Hal Grades Your Bike Locking 3: The Final Warning!
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Hal (and Kerri) Grade Your Bike Locking
Bike line or street?
There has been a recurrent discussion among bikers who live in large cities regarding which infrastructure is the best to ride. On the one hand, we have bike line and on the other one the whole street. Both sides offer points in favor and against. Cyclists who ride on a bike line enjoy a dedicated space for them which is respected specially in the cases in which it is separated by a physical barrier from pavement and car lines. They feel this separation as a privilege with a potential effect on avoiding traffic accidents. This fact encourages those who are learning to ride and makes bikers who do not want to ride at high speed happy. It seems to say “Hey, we drive a vehicle, but we live in a peaceful manner not as the pollutant cars”. On the contrary, pro-street bikers say “Hey, we drive a vehicle, so we are traffic and must share the street”. They feel traffic has to be calmed down, not by cornering them but by forcing cars to reduce speed as bike do not usually reach high speeds as cars do. This type of cyclists often complain about the facts that bike lines often zigzag and their surface imply deficiencies, whereas streets often follows direct lines with better asphalt. Which position is the best? Neither, it all depends on the particular circumstances of infrastructures and the way of thinking of every biker.
Hal Grades Your Bike Locking
A funny and possibly effective way to protect your bike
Bicycle Anecdotes from Amsterdam
Sharing traffic, main problems in Valencia (5/5)
Distraction is the last main traffic problem in Valencia. They can affect to every driver whether they drive a car, a bike, a truck, a motorcycle, etc. Causes are variate like the mobile phone, radio, disc reader, gps, you name it. In this post, I am going to center in the distractions due to exclusively the road. In the next picture, one can see a cross with the cars coming from a one-way road.
The problem here is that the bike-line is bidirectional and car drivers often forget to see to both sides. As a result, car accidents have occurred here.
Another example is given in conjunction with multiple traffic problems I have explained in this series. If we mix distractions plus high speed plus amber traffic-light, we have the next photos.
Cars come with excessive speed from the avenue named dels Tarongers. They can see the amber traffic-line, but they do not stop unless a pedestrian or a bike is really close. Nor do they see on both sides and as a result of bike reaching speeds of 10-20 km/h it is a miracle that there had not been any death biker at this point.
Winter Biking Primer
Superblocks: How Barcelona is taking city streets back from cars
Sharing traffic, main problems in Valencia (4/5)
Excessive cars speed is a constant problem within Valencia. Speed limits range from 30 to 50 km/h depending on the city zone. Most car drivers do not comply in respecting them. Police efforts are inefficient and thus it is common to see cars driving at 70, 80, 90 or even 100 km/h every day. Drivers do not become aware this awful way of driving puts into risk their lives and those who surround them. This fact also translates into risk for bikers quite often. Crossings in which bike-lines are involved are in dangerous due to this. Apparently quiet roads like in the photos become problematic. It is usual that cars pass the traffic-light line as they drive with excessive speed. Moreover high speed provokes a reduction in the time drivers have to adapt to an unexpected event like a bike crossing a road on a bike-line. If they drove according to the law, there would be no problem of this nature. On the contrary, high speed appears as a key factor in every study on the main causes of car accidents not only in Valencia, but also in the rest of the Spanish roads.
