"I think as a community, we must accept that bikes and cars can't share the same space safely with the current mindset."
I have to say that I disagree. I bike safely around town at least 5 days a week, 11 months a year. I don't think that as an experienced, defensive yet assertive cyclist that I'm at any more risk than if I were driving a car or walking. That isn't to say that more isn't needed in bicyclist and driver education on sharing the road and keeping everyone safe. And having parked cars on the streets that I bike on sucks as far as I'm concerned. I feel much more threatened by people getting in and out of their cars and driving into and out of parking spaces than I do by steady vehicle traffic. I would rather bike on streets without on-street parking if I could. I know some folks argue that on-street parking has a traffic calming effect, but I find that most traffic calming is wishful thinking. Never seen a roundabout calm anyone. All a roundabout does is create less space for me and a car to be in the street together. Grrrr.... don't get me started :) -India *********************** India Viola UW-Madison Stretton Lab 115 Zoology Research Bldg. 1117 W. Johnson St. Madison, WI 53706 608.262.3336 *********************** "How can we learn from our mistakes if we don't first acknowledge them?" -Anonymous "We exist in the bacterial world, not bacteria in ours" -Stuart Levy ----- Original Message ----- From: David Waugh <[email protected]> Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009 10:09 am Subject: [Bikies] Sharrows To: [email protected] > Thanks Kevin for the Seattle sharrows link. > I'm still a little uneasy about their use on even low to moderately > busy streets. I think as a community, we must accept that bikes and > cars can't share the same space safely with the current mindset. We > made that decision about pedestrians and gave them their own space. > Howerver, I like the concept of sharrows as it makes sense to show the > unexperienced bicyclists where they should be in the lane which would > protect them from car doors and make them more predictable for > motorists. And it advertises to motorists that they should share and > be on the lookout for bikes present. But I think they could also be > dangerous in the sense that we will always have a fairly significant > percentage of motorists not paying attention (cell phones) and one > small accident has big consequences for bikers. Perhaps what we > should do is put bikes on sidewalks and put pedestrians out in the > sharrow because they could walk closer to parked cars. While this > makes sense in a way, it would seem absurdly dangerous to your average > Madisonian. Yet the damage inflicted with hitting a pedestrian is on > scale with hitting a bicyclist. Maybe we could have a special helmet > for walking around town! > > I'm hoping that if we get a bike boulevard on East Mifflin, we get > parking on both sides the entire length for residents as a tradeoff to > restricted street access, and sharrows in the middle of the lane. > Then I will feel that we will have at least one safe route west from > my neighborhood. > > David Waugh > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
