city centre, then.












From my point of view, and as I have commented in one Spanish thread, it is not as important to say that a city has X km of bike-lanes but how many are in the centre. This is... all new avenues in the suburbs have bike-lane but... in the centre, the city major has to decide to change a 2+2 lanes street for a 2+1+bike street...

And as I said... no possible to see with Google street view (well... you can compare how it was before it).

I post some pics, and its possition in a map











This is one of the most closed to centre bike-lane. The building in the left has still the works stopped because part of the zone are Romans Walls... and has to be checked by Heritage administration.

Pointed as 1 in the map



Between cathedral and the river











Pointed as 2 in the map


A bike-lane to approach the centre... just before opening and still part of works tools on the lane










Pointed as 3 in the map





The 3 pics are located here... There are many (the day google will update the city photos I will be able to write a full report : Cheers but I wanted to choose three examples of bike-lane in the own city centre.














These lanes can be used even by a normal bike or a public bike.

Public bikes system is as I described... 25 EUR per year and you can get anyone at anywhere (130 terminals available, this spring they opened the last 30 ones) and leave anywhere too within 30 minutes. There is no charge to use it... just 25 EUR per year as a forfait, and includes an insurance.


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)

GENIUS LOCI said:


> That reminds me a similar case on a Milan bike route stretch.


The Mayor of one city in Lithuania has the solution to cars blocking bike lanes!






:lol:


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## Marcanadian (May 7, 2005)

Toronto has a dimwitted Mayor who voted to REMOVE bike lanes as car traffic was being slowed as a result of the loss of a car lane. He's building a network of separated bike lanes on secondary streets downtown and a system of off-road paths throughout parks and hydro corridors. The bike plan is alright, but I can't believe somebody in this day and age would support removing bike lanes. You wouldn't remove a sidewalk, why remove a bike lane?


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Well if hes building seperate cycle lanes then thats not such a bad thing.

Thanks for those photos, Alserrod!


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

Marcanadian said:


> Toronto has a dimwitted Mayor who voted to REMOVE bike lanes as car traffic was being slowed as a result of the loss of a car lane. He's building a network of separated bike lanes on secondary streets downtown and a system of off-road paths throughout parks and hydro corridors. The bike plan is alright, but I can't believe somebody in this day and age would support removing bike lanes. You wouldn't remove a sidewalk, why remove a bike lane?


It is indeed a sensible policy to remove a bike lane in a trafficked thoroughfare and build dedicated lanes in parallel or nearby quieter streets. It works better for both cars (more space/parking) and cyclists (quieter road, less interference). Dutch cities use that approach (more robust/segregated bike lanes placed adjacent to quieter streets or even exclusive ROWs between buildings) all the time.


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## Marcanadian (May 7, 2005)

El_Greco said:


> Well if hes building seperate cycle lanes then thats not such a bad thing.
> 
> Thanks for those photos, Alserrod!


I agree, separated bike lanes are the way to go, but we'll actually end up with a net loss of lanes at the end of the plan since he's removing many existing routes.


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## Cloud92 (Jul 26, 2011)

Austin has always been an active outdoor kind of city and of course it has a large bike culture this is just one of the new bike lanes with in the city adding to the many it already has 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D62p8V44x_s&feature=related


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## japanese001 (Mar 17, 2007)

Around the Imperial Palace on Sunday


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## novosadjanin (Sep 15, 2007)

*mine city*










In my city one can rent a bike like this in picture.
Novi Sad, Serbia, is flat and suitable for biking.
Driving culture is other story. Pedestrians are the main problem for us bikers.


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## trainrover (May 6, 2006)

Montreal just inaugurated its first bike box at the intersection of Milton and University a day or so ago...


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## thecarlost (Nov 6, 2005)

Bicycling in my city isn't promoted, besides high transit density makes it a risky alternative to transport around.

And that's about it. I'm talking about Caracas. Nonetheless there is a collective called "Ciclovía CCS" been setting propaganda trying to wake public sectors.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Caracas is in the middle of the damn tropics. It is hot. It is humid. The combination of both make biking very unpleasant, unless you want to change all social norms that understand sweat and smelly bodies in public places like stores or schools as unpleasant, unkempt and low-life/outright dirty.


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## Enzo (May 3, 2008)

Suburbanist said:


> ^^ Caracas is in the middle of the damn tropics. It is hot. It is humid. The combination of both make biking very unpleasant, unless you want to change all social norms that understand sweat and smelly bodies in public places like stores or schools as unpleasant, unkempt and low-life/outright dirty.


These products should help a bit, I mean it doesn't need to be by Gillette...










If you sweat in excess and have a body that stinks like a skunk, perhaps this one might work better...


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## snowland (Aug 20, 2011)

It's not my city, but...

Buenos Aires bicing is a shame for its size, but they're trying to improve the system.









































































A city that seemed very bikefriendly to me was Barcelona.


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## snowland (Aug 20, 2011)

Trying to convince the average Porteño to ride around the city, the city hall is making some events like these:


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## trainrover (May 6, 2006)

_Montreal's bike-path network a victim of its own success

_
^^ queer that the paper published a photo with nary a cyclist hno:​


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## jabroni (Mar 24, 2011)

Suburbanist said:


> ^^ Caracas is in the middle of the damn tropics. It is hot. It is humid. The combination of both make biking very unpleasant, unless you want to change all social norms that understand sweat and smelly bodies in public places like stores or schools as unpleasant, unkempt and low-life/outright dirty.


Another ignorant comment courtesy of Suburbanist.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

jabroni said:


> Another ignorant comment courtesy of Suburbanist.


What is "ignorant" about that. It's a matter of physics and physiology, for sake! Humidity + heat + physical effort = higher body temperature that needs to be regulated = low ability of air surrounding the body to take additional moisture = intensified sweating. 

You can devise clothing to make biking (or exercising in general) under cold conditions more comfortable, but, at least until now, they haven't devise any efficient system to take body moisture under heat without leaving a salty skin and smelly clothes. 

It's just a matter of fact that some places have weather that is more pleasant for Western conventions in what is appropriate attire for public places. Wear a suit first time under intense heat + humid air, and you will see how ar-conditioning is badly needed in the tropics.


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## erka (Apr 26, 2003)

Cycling on an average day in my city. It starts quietly but then becomes quite busy.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

El_Greco said:


> So youre against cycle provision too? Motorways, sprawl, cars and polution ftw, yeah?


No. I favor segregated bike paths that are safe for cyclists, with traffic lights or under/overpasses. I'm totally against shared streets or other b.s. like letting cyclists in pedestrianized areas or on the same lanes motorized vehicles use.


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## El_Greco (Apr 1, 2005)

Streets dont belong to the motorists, this has been the worst idea to ever hit the cities, idea which destroyed urban realm the World over. Shared space is the way to go.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Streets should cater for different users in different physically segregated ways, so that each one can develop its maximum speed.


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## desertpunk (Oct 12, 2009)

*CitiBike*

With Citibank Sponsoring NYC Bikeshare, The Hunt For Locations Is On!









http://www.treehugger.com/corporate...ed-map-nycs-bike-share-stations-unveiled.html



> Will One of Those 10,000 Citi Bikes Be on Your Block? DOT Unveils Preliminary Bike Share Map
> 
> 
> 
> ...



*Here's a heatmap of bikeshare support in NYC:*









http://www.observer.com/2011/09/look-everybody-wants-bike-share-where-dot-wants-bike-share/

Basically, where the automobile reigns, interest in bikeshare drops dramatically.

-----

*Here's a cycling map of NYC*









http://majorleaguewins.blogspot.com/2012/05/nyc-bike-expo.html


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## the glimpser (May 10, 2009)

Singapore is a good city to do biking - biking paths are everywhere and are like 95% well-paved and continuous. Foldable-type bikes are also allowed inside the MRT coaches. Many residents also own bikes which they use in getting to neighborhood shops and markets; though they don't normally bring their bikes to work.

I myself have a bike and I cycle to nearby parks when I'm free on weekends.

Anyway, I just want to share this article I found on the web:

According to *VirtualTourist.com*


> *World's Top 10 Cycling Destinations*
> 
> 1. Montréal, Québec, Canada
> 2. Paris, France
> ...


 http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/11/uk-travel-picks-cycling-idUSLNE84A01Q20120511


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## BringMe (May 7, 2011)

Queen's Day - Bogotá - Colombia

Thanks to the Netherlands embassy and the local government:











Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (52 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr

Nederlandse ambassadeur en burgemeester van Bogotá


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (49 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (43 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (42 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (28 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (15 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


Ciclovia Naranja 2012_ (18 of 79) by Hans Schuurmans, on Flickr


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Suburbanist said:


> ^^ Streets should cater for different users in different physically segregated ways, so that each one can develop its maximum speed.


If you do that conequently, you'd need much more space than in a more balanced approach which balances mobility needs and the quality of public spaces and urban layout. Consequently things would be spread out much more and far less attractive to walk. You can't cater all forms of mobility equally. By opting for your criterions you make automatically a choice for motorized traffic and against an energy efficient city layout.


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## Suburbanist (Dec 25, 2009)

^^ Government has no business picking winners and losers in mobility, but that is not the case here.

Though cars are usually vilified, when you have a lot of cyclist traffic as in Netherlands, bike x pedestrian, or moped x bike, are quite common and non-trivial. A cyclist pushing his bike at 25km/h can still produce A LOT of injury to pedestrians.

Indeed, I'd say that here in The Netherlands bike x pedestrian conflicts are much more serious for the average pedestrian than that with cars, because the sheer size difference between a car and a walking person mean that the person can easily avoid the car and the car will just not go in a pedestrianized plaza or the sidewalk/curbside. However, many cyclists ignore restrictions and will just bike everywhere.

To be used efficiently, bikes must have their own ROWs, which are not necessarily wide, and physically separated from BOTH car and pedestrian traffic. That way, cyclists can develop higher speeds without worrying about someone just popping up in the bike path, and they also avoid dangerous interactions with road traffic (cars, trucks, buses etc).

The whole "shared space" is just chaos, which imposes on everyone (not only cars) loss of efficiency on their movements and impose stress by requiring everyone to be ultra attentive of other conflicting traffic. So it makes pedestrians uneasy with bikes, car drivers uneasy with bikes and so on. Suddenly a pedestrian never knows if some crazy cyclist will come ramming through the plaza, and the car driver needs to drive with unreasonable expectations of attention as a cyclist might just run across a crossing.

So it's better that each traffic category has its own ROW and that they interfere the least with other traffic. Things like segregated bike paths, streets with small fences to prevent pedestrians crossing out of signaled zebra crossings etc.


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## ParadiseLost (Feb 1, 2011)

Suburbanist said:


> ^^ Streets should cater for different users in different physically segregated ways, so that each one can develop its maximum speed.


So you are saying no cars in city centers? Or are you saying cars should go 180 kph in city centres. I'm trying to understand exactly what kind of ridiculous idea you are proposing now.


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## ParadiseLost (Feb 1, 2011)

I think this is the problem with you libertarians. You have this deliberate concept of reality in your head that doesn't correspond to the real world.
It's true that cyclist take traffic rules far less serious than other modes of transport (though even though this is true in the Netherlands as well, it's much less so than in other countries where cycling is not the norm). You take this empirical fact and then inject some weak theory to arrive at a completely ridiculous conclusion.
Namely that bikes cause much more serious injuries to pedestrians here in the Netherlands. This is such a ridiculous notion that has no basis in facts or the real world that I really don't understand where you get the balls to post such drivel.


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## 1+1=3 (Apr 10, 2010)

nice docu
41982043


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

Suburbanist said:


> ^^ Government has no business picking winners and losers in mobility, but that is not the case here.
> 
> Though cars are usually vilified, when you have a lot of cyclist traffic as in Netherlands, bike x pedestrian, or moped x bike, are quite common and non-trivial. A cyclist pushing his bike at 25km/h can still produce A LOT of injury to pedestrians.


I haven't witnessed cyclists going 25km/h while being in a pedestrian zone with looming collision risks when I was in the Netherlands (nor anywhere else). Of course accidents are not trivial if they happen but the share (or also number) of lethal accidents is nowhere near the one you have in car vs pedestrian situation. If you disagree with that I'd like to see some stats proving otherwise. 

A very essential difference between cyclists and car drivers is that the car driver does not risk a lot of damage to his own body when he is hitting a pedestrian (especially at typical urban traffic speeds on city streets and at crossings) but a cyclist will probably be hit as hard as the pedestrian he hits or maybe even worse. That is an entirely different kind of motivation to avoid potentially dangerous situation. 

Cyclists are regular traffic partners. The largest risk for cyclists is a car driver mind set that negates this. The accident risk is actually substantially reduced once car drivers start to respect cyclists as part of the traffic rather than seeing them as sort of jay-walkers on wheels. 

The point with cycling lanes is that they often leave the cyclists often in the rain at the one point where you'd really need them: at crossings. That is the case in Vienna at least. On other occasions they are just a bad joke with forcing cyclists to wait three times in front of red lights at one single crossing while cars only have to wait a fracture of that time to get beyond it, no matter which direction. First you are forced onto a cycling lane to being forced to wait multiple the time of what car drivers have to wait at some crossings. In short, it is the crossings where you loose your time as cyclist. Roads are perfectly ok for cyclists, unless they are extremely busy. 



> So it's better that each traffic category has its own ROW and that they interfere the least with other traffic. Things like segregated bike paths, streets with small fences to prevent pedestrians crossing out of signaled zebra crossings etc.


Back to my argument. If you give everyone his own space and probably the car drivers sufficient space for good traffic flow and few or no obstacles, you'll end up with creating an unattractive spread out space for pedestrians. You made your choice then already: against pedestrians.


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## flotsam (Mar 24, 2012)

1+1=3 said:


> nice docu
> 41982043


Great video. Shame about the car-mad culture.:nuts:


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

^^ Yes indeed. It was quite interesting to watch.


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## endymar (Sep 19, 2010)

Weird, this is in the capital of the country which produced the greatest cyclist in the history...


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## endymar (Sep 19, 2010)

Suburbanist said:


> Helmet laws should be a no-brainer. Helmets help to reduce brain and skull damage, and should be worn by anyone riding a 2-wheel open vehicle.


Why nanny laws? If I crack my skull it's my fault and responsibility.
Besides, how is the law going to be enforced? I'm not gonna stop and I'm pretty fast. What's the police going to do... chase me and make me crash? Oh the irony.


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## KingNick (Sep 23, 2010)

Helmets also reduce head injuries, when worn inside a car during an accident. A law to require helmets inside a car is a no brainer, imo.


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## aarhusforever (Jun 15, 2010)

^^ +1, but i'm afraid, that's never gonna happen.


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## Slartibartfas (Aug 15, 2006)

KingNick said:


> Helmets also reduce head injuries, when worn inside a car during an accident. A law to require helmets inside a car is a no brainer, imo.


:banana:


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