Infrastructure : Left Turn Slip lanes

One of the many Car friendly infrastructure Australia has, is the free left turn slip lanes that allow motor vehicles to make a left turn at an intersection without stopping at the signalised intersection or T intersection.

Not so friendly for pedestrians and cyclists. As a cyclist riding on the shared path you are required to dismount at these slip lane crossings and walk beside your bike across the intersection as is the law. If your riding on the cycle lane at these intersections, you are put in a dangerous situation by having to ride in a cycle lane in between motor vehicles. These are marked in green and have mentioned them before.

So what are the solutions if Canberra are truly to become a cycle friendly city as some may claim, well you wouldn't be forcing those riding their bicycles to dismount of cycle in between fast moving traffic.
As it is unlikely in the near future to have separate crossings for cyclists( those riding on shared paths) and pedestrians a solution that is used in other countries of marking a cycle lane next to the pedestrian crossing could be considered.

Possible Cycle lane crossing

 

Tokyo,Japan

Copenhagen,Denmark

Barcelona, Spain

Another solution would be to have a shared path crossing, which could look like this............

Possible shared path crossing

Australia has adopted a lime green or green colour to mark its cycle infrastructure at crossing junctions for some reason (except Perth) , in Denmark and London its blue, and Germany and Holland its red. The paint is quite expensive and is used only at intersections where conflicts between cyclists and motor vehicles may (and do)occur.
In Sydney they have marked some of their separated cycle paths completely in green, this is despite the Australian Bicycle Council recommending that colour to mark cycle lanes and paths should only be used sparingly as motor vehicle drivers will get too used to the colour and may ignore them. This from a council that is primarily made up of road/traffic engineers.

Sydney's separated cycle paths

I wonder if the Australian bicycle Council has ever been to the Netherlands............
    

            

Anyway, I am told that the Australian road rules maintenance group are opposed to such crossings, so cyclists will continue to be treated as second class citizens. Though a discussion paper by the Roads Transport Authority (RTA) NSW has suggested such a new type of crossing, that may not require cyclists to dismount. So we can only hope that common sense will prevail.

Promotion of Cycling

The City of Sydney is once again showing the rest of the country how to promote cycling culture with its new cycling infrastructure and promotion videos.

           


          


          


          

When the ACT government started installing Cycle lanes a few years ago there was little if any promotion but rather a warning to motorists,which is important. But many people in the community see cyclists usually in Lycra, male and between  the 30 - 50 age group, and having cycle lanes on major arterial roads not that  welcoming.
There's know doubt there has been a increase in ridership on these lanes but just imagine if we had listen to the experts and installed infrastructure that the majority of the community could use.

A Mix of Infrastructure

A recently rode my younger son to swimming lessons on the weekend and filmed the ride. This video highlights the good and the bad infrastructure we have here in Canberra.


                         



There's no doubt that Canberra has some good cycle paths, but it could be a whole lot better..............


       

Bicycle Music Video Interlude 7

Bicycle Music video animation, Lanu - Fall feat. Megan Washington 

          

Bicycle infrastructure for all!

On a recent expedition to an indoor playground against my better judgement by nagging children who didn't want to ride to the local playground, I noticed a family with children riding along a busy highway in the shoulder, which is being upgraded at the moment.

This highway has speed limits ranging from100km/h to 80km/h and I had general concerns particularly coming up to a bridge were the road narrows and the shoulder disappears.

You may think the parents are doing a good job here of educating their children about riding on marked shoulders on 'high speed high volume' roads as a good thing. Depending on there destination there is no excuse for children riding on these type of roads. There is generally a safer solution than riding on cycle lanes with children, either on their own bikes or in child carrying seats.

ACT roads have commissioned a Pedestrian and Cycle Design course for engineers, designers and planners recently which they say 'provides a comprehensive coverage of basic engineering treatments for cycling and pedestrian provision'.

While this course was specifically designed for Canberra's current infrastructure polices there is a few areas of concern. Take for instance 'Designing for the Community' There are seven broad cyclist user types - primary school children, secondary school children, recreational riders, commuters riders, utility riders, touring bicycle riders and sports/training riders' . 'What type of facility one user group may want, or prefer, is determined by a wide range of issues. ' For example, secondary school children who would normally prefer to ride on footpaths during their journey to school, may prefer to travel on road in bike lanes should good bicycle rout and intersection facilities exist and the riders are trained in correct road user behaviour.

It the ACT there is no cycle proficiency tests for school students particularly for the last year of  primary school and as the majority of cycle lanes are on 'high speed high volume roads' this is a concern for the well being of children, one the the ACT government doesn't fully understand.
Cycle lanes are good on low volume low speed environments that provide designated areas for cyclists on existing roads and are also used by school students in other countries.

There are cycle lanes on low speed low volume roads in Canberra in the 'mish mash' planned town of Gungahlin. Though some of these lanes look like an afterthought  when they could have built good quality cycle infrastructure from the start.

Though both of these roads are at 60km/h and wouldn't give many parents the confidence to let their children ride on these roads to school. maybe secondary children could use these roads safely if they had the cycle proficiency training.  A Separated cycle path could easily have been fitted given the width of the road median and natural strips. Many students would like to ride together and this type of infrastructure doesn't allow for that unlike in other places.........

Mark Wagenbuur

This type of infrastructure can be used by everyone in the community not just the strong and fearless.

Why Can't They Be Like We Were?

Great little film about kids riding their bikes around  in Australia 1976, and the lack of things to do in an inner city environment. I used to have a chopper bike like this to ride to and from school, it was my pride and joy.

                       


You wouldn't see kids riding around like this today, sadly.

Getting Ready for Battle

Is this what is needed to ride safely in Australian cities now days. While I have taken liberties by adding a shield and sword shouldn't we have infrastructure that makes riding a bike feel safe.

www.canberratimes.com.au

When it comes to cycle safety many people state their own experience and don't think about the community as a whole.While we have low rates of cycling in this country, many cycle advocacy groups sometimes make the mistake of just representing their members and not looking at the potential cyclists or future cyclists.
Like many cities in Australia, Canberra has a group of devoted cyclists or bike riders, but there are many that only ride for recreation or for sport and wouldn't commute because of safety issues or the perceived safety issues as some would say.
Canberra's cyclists used to look like this......

The head of ACT Roads while being a cyclist believes that our current infrastructure of cycle lanes on 'high speed high volume roads' is fine for the 'elite commuter cyclist' but there are many in the community that wouldn't agree. You could categorised the Canberra community as a whole for cycling like this.

There would be many in Canberra that would cycle more if there were the facilities to do so, particularity around our car congested town centres and schools.
This photo captures the joy of commuting or cycling to a destination in Copehagen.......

www.copenhagenize.com

Now you couldn't do that on a 1.5m bike lane on one of the many Canberra arterial roads. In the recent Copenhagen Bicycle Account 2008 the cyclist sense of safety rated only a 5 out 10 and that's with cycle tracks, a physically separated curb which is your standard Copenhagen style lane.

While there are better examples of physical separation in Copenhagen the Dutch certainly do it best. Isn't time that Canberra started implementing international best practice and not short sighted tokenism.