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Good topic
Why Does North America Have Awful Bike Lanes
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Check out Not Just Bikes.
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Not sure how true this is, but the City of Calgary maintains that It has over 1000 kms of regional pathways and 96 kms of trails, constituting the most extensive outdoor pathway and urban bike network in North America.
As well, it holds itself out as having:
1. been ranked the most liveable city in North America, and fifth most liveable city in the world.
2. the second lowest cost of living of Canadian cities, and ninth lowest of North American cities.
3. among the easiest commute and lowest traffic congestion of all major cities in Canada.
4. the highest business head office concentration per capita in Canada.
5. the highest concentration of high-tech workers of Canadian cities.
6. the highest GDP per capita of major Canadian cities.
7. more days of sunshine than any other major Canadian city - approximately 333 days per year.
8. nearly 1.5 million Calgarians, who are largely young, diverse and philanthropic - their median age is 37.2 years, collectively they speak more than 120 languages, and they hold the 2nd highest national volunteer rate at 55%.
Go Calgary!
…and all this within 45 minutes of my driveway!
![Bicycle Tire Sky Cloud Wheel]()
![Bicycle Wheel Tire Land vehicle Sky]()
![Bicycle Wheel Tire Bicycles--Equipment and supplies Sky]()
![Tire Bicycle Wheel Cloud Bicycle wheel]()
![Bicycle Cloud Mountain Wheel Sky]()
As well, it holds itself out as having:
1. been ranked the most liveable city in North America, and fifth most liveable city in the world.
2. the second lowest cost of living of Canadian cities, and ninth lowest of North American cities.
3. among the easiest commute and lowest traffic congestion of all major cities in Canada.
4. the highest business head office concentration per capita in Canada.
5. the highest concentration of high-tech workers of Canadian cities.
6. the highest GDP per capita of major Canadian cities.
7. more days of sunshine than any other major Canadian city - approximately 333 days per year.
8. nearly 1.5 million Calgarians, who are largely young, diverse and philanthropic - their median age is 37.2 years, collectively they speak more than 120 languages, and they hold the 2nd highest national volunteer rate at 55%.
Go Calgary!
…and all this within 45 minutes of my driveway!
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That author should have tried answering their own questions. There's a dangerous bicycle lane on some of those "major arterial" roads because they pass over a freaking freeway/highway. Some freeways are friggen wide (4-8 lanes) and those overpasses are basically expensive bridges. Some cities don't have money to build such bridges every 200 meters, nor widen one. I remember riding over 30 minutes out of my way using sketchy backroads, to the next city over, to find an overpass to cross over to the other side of a major US interstate. Be glad there's some accommodation for the able-bodied and able-minded. Everyone else can go by motor vehicle. There's Uber, friends, family, public transport, and whatever to call upon if they can't drive themself.
NIMBYs know that their property taxes are a major part of funding public roads. They have a right to have a say. I doubt such an immaturely presented video will convince them that it's worth it to invest in bicycle infrastructure. Those NIMBYs are happy to be soccer moms who chauffeur their kids around, having them cooped up indoors otherwise, I guess.
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Not Just Bikes has a rational idea worthy of my praise--acknowledge the deep-rooted problems in your area and move to where it's better. xD
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Excessive car traffic is a clear problem, but how do you convince people the solution is to reduce the infrastructure given to cars and give it to alternative mobility? It's makes drivers feel robbed and want to direct their anger at others. Most don't ever consider themselves, as car drivers, to be cause of the traffic, since they perceive things self-centeredly as an individual (just 1 extra car is miniscule in the big pic). It's so hard for normal people to grasp that it's called a paradox, that traffic increases when roads are widened (Braess's paradox and Downs–Thomson paradox).
Most people naturally choose the form of travel that is considered to be least time-consuming, inconvenient, unpleasant, and costly. When bicycle, public transportation, taxi, etc. come out as competitive methods vs personal car ownership, that is when things will change. Tolls, parking fees, time wasted in slow traffic or looking for parking, risk of damage to vehicle (or loss), non-direct/roundabout routes... the metro has become the de-facto cheapest, fastest, and easiertway to get around in cities like NYC and Paris, making it seem to outsiders that they're addressing their car-addiction problem, when it seemingly just devolved/evolved to this after suffering greatly from car traffic for a long while.
Traffic jams are caused by "funneling", when many lanes of traffic are squeezed into fewer lanes, including the traffic merging onto highways from the many city roads flanking it. With so many entering a city, especially around the same time (rush hour, lunch hour), and each vehicle needing the space of an average bedroom to park...
Even our nutritional health is a problem caused by car-addiction. People buy shelf-stable foods, even if it's considered less healthy, since they can't be arsed to make frequent stops to the market to buy fresh food. Shopping for over a week's worth of food is a terrible habit that gets made fun of by more cultured types. People opt to shop this way since it's just less painful...
