On Fri, 8 Nov 2019 16:27:22 -0800, sms
wrote:

On 11/8/2019 3:33 PM, John B. wrote:

snip

It is called "democracy" Frank. You know the majority (or the loudest
mouths) get to have their own way.

In Davis it's the "vehicular cyclists" and the motorists that are the
ones that "have to get their own way."

The attitude of "we were here long before all these new cyclists so we
have to get what we want" echos the attitude of Mike Vandeman demanding
that hikers and equestrians should have access to trails, but mountain
bikers shouldn't, because hikers and equestrians were there first
(despite the fact that horses cause far more trail damage than mountain
bikes).

The reality is that if the goal of a city is to increase the number of
residents that commute by bicycle then the only way to do this is to put
in more bicycle infrastructure. It's that way in the Netherlands and
it's that way everywhere else as well. Nothing else works. Period.

But that isn't what happened in the Netherlands. Initially there were
far more bicycles than automobiles. Prior to WW II the majority of
trips were made by bicycle. Even today there are more bicycles than
residents and in The Hague something like 60% of trips are by bicycle.

So in discussing Holland you are talking about a country where until
very recently bicycles were the most common means of transportation
and building bicycle facilities is not a matter of modifying auto
paths for a relatively small number of bicycles it building
facilities for perhaps a majority of the transportation vehicles.

In the U.S. you are talking about the opposite.

In Davis the bicycle mode share is over 20%. In San Francisco it's 3%
and that's considered high! In San Jose it's 1% despite the fact that
San Jose is flat. Mountain View, which is doing well with more bicycle
infrastructure is at 6%. The main MUPs in Mountain View go very close to
some of the largest employers including Google, Microsoft, Symantec, and
Samsung.

When you get more cyclists out there it becomes safer as motorists get
more used to cyclists. Trying to increase safety by demanding that
cyclists wear helmets is not the right approach.
--
cheers,

John B.