On 2/23/2021 4:51 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
While waiting for the current political discussion to run its course
and die out (Yes, I know I'm part of the problem), I thought it might
be distracting to watch some recent and interesting bicycle related
YouTube videos:

Why Canadians Can't Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU (15:13)

There's no shortage of videos claiming the world will be transformed if
we just install segregated bike paths everywhere. That particular
video's a bit unusual in using a town in Finland as an example; most use
Amsterdam or Copenhagen.

As one good friend of mine once told me about a different but similarly
idealistic solution* to a purported bike problem: "Frank, it's so
simple!!" (The solution was made of styrofoam. And she has since changed
her mind.) I believe that most such "simple" solutions are both
simplistic and wrong.

My first question for the author might be "If this is all so obvious,
why have only a few places in the world implemented it?" I believe the
answer is that where segregated bike lanes cause lots of biking, they
are not the cause; they are more of an affect. That is, other influences
have predisposed a large percentage of the citizens toward bicycling.
Those citizens then, effectively, agreed that the local government
should spend unusual amounts of money to make cycling more pleasant.
(Like it or not, building an independent network of segregated and/or
separated bike paths is damned expensive. Plowing it reliably in winter
is a continuing expense. For an American city where perhaps 0.5% of its
citizens ride in winter, that plowing is the first item on the "no
money" chopping block.)

My next question is "Why ignore the places where this has been tried and
has failed?" In Britain, Stevenage and Milton Keynes are famous for
having separate path networks that reach all parts of town,
purpose-built when the towns were founded. Their bike mode shares are
less than one seventh that of Oulu, despite much better climate.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...pped-stevenage
That makes the video's claim at 12:14 false: "It's a proven fact that
people of all ages will ride a bicycle in the winter, but only if the
city's designed for it." Maybe some people will, but that number is more
likely to be very small. Other factors will likely prevent mass cycling,
and the most important may be simple fashion. (IIRC, even Portland's
bike mode share has dropped in recent years.)

BTW, at https://youtu.be/Uhx-26GfCBU?t=606 the speaker touts
Yellowknife's impressive bike infrastructure. Gosh, you can ride for
dozens of feet before the bike path runs into a curb!

Someone said the key to happiness is low expectations. The corollary is
"Any bike facility is a good bike facility." But I don't buy that.

--
- Frank Krygowski