Your City's Downtown Bike Network

[SFBruin]

One of the things that has struck me, since moving to Seattle, is how effective the downtown bike network is.

The downtown area, most notably, has two parallel "bike highways" (as I call them), which are basically just two-way protected bike lanes, which run the length of downtown.





These lanes are coupled with dedicated signals, turn boxes, and are separated from traffic with reflector ballards.



The situation on the cross streets is not as nice, but some streets have bike lanes:



The parking situation is less well-organized, with generous parking on some streets:



And non-existent parking on others:



Anyhow, I was wondering what the bicycle infrastructure was like in your city.

[xzmattzx]

I don't think there's any bike network in Wilmington at all. Bikes can share car lanes. I don't usually see people on bicycles in the first place. Wilmington is a small city, so if you can't drive yourself, most people take the bus or walk. You can walk from any of the west side neighborhoods to Downtown in about 30 minutes.

There is a decent bike network in Newark, where the University of Delaware is. In addition to off-street biking and walking lanes all around the town that let people avoid interacting with cars to a large degree, there's also a dedicated tw0-way bicycle lane, just installed, on the one-way Delaware Avenue. It comes with its own traffic signals and all.

Are ATVs and dirt bikes allowed in those bicycle lanes? Dirt bikes and ATVs seems to be pretty big in inner cities in our area. I think most are illegally unregistered, and these people seem to use car lanes and sidewalks indiscriminately and interchangeably with their ATVs and dirt bikes.

[bilbao58]

Houston’s working on it. (GASP!)

https://houstonbikeplan.org/wp-conte...pter_Feb17.pdf


https://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...k-15647368.php


https://houstonbikeplan.org/wp-conte...pter_Feb17.pdf


https://www.ricedesignalliance.org/taming-bagby-street


https://www.ricedesignalliance.org/taming-bagby-street


https://www.ricedesignalliance.org/taming-bagby-street


https://houstonbikeplan.org/wp-conte...pter_Feb17.pdf


https://www.hines.com/news/609-main-...orage-facility


Photos not mine.

[SFBruin]

^ Nice!

[mrnyc]

horrible, because we have zero in staten.

supposedly the dot is committed to equity, so maybe someday, but it would take private or subsidies to the nyc citibike program:


Getting to the bottom of it: Why Staten Island is the only NYC borough without a bike share program

Published: Feb. 26, 2023


more:
https://www.silive.com/news/2023/02/...en-island.html

[iheartthed]

On a related note, NYC's Citi Bike is turning 10:

Citi Bike made its maiden voyage on May 27, 2013, with 6,050 trips fanning out across the city in its first 24 hours. New York City’s bike-share program had been met with skepticism — tabloids predicted a plague of crazed cyclists taking out tourists — but the cobalt-blue, tank-like bikes were an immediate hit. Leo used them. Bill Cunningham photographed them. Stunt-riding YouTubers had memberships alongside Wall Street bankers with their sensibly cuffed pants. Funded by an unprecedented sponsorship deal with Citi, which paid $110 million in naming rights, Citi Bike had momentum, quickly edging out well-established systems like Paris’s Vélib in ridership. (The program hit an all-time record of 138,372 rides on September 8, 2022, even as other transportation modes struggled to reach their pre-pandemic numbers.)

...

Janette Sadik-Khan: There are now 1,500 miles of bike lanes. 400,000 people ride a bike in New York City daily, triple the number of vehicles that use the BQE.

https://www.curbed.com/2023/05/citi-...-10-years.html

[KevinFromTexas]

It's gotten better in Austin, but there could still be a lot more, of course. Downtown feels pretty safe on a bike, along with South Congress. Other parts of the city are so, so. Still, even in my neighborhood, 4 1/2 miles south of downtown, we have bike lanes on some of the main streets with pylons for barriers. Honestly, the pylons don't make me feel safer, and actually get in the way at times when I'm turning onto that street and have to weave between them, sometimes "at speed".

Here's a map of Austin's bike paths. Most of these are street bike lanes, but it also includes some hike and bike trail type paths along the creek greenbelts.

https://austin.maps.arcgis.com/apps/....4819%2C102739

[JManc]

Originally Posted by bilbao58

Houston’s working on it.

You can ride from downtown (by UHD) all the way Memorial Park on dedicated lanes/ paths minus a few breaks here and there around Shepard/ Durham and I-10.

[Doady]

Candidates in Toronto's upcoming mayoral election are promising to halt ongoing and future new bike lane construction and tear up existing bike lