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Bikes cannot excel??? Do you mean accelerate? That's a sliding scale. My turbocharged Porsche (since sold) could accelerate faster than most other things on the road, but it didn't give me more rights than anyone else, or a right to tell other motorists to "get off the road". It just got me more tickets!

I certainly value my safety. Whether I am in a car or on a bike or on foot. That's why I expect everyone to obey the rules. You don't have an air bag when you get out of your car to walk across the street. Or on a motorcycle. We all have to behave ourselves, or we will all end up as casualties. As my old friend Eve DeCoursey used to say, cyclists are the canaries in the coal mines. When we start dying, it means something is dreadfully wrong.

Cheers,
Khal Spencer

posted 5 years ago
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I certainly concur with pyranometer: a strong education program for cyclists would eliminate many of the dangers, since a cyclist would use the facility smartly and not put him/herself into harm's way (i.e., right hook, etc.). I have used bike lanes, even poorly designed ones, for years, without getting drilled.

My last post wasn't a criticism of the Portland system more than any other system--just a concern that cycling specific facilities, while providing many advantages to getting more people riding (in part simply by providing more space for vehicles to overtake each other, are not fault-proof, and must be ridden with skill and an alert mind. Congrats to Portland for its Platinum ranking, too.

posted 5 years ago
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John Forester said it best: cyclists fare best when they behave and are treated as the operators of vehicles. To the extent that cyclists behave as vehicle operators, they give themselves the best options. To the extent that cycling facilities do not interfere with such an engineering model, they can work.

Where they break down is where cycling-specific facilities force cyclists to engage in behavior or in manuvering that is counterintuitive and unsafe, such as making a left turn from a right lane, overtaking slower vehicle traffic on the right side (blind spot), or being cut off by a right turning motorist. Etcetera. Not to mention being harassed when they are not in a cycling specific facility. That's for another rant.

Unfortunately, cycling facilities are not always constructed with such complexities in mind. Here they may fail.

posted 5 years ago
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