On 11/8/2019 7:27 PM, sms wrote:

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

Oh, please. A "vehicular cyclist" is really just a cyclist who rides
according to the rules of the road that apply to all vehicles. It's what
we all should do when we're not on kiddie paths or trapped in cattle
chutes. If you don't do that, you're either a timid gutter bunny or a
"salmon" rider. You shouldn't brag about that.


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.

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.

First, bike mode share in Davis has been on a downward trend for a long
time. Even Streetsblog has noted this: "Even Davis, California, one of
the country’s longtime leaders in bicycle mode share, saw its third
straight year of falling estimates in the Census Bureau’s American
Community Survey. The university town estimated 17 percent of trips by
bike, down from 25 percent in 2013." It's glory days were way back in
the 1960s, when bike mode share was above 30% - but probably because the
campus was newly expanded, the town was much smaller and the campus
greatly restricted car use.

And despite the hype, bike mode share in the U.S. has lately been on a
downward trend. From the useless LAB, at
https://bikeleague.org/content/new-data-bike-commuting

"The Census Bureau has released the 2017 1-year estimates for how people
are commuting to work based on the American Community Survey.

"The 2017 1-year data shows that overall, commuters are choosing to use
a bicycle as their primary mode of transportation to work slightly less
than in recent years. Year-over-year, the rate of people biking to work
has decreased 4.7%. Among the 70 largest cities (as of 2009 when the
League began tracking), a slight majority (37) cities had a
year-over-year decrease in bike mode share."

One reason given for the decrease in bicycling is the lower cost of
gasoline. I recently paid more for gas than I have in a long time, at a
remote rural gas pump, $2.55 per gallon. That's about 0.60 Euros per
liter, or maybe half what Europeans are paying. If and when gas prices
rise to over $4 per gallon, U.S. bike mode share might surge back to its
high of ... what? 0.6% or so?

Keep in mind, this is a country where cities brag about bike mode share
of 2%.

When you get more cyclists out there it becomes safer as motorists get
more used to cyclists.

Yes, I believe that's true. But if the cyclists are all corralled in
separate chutes, they are subject to hazards where the chutes intersect
MV paths. Which is not to mention the other problems in the chutes:
wrong way riders, debris, bad pavement, collision hazards, various
delays, etc. And they're often subject to harassment for daring to leave
the chutes.

Trying to increase safety by demanding that
cyclists wear helmets is not the right approach.

I agree.


--
- Frank Krygowski