The Wrong Side of my Car
The blog that wants to go obsolete
Are hills more difficult than flat terrain for cyclists?
Every couple of months I come across some article or video saying that ‘no, hills aren’t harder than the flat’.
Said no cyclist ever.
Let’s imagine some guy called Daniel *1, Danny for friends. He is riding his bicycle to his local café, 3 km up the road. He can go two ways. One way is a bit shorter but it goes over a hill with a big 5% climb. Can you guess which way he is going to go?
Protected bike lanes: what they do, and don’t
You often hear talk about protected bicycle lanes. How we need them. How they will keep parked cars out. How we need them to fix left hooks. Spoiler alert: they won’t, and they won’t. Let’s try to clear up some misunderstanding.
Apartment living: disadvantages only
A while ago I made an interactive version of the population density map on Observable, and I noticed something.
Safe School Street in Birkdale
Auckland Transport is running a trial arrangement at Birkdale Primary School. The project page even has some Vision Zero buzz words on it.
Auckland Transport is taking a Vision Zero approach to road safety. This means we are striving to have zero deaths or serious injuries on our transport system by 2050. To achieve this, we are working to create a more forgiving road network that recognises that we are human and make mistakes. But those mistakes should not mean someone dies or is seriously injured on our roads.
We have used material and colours that enhance the vibrancy of the area. This serves both as an effective and visual queue (sic) to motorists, that they are entering an area with lots of people moving around, and to add to the character of Birkdale Primary School and its surrounding neighbourhoods.
On the ground (literally) we see flower patterns and bollards, mainly to take away excessive road width, especially at the intersection. Making crossing the intersection less dangerous due to cars turning at high speed. These are welcome changes to anyone who has a kid walking to that school. Even with the build-outs Birkdale Road still has a very generous 7.5 m width.
So should we ride a bicycle on the footpath then?
You may remember this ad.
With a healthy portion of manufactured outrage. Hey, it is not allowed to ride a bike on the footpath. To this day I am not sure what their real problem was. zOMG they let a kid out unsupervised. Many people never miss a chance to pour scorn on parents.
Nevertheless there is talk of allowing cycling on the footpath. Officially you’re not allowed to do it, but a lot of people do it anyway. You’d be crazy to ride on the road.
So should the law catch up to the situation on the ground?
Ideally we shouldn’t ride on the footpath. Or, we shouldn’t have to. But, as is often the case, we will have to strike a balance between idealism and pragmatism.
Armchair expert
Let’s play armchair street designer.
This is an intersection on Mount Albert Road in Three Kings. Auckland transport is planning to rebuild it. Bike Auckland quite quickly posted their opinion on it and it is not exactly glowing.
Best practice or nothing
Is it OK to settle for painted bike lanes? Often, people will say no. Cycling advocates will point out that it is not real infrastructure and they’ll point at the Netherlands. Authorities make this argument, and then conveniently figure out that therefore the cost will blow out and they’ll cancel the whole thing.
Surely the Dutch don’t bother with just paint, right?
Well, this is a myth.
