Protected cycleways

Rachel Smith has posted an excellent article on the Crikey blog on 'Why Women Wont Cycle'. It is said that an excellent barometer of the safety of a cycling network or route is the percentage of women cycling on it. I have posted previously on this and agree with Rachel 100%.

Separated cycleways can greatly improve safety along routes. But, if the intersections are not done well they can significantly increase risks to cyclists. I posted previously that international research has shown that the most dangerous place for a cyclist is on the footpath because of conflicts with driveways and side streets. If a separated bikeway does not adequately address these risks it can actually decrease safety. This Wikipedia article provides an excellent scan of some of the research on the safety and risks of separated cycle facilities. What is clear is that unless the intersections and driveways are well done, a separated bikeway can increase risks to cyclists significantly.

But making the intersections safe can sometimes reduce their utility for cyclists. Take this Sydney example. The separated bi-directional bike path below has a potential conflict with right turning traffic. To prevent this, cyclists using the pathway are stopped at the light, even when right turns for cars are given the red light. Cyclists can only proceed once they activate the sensor in the tarmac and then they are given a green phase of their own. So they have to stop at the lights every time. For cyclists travelling with traffic this can be very frustrating and I did notice several cyclists in traffic instead of in the separated cycleway.

Melbourne's Albert Street seperated bike lanes

Bicycle Victoria reports on the separated kerbside bicycle lanes along Albert Street in Melbourne that opened in June to much controversy. The media, the RACV and even some cyclists labeled them as a waste of time and money and many drivers were unsure how to use them with reports of drivers parking in the bike lane during the off-peak, instead of in their parking lane. VicRoads have made improvements to the lane to make it more obvious how to use them, including making the bike lanes green paint and installing flexible guides to dissuade drivers from using the lane - as the picture below shows. It would appear from the picture though that drivers still have difficulty understanding as there appears to be a yellow car parked in the lane in the photo.

VicRoads recently released a road safety audit of the performance of the bicycle lanes. The audit notes that the treatment is unique in Melbourne (although common elsewhere in the world) and would therefore confuse drivers until they are used to it. The report notes some inherent road safety risks including drivers entering side streets and driveways not being aware of cyclists and the risk of passenger doors and pedestrians stepping into the lane (BV notes that only 10% of cars have passengers so the risk is far less than driver-side bicycle lanes). It does not come to any conclusion as to the safety of the treatment or any measures that could improve the safety.

Bicycle Victoria has published an overview of international practice in separated bicycle lanes that provides a useful scan of international practice in using these.

AITPM conference

The PBT workshop we held last week at the end of the AITPM conference was a huge success. very good response from those attending with great interest in PBT facilitating further discussion across the country to share experience and facilitate debate. One aspect that was raised was the hot topic of Copenhagen Cycle Lanes. Some key issues that need further debate:

• when are they appropriate or not
• successes and failures and lessons learned
• design guidelines/standards
• a new name?

Maybe the blog could be a vehicle for some debate on this topic.

Cycle paths and bus stops

Here is an interesting treatment Copenhagen uses for getting separated bicycle paths past bus stops. Nicely described by Copenhagenize.com
Judging by the way bus passengers are standing in the bicycle lanes I would expect this sort of treatment to result in significant conflict between bus passengers and cyclists.

The Copenhagen Wheel

In preparation for the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen (November 2009), MIT has been doing some interesting projects using technology to understand the dynamics of how cyclists and pedestrians experience the city.
The Copenhagen Wheel aims to develop technology to use bicycles as moving sensors to map the flow of people and environmental conditions.
Cyclists using the SmartBiking system get green credits for using their bikes thanks to a smart tag system installed on bikes. It is sort of like the opposite of congestion charging.
This article in Wired looks at the social networking side of the technology and systems used in this project.
By using mobile phone technology the City has been able to gather real time data on crowds in Copenhagen. Since mobile phones are almost universally used and each mobile phone is constantly in touch with the network it is possible to map how crowds gather in real time.