This should be the standard in greater LA.
Santa Monica can do it. Why can’t Los Angeles?
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The only criticism I have is that the bicycle path is too narrow to let another person pass. You’d ideally want a bicycle path of at least 2.5 m wide, not just 1 m.
3.5 m would be even better, then you can have a couple bike next to each other, with another passing.
Pass in the same direction? I assume that’s what you mean, since for the opposite direction you’d want another lane on the other side of the road.
Yeah same direction. Though bike pathes also exist where you pass in the opposite direction, on roads where you only have one bicycle path.
Same direction indeed. If there’s somebody slow ahead of you. Looks pretty narrow with tight turns, but it’s probably better than biking between the cars.
Was expecting something terrible to happen. Whole time, I’m thinking "wow this is super nice and everything seems well done and fairly safe.
IKR, I’ve been watching too many videos of bad news.
THAT’S how you do a bike lane!
This is positive, so it’s just a matter of time until idiots want to get rid of it.
Car brains see that and complaint about removing parking spaces.
I do feel like the S bends are a bit tight, seems like it would make it hard to keep a consistent speed if you have to slow down for every intersection. Specifically thinking of e-cargo trikes and trailers that can’t lean into corners like a regular bike can, and take longer to get up to speed.
I’m not sure if it was intended as behavioral engineering to encourage slowing down at crosswalks, but even if it’s unintentional, I consider it a feature.
I would agree, but if cars can just drive straight, why should bikes be slowed down?
Fast road bike drivers will then just drive in the road instead, because there they can just keep their speed unhindered.
If bike lanes have a worse experience then driving on the road, for instance sharp curves, steeper hills, worse maintained asphalt or less optimal ways to turn into a side road, then bicycle drivers will want to continue to use the road. Because they are treated as a second class traffic participant.
Cars instead should be treated as a second-class vehicle, because it requires more space, infrastructure and is less efficient.
Tons of this all over Portland! Love to see the growth
Needs more chicanes.
Try that in the North with ICE and you’re deported.
Hey, check it out-!
Homie’s hittin’ the skinny!I see bike banana’s and I upvote!
That’s one creaky bike though
Oh well, yet another place it’s impossible to park and drop a wheelchair ramp. That blue thing with the red-zone paint and curb cut is a bus stop. Buses are wheelchair accessible but too few and difficult to access for a person who’s well-buggered-up.
It’s Santa Monica, there are a ton of bus stops (OP rode past one in the first 10 seconds of the video) and this isn’t every single road, or even most of them. Bike lanes that aren’t protected from traffic lead to dead cyclists, which on balance I think is probably worse than using the bus stop or getting out one block over.
I’m not objecting to the bus stop. Just noting that although it’s blue and has a perfect wide platform for the bus wheelchair lift/ramp, and a curbcut to get to the sidewalk, it’s a bus stop, not a disabled parking space. Which would be fine if there were any other spot similarly designed on that or any of the other streets with this type of bike lane. So far I haven’t seen any.
What are your referring to? It is pretty accessible from what I can see. It’s illegal to build things that aren’t accessible. Americans with Disabilities Act had pretty good specs
No the bus stop is perfectly accessible! It shows they know exactly how to design a handicap space for this type of bike lane, so people with ramped minivans could park. But they don’t. All the others have the narrow raised cement lump, that leaves a ramp hanging into the air 6" above the middle of the bike lane.
Oh the car parking 🫣. I guess I hate cars so much I didn’t care to notice
Fair enough, we’re in the right instance.
It’s nice to see the traffic bollards, but they really couldn’t put any on the corner that the biker turns right on at the end?
It’s definitely nice to see effort put into separating it from the rest of the street, which is the safest option for cyclists.
That’s a crosswalk, you can’t stick a bollard there because it would block the ramp for a wheelchair-bound person. Designing this shit that works for everyone is hard when cars are in the mix…would be a lot easier to just ban the cars to come up with a design that works for everyone else.
This is, emphatically, not a crosswalk, and is the bit I am talking about. It’s a raised curb which still protects the biker and extends between the two crosswalks but not crossing over them.
I guess my point is an out of control vehicle can still fly over that curb and cream a biker and/or pedestrians so it seems (to me) like a good place for bollards.
