Paint only equals nothing.
Paint and flexi-posts equals nothing.
Paint and signals equals nothing.
I guess we need physically separated bikeways if we realistically want to see people biking in Greenlake.
This is Seattle’s Burke-Gilman trail. Along it, bikes and pedestrians are told to share the trail, to walk on the right and the opposite, so everybody walks whichever way they feel like at any point. Can you imagine what would happen if Seattle treated cars the same way?.
Do you want to have to pave bikeways over and over again because they are full of bumps and holes every other year?. Just make sure to install them very close to tall trees. Actually, even worse, just plant another row of trees on the other side too.
If you have a recreational boat Seattle’s bridges will raise for you stopping all traffic no matter what.
If you have a car the barriers will go up for you first.
If you walk, bike or are in a wheel chair, Seattle will treat you like a third class citizen. Specially if you use the Ballard bridge.
Do you know what happens when a bike way is made out of paint? Cars park on it. And if you add flexi-posts? Cars run them over when they park on it and they are all gone in a couple of months. Just have a look at the red car parked in the middle of the bike way after running over some flexi-posts.
Do you want to give bikers a daily headache?. Then simply discontinue the bike way when it reaches an intersection. Even worse, also put a traffic light in the middle of it.
Every day hundred of thousands ride the bike. Some of them use bike lines and / or roads together with cars and motorcycles. This last fact makes possible to discover the real violence on the streets. Yes, you have read violence. And I am not talking about the undesirable, possibly common bike accidents. I am referring to a subtle, invisible force with capital letters. It is easiest to discover if you live in a city in which urbanism have been developed under bad, people-damaging, car-oriented premises, meaning with wide and straight avenues, long distances between zebra crossings, and few speed radars if any. Perhaps you have get used to it without realizing how harmful and noxious it is. Paying a little bit of attention of the car drivers stuck in traffic jam behavior helps to discover it. Moreover, if you were able to determine each and every speed car in those avenues, you will astonish as most of them do not fulfill the traffic regulations. Furthermore, cars do not often respect the security distance when they overtake a bicycle. The use of turn signals to indicate others what they want to make is not frequently use.
So, are public institutions calming the traffic? Yes and no. Yes because every day actions are taken in this direction around the world. But also no since urban traffic is still too violent to be considered as calmed.
Streets development has followed a traditional, urban model in which car has been almost considered the only way of transport for the most part of the XX and the XXI centuries. Fortunately, this perspective is changing as time goes by. But what exactly is the car-oriented street?
A car-oriented street is one which puts on the top the car mobility. Cars are the kings on the streets and specifically those which are occupied by just one person. Space for pedestrians is sacrifice in order to give it to cars, both the parked and the driving ones. As a result, people who live or pass often through such streets suffer from noise, psychical problems and breath the pollution cars and motorbikes expel. Think on the negative impacts this urban model has on people who live in avenues with, let’s say, four, five or even more car lines.
In comparison to the above old-fashion model, a different, more humane perspective is emerging to give the street back to people. The recipe is easy and set in motion in a lot of cities whereas implemented in some others: take surface from cars to give it to people. It is a piece of cake if economical and political interests do not disturb. Quite on the contrary and due to climate change, more and more people have realized that we should change the transport model if we want to face it and avoid its negative effects. There are a variety of actions to reduce noise and pollution, and all go to reduce car (and other ways of pollutant transport) and bid on low- or even zero-impact ones. Riding a bike and walking fulfill this target.
Now look at this picture:
In the car oriented street (left-hand side), there are two parked-car lines plus three car lines plus two narrow sidewalks. The realistic estimation shows a total capacity of 12,300 people/h by summing every moving people. On the other hand, the multimodal street offers a different view. Based on the same surface, we have two width sidewalks plus a bidirectional bike line plus a bus line plus a car line. In this case figure shows that the total capacity is 30,100 people/h, more than double. In addition, trees and benches make the street friendlier. Thus, the selection of the best model is like falling off a log.