I (heart) bike boulevards
There’s been some controversy in Tucson bike-politics of late over bike boulevards.
It seems that some members of the Tucson/Pima County Bike Advisory Committee disagree that money on bike boulevards is well spent — they want to see the money spent on bike lanes. I’ve heard lots of arguments for this, some which I regard to be outright specious (“Bike boulevards will take people off the main streets and thus make cycling more dangerous because there will be fewer of us on the busy streets”) and some less so (“You get way more bang for your buck with a bike lane”).
In my opinion, and it seems to be shared by most cyclists who spend a fair amount of time riding their bikes in urban environments, the bike boulevard is pretty much the holy grail of urban bike infrastructure outside of bike-dedicated greenways. A bike boulevard may not go right where you want it to, and it may not be perfect (there is usually some minimal auto traffic permitted on a bike boulevard), but the bike boulevard offers people a way to use a bike safely in the city, and, hopefully, this will give them the experience and courage to branch off the boulevard and start using their bike more often.
Here’s fellow bike lawyer Bob Mionske on the subject in his current Bicycling Magazine column:
[I]f we want to get more people on bikes, we have to build the infrastructure that will help them feel safer while riding. As the great cycling cities of Europe have learned, when bicycling feels safe for children and the elderly, everybody feels safer, and more people ride—and that is a benefit for all cyclists, and others as well, since as the roads become safer for cyclists, there’s also less danger for both motorists and pedestrians.
And that’s the part that does it for me. We need places where people can feel safe when they ride, and those places need to intersect with each other and be in urban centers.
I don’t like to question anyone’s motives, but the pro bike-lane/anti bike-boulevard arguments sound selfish to me. We have bike lanes all over the place, some of which are extremely dangerous to ride in, and many of which have very few takers. The Speedway bike lane is never going to be safe to ride in. And it is true that bike boulevards serve a geographically smaller community. But they convey the message that bikes are a legitimate form of transportation that our city supports, and that we are not always simply to be shunted into the shoulder and protected by a painted white stripe.
On that subject, more and more cities are painting sharrows instead of white stripes. Perhaps even more than bike boulevards, sharrows tell drivers that bikes belong, and that they must make way for and accommodate cyclists safely. My friend L, a vocal critic of bike lanes like those on South Stone and South Sixth Avenues that confine cyclists right in the “door” zone of parked cars, pointed me to this article from the L.A. Times about the increasing use of sharrows. Tucson has a few of these — including some on South Sixth Avenue — but I’d like to see a lot more.
Please visit www.tucsonbikesurvey.com for more information on supporting bike boulevards, bike sharrows, and other bike infrastructure in Tucson.
–Erik Ryberg
July 9th, 2010 at 7:01 am
[...] I (heart) bike boulevards [...]
July 9th, 2010 at 8:32 am
I’m for the BB thing, but the one going up 4th and then ending up on 6th and Grant seems like typical bad planning & design, by the city, that probably won’t be used much but will most certainly cost a lot of taxpayer money.
July 9th, 2010 at 8:45 am
I saw a sharrow painted in the bike lane way out by my house on Broadway E of Harrison. They also redid the bike lane right where Jose Rincon was hit, now it lines up better. I do not recall the sharrows being added all the way down Broadway, I’ll have to pay attention on my next bike commute.
I like using the 3rd street bike route but it doesn’t start until after Wilmot, is less than ideal due to all the stop signs, and slower than just taking Broadway. I really like the dedicated bike path once I get near downtown but it’s over pretty quick at that point.
July 9th, 2010 at 9:16 am
That’s right, Kenneth, and what
unsettles me the most is the
mantra of ’safe, safer, safety’
that bike boulevards live under.
What hazards are being removed
by the creation of bike boulevards?
There is so little traffic on these
planned routes to begin with.
I’m all for signal-assisted crossings
of major streets…those are useful
and can exist wherever needed. What
is that particular quality about bike
boulevards over what is there now that
results in such an increase of safety?
Europe this and Netherlands that…most
of the videos show cyclists on separated
bikeways. I don’t think they have more
room over there than we do…they just
see the use of space differently.
Here’s a useful thing…how about a bike/ped
way through Downtown? That would remove some
hazards. The city would have to commit some
space for it, though. Say maybe Arizona Ave?
July 9th, 2010 at 2:34 pm
In the year and a half since a stripe was painted on Park Avenue from Ajo to Irvington, auto speeds and aggressiveness have gone up. Unintended consequences …
July 12th, 2010 at 8:44 am
I don’t feel like I have to be divided into one camp or the other. I like bike lanes and bike boulevards. Having grown up here, when there were much fewer bike lanes an no boulevards, I am feeling a little giddy that this argument comes up.
I want both. I know we have limited resources for implementation and need to make decisions, but it seems like that should be done on a case-by-case basis. We always need more of each. Which one is the most important to do next?
I go out of my way to ride on 3rd Street/University – but I am lucky enough to live near it. I use bike lanes all the time and I feel relatively safe (depending on which street it is).
July 12th, 2010 at 6:55 pm
I’m for the most practicle solution to each problem. To make a bike boulevard usefull you need to cut down the number of stop signs. I commute on what is consdered a dangerous section of road. Why? Less chance of stopping at a red light to slow me down. I some times use one of the bike boulevards but it ends in a maze with no clear way to get out.
We have sharrows in town. Put a bit to close to the right side (follows the code). Motorists don’t have a clue. Primarily because you never have to take a driving test again once you have your license. That needs to change.