Wider view showing in context with the crosswalks:
I guess my point is an out of control vehicle can still fly over that curb and cream a biker and/or pedestrians so it seems (to me) like a good place for bollards.
But that would be unsafe because it might injure the drivers of the out-of-control cars.
(This really is the ‘logic’ traffic engineers often use. The cyclist or pedestrian that might be on the other side of the bollard is rarely considered.)
Those aren’t bollards. They’re just thin plastic tubes with reflective tape on them to help drivers see where they aren’t supposed to drive better.
What you’re seeing this is one that already got run over or removed.
Yes, that’s my point, there are actual bollards elsewhere on this stretch of bike lane, and I’m proposing actual bollards on this curb.
I feel like I’m taking crazy pills, how are so many people misunderstanding this?
These are the actual bollards I’m referring to. Fuck me. Why does everyone assume I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. I know what a fucking actual bollard looks like. It’s a concrete post with a rebar center that extends down into the base concrete/asphalt underneath. It’s the whole reason I used the word “bollard.”
I’m definitely not talking about these worthless things:
My point is those curb markers are not enough, as evidenced by one already being run over and torn away. Which is once again why there should be actual bollards there.
I may be wrong, but those white markers aren’t actual bollards either. They’re still plastic tubes with reflective tape. I don’t think they’d stop a car from driving through.
They look like standard plastic lane markers to me. They’re designed to be fairly cheap and are therefore certainly not going to slow down any four wheeled vehicle.
I’ve seen some filled with cement, bu I don’t think you’re actually supposed to use them that way.
Using this logic we should have bollards at all pedestrian crossings/intersections.
Its strange how a person on a bike highlights how unsafe streets and roads are because of cars
Also, these bollars that you are referring to here are actually only called curb markers. These are to show cars or snow plows where the curb is in low visibility. They are very similar to the marlers you may see for center curbs like these.
No, these are the bollards I’m talking about, they have actual bollards at various places on this stretch of bike lane.
My point is they could be effectively used in more places. I’m not a fucking idiot, I know what an actual bollard is. I’m talking about a concrete post with a rebar center firmly affixed to the base concrete/asphalt. Why would I even be using the word “bollard” if I didn’t know what the fuck it was?
I’m not talking about these:
Ah. Yeah that seems like it would be a good idea.
It makes sense for Southern California to use bicycles as transportation. There’s great weather and little rain most of the year.
The entire country of the Netherlands have proven that infrastructure, not weather, makes cycling the most popular mode of transportation. Hell, most of Nordic big cities are cycling heavens despite their shitty snowy/rainy weather.
I live in Copenhagen. I confirm: great cycle infrastructure, even in snow.
Same and same (almost always, I mean 2 weeks ago there was a day or two where the bike lane was too full of slushy crap)
I really dislike bicycling in the rain
It’s not the best and given the choice, I’d rather bike in dry weather but with the right equipment (waterproof jacket, waterproof overpants and waterproof shoes), it’s fine.
It’s been raining nonstop for months here and I’m still happier on my bike than in any alternative like getting stuck in traffic for hours searching for a parking spot or shoving myself in public transportation with hundreds of people including reeking teenagers who confuse a shower with Axe body spray.
The smells on public transit usually aren’t pleasant.
I get frustrated with carrying around waterproof clothes. But, Southern California, especially with the high costs of cars, I don’t understand why people aren’t enthusiastically switching to e bikes.
Sure, but great weather just makes it that much more appealing. It’s not a prerequisite but it’s a huge plus. So, not having great bicycle infrastructure in a place with great weather seems like such a loss.
Infrastructure not weather makes bicycling great.
Similarly having great trails and sidewalks makes walking great, not the weather.
People have been walking in the rain and snow for millennia.
Oulu, Finland is a massive biking center. The weather is winter most of the year. Their infrastructure for bikes is amazing so people use it, even when it’s cold.
Yup, salt can do a lot on the snow.
They also have very strick guidelines about how quickly the bike roads are plowed after/during snowfalls. They keep the routes open and useful so people can trust the transit modality all year round.
The US just plows the snow onto the bike lanes and then complains about how bad biking is.
Does the salt damage the bicycles?
Damn, that’s a nice bike lane!
look how it protects riders and jeans into the existing public transit infrastructure!
Yeah! It’s actually a proper bike lane not a paint line. Good to see.
