02-12-2022, 02:16 PM
(02-12-2022, 01:22 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(02-12-2022, 01:15 PM)ijmorlan Wrote: It’s obviously no good for either.
Buses will get held up by bicycles, and many bicyclists will feel rushed or unsafe.
Although I think you were right when you said the actual plan is effectively just not to accommodate bicycles and keep bicycle traffic to a hardcore minority.
Yeah, I think that's the regional plan. I mean, whether they think its the intention, or whether they just don't believe cycling is a thing that will happen (and so create self fulfilling prophecies) I don't know. I first encountered this when I was part of the Moving Forward 2020 plan...where they said that their modeling showed that even if they built a huge protected, comprehensive, and connected network they wouldn't get significant usage....I asked them how their modeling worked and they, completely seriously explained that it's based on what uptick in cycling they get from building one disconnected, mediocre piece of infra. It was around that point, I realized that talking to staff was pointless.
But I was actually talking about the response to this. I know several cycling advocates who are positioning this as a win. I think they feel this is the best we can get, which frankly, I think is silly, we should aim higher. But I think it's also a little bit about the positioning. If this was positioned as a bus/bike lane, how much worse would it be received by the public.
I think most vocal cycling advocates are in the top 10% confident cyclists, which has this unfortunate effect. The reality is almost all of the other 90% get around by car, so they have no reason to call this out for the garbage it is. They will continue to get around the way they always have, even if they would have made use of a proper solution here. The status quo is hard to break out of.
And so what is the actual plan here? We will have the cycling grid on either side of this (NW of Francis and SE of Frederick), and probably some dangerous half-assed transition on either end? I wouldn't use this... It's disgusting how the already modest grid continues to get cut down.