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I choose to ride an emtb FS because it helps me better cope with my area's weak cycling infrastructure. The emtb enables me to choose to cover distances using paths where my shoulders aren't within a few meters of other traffic, and don't feel so bad riding in dirt and debris on the side of the road even if it's a bit slower than pavement. When I do have to mingle with traffic, I'm grateful that the motor helps me push whatever gear combo I'm in to minimize the time that I feel vulnerable crossing paths in that game of frogger. It's been a good car replacement to the point I've logged 10k miles already.
I subscribe to Not Just Bikes and am convinced this kind of car-addicted society crap is an issue in virtually all developed areas, making it far easier to list off the small % of exceptions. I've seen how much worse it is in places like the Middle East, which don't even have much accommodation for pedestrians, making it a much higher difficulty level of Frogger.
Gorgeous pictures and it sounds like quite the lovely City. But I just checked the temp. -20F. That’s cold as fvck. Some of us just aren’t Arctic circle types
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this was a particularly egregious example that has been fixed, but it's on-par for the amount of concern that goes into public infrastructure around most of Texas.
www.kxan.com
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Austin cyclists flag mobility, safety concerns in newly installed bike lanes
A reddit thread posted in an Austin cycling group last week highlighted infrastructure concerns in the newly installed bike lanes at the N. Lamar Boulevard and Morrow Street intersection. The threa…
www.kxan.com
My thoughts exactly. I'm definitely in a photo negative climate here, but I'd rather have 3 or 4 months of schwitzen my nads off than 7 or 8 months of freezing them off. A whole load of snowbird Alberta plates in my neck of the woods during winter says a bunch of Canadians feel the same way.
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Because bikes are considered toys. The UK was similar when I lived there last.
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Philippines: Hold my beer...
![Road surface Infrastructure Asphalt Tree Cone]()
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Busted! You caught us at a bad time 🥴
After enjoying the longest, mildest fall in over 25 years (dirt riding until mid-November), we currently find ourselves in a deep freeze. Praying this passes soon. In the meantime, I am left with this:
As for bike lanes, “cycle tracks”, and bike commuting, this is taken very seriously and is a community priority:
Downtown Cycle Tracks
www.calgary.ca
Highlights from the pilot project are:
What's a cycle track?
A cycle track is a bike lane protected by a physical barrier from moving cars, parked cars and sidewalks. It provides a predictable space and minimizes potential conflicts between people who walk, cycle, and drive.
Pathways and trails
www.calgary.ca
In America at least, not every city sees cycling the same. As a kid I used to get baseball bat swung at me as a scare tatic while on the road. But this was in a state where cycling was definitely the outliner sport.
now I live in a much more open minded place with cycling as a more accepted part of life. Even then, I hear about warning of rude drivers, or even worst, cyclist getting rob of their bike at gun point mid ride.
this can happen anywhere of course, but as someone already pointed out, cycling is not treated the same here as in other part of the western world. That to some degree is why our bike infrastructure is not as good as it can be.
now I live in a much more open minded place with cycling as a more accepted part of life. Even then, I hear about warning of rude drivers, or even worst, cyclist getting rob of their bike at gun point mid ride.
this can happen anywhere of course, but as someone already pointed out, cycling is not treated the same here as in other part of the western world. That to some degree is why our bike infrastructure is not as good as it can be.
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What’s funny is this Ebike tax credit thing is popular where I live. Yet the roads are flat out dangerous. So they are pushing the Ebike to work commute thing without the infrastructure. 🤷🏻♂️
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@BrianU and @Sparticus I will need to make sure I burn off all these holiday calories and get back into peak riding condition before you animals get here, but yes. Absolutely! It would be a pleasure and a privilege to be your personal trail guide and riding Sherpa...as long as you don’t mind waiting for me from time to time…🥴
Any chance you'd be willing to host PicardFest '22?
=sParty
P.S. Experience has taught me that self-deprecating talk is the first assurance that another mountain biker is about to rip my wings off.
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Hahahaha! That esteemed event, my friend, will be left for @cyclelicious to host!
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Back on topic though, my commute where I am, which is pretty typical, is about 10 kms to the heart of downtown. I ride along a paved pathway that runs alongside the Bow River for about 9 kms. The other km is along one of the cycle tracks mentioned above. Sometimes I take a diverted route which takes me on some pretty sweet dirt for about 5 minutes.
Little to no contact with cagers.
In the winter, the pathways are pristine. They are usually cleared daily by 5 am or so. When the city promotes commuting by bike year round, they understand the liability which accompanies that. They take better care of the pathways than the roads.
PS - always welcome @Harold!!!
Little to no contact with cagers.
In the winter, the pathways are pristine. They are usually cleared daily by 5 am or so. When the city promotes commuting by bike year round, they understand the liability which accompanies that. They take better care of the pathways than the roads.
PS - always welcome @Harold!!!
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