Shallowhal wrote:Increasing cycle numbers whilst reducng traffic is indeed the way to go, but until we run out of fuel, it will never happen. I'm generally in agreement with many of your and Martins philosophys. However, having two sets of vehicles (i.e. bikes and motor vehicles) at differing speeds on te same roads will no doubt cause frustration and in the end, accidents.
is that so? are there numbers to back that? i mean, of course we could talk about a separate road net for all different kinds of transport, but lets stay realistic
when you have cycle lanes, you will have junctions.
Martin, you're suggesting that cycles are as fast as cars in urban traffic. This is only true for 'athletic' cyclists. As I mentioned before, my 9yr old niece cycles, and she's a lot slower than cars. You cannot use the faster cyclists as the benchmark for road safety, you have to use all speeds of cyclists, and in that case, the slower ones are at a different speed to the motorist.
i do that, in fact. Even my 67 year old mother is as fast as a car on distances up to 5km in the city. Not much difference between a competitive cyclist and a commuter between two red lights...
Outside cities where cars go faster, there isnt much difference whether a car passes a racer who goes 30km/h or a tourist who goes 22km/h, either. both situations aren't exactly very dangerous, as statistics show.
I agree that on a coutry road, a *well made* cycle lane might be preferable to use, if its a good one. unfortunately, almost no cycle lane is well made
thats why most cycling advocats object the mandatory cycle lane usage laws. A good cycle lane will be used anyway.
As for the comment on turning traffic in the UK, all the cycle lanes I have ever used have 'stop' markings at every road junction. Therefore the car has right of way
Such lanes wouldn't be mandatory to use in germany, as the law says they have to be "accompanying a road" (if thats the correct term, german word is "eine strasse begleitend"), and one criteria for that is, that the cycle lane can't be treated differently in the right of way. I know such signs exist, but i haven't seen them in cities.