11-08-2022, 04:23 AM
I can understand the challenges with transitioning on bi-directional on road infra to on road...
To be honest, there were disconcerting places in the Netherlands that do this as well, but it seems to work okay in practice.
Here's one example:
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1699377,...384!8i8192
This is (really advisory) on road bike lanes on a rural-ish road. The road carries very little traffic behind the camera here, but in front carries the highway interchange and the bypass road merges, so traffic is orders of magnitude higher. So proceeding straight here you must turn left onto the boulevard bike path on the left.
Really the transition is basically just a ton of red pavement and a waiting space on the right which nobody uses.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1590987,...384!8i8192
Here is a newer road with the opposite situation. Behind the camera is a fietstraat, a shared space with low speeds and ahead the bike path continues straight while traffic has to turn right off the street.
Realistically both situations are the same and again the same as what they are doing in Kitchener, but you can see how the specific configuration use of colours and other cues changes exactly how the interaction feels.
In both cases however, low speeds and contribute to a safe environment. I'd say average speeds in the first example are higher 40-50km/h. In the second example, average speeds are probably under 30km/h. But in both cases the route is a bike priority route (in the first case it is only a through route for bikes), cars are routed a different way, so cyclists outnumber drivers many times.
I think for Duke St. speeds should be pretty low, the real question is how many people use it as a bike route. I think maybe there's hope of greater volumes of cyclists when things get extended to the south, but it's really going to take some good cycle infra, because otherwise, it's... well frankly hard to even find.
To be honest, there were disconcerting places in the Netherlands that do this as well, but it seems to work okay in practice.
Here's one example:
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1699377,...384!8i8192
This is (really advisory) on road bike lanes on a rural-ish road. The road carries very little traffic behind the camera here, but in front carries the highway interchange and the bypass road merges, so traffic is orders of magnitude higher. So proceeding straight here you must turn left onto the boulevard bike path on the left.
Really the transition is basically just a ton of red pavement and a waiting space on the right which nobody uses.
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1590987,...384!8i8192
Here is a newer road with the opposite situation. Behind the camera is a fietstraat, a shared space with low speeds and ahead the bike path continues straight while traffic has to turn right off the street.
Realistically both situations are the same and again the same as what they are doing in Kitchener, but you can see how the specific configuration use of colours and other cues changes exactly how the interaction feels.
In both cases however, low speeds and contribute to a safe environment. I'd say average speeds in the first example are higher 40-50km/h. In the second example, average speeds are probably under 30km/h. But in both cases the route is a bike priority route (in the first case it is only a through route for bikes), cars are routed a different way, so cyclists outnumber drivers many times.
I think for Duke St. speeds should be pretty low, the real question is how many people use it as a bike route. I think maybe there's hope of greater volumes of cyclists when things get extended to the south, but it's really going to take some good cycle infra, because otherwise, it's... well frankly hard to even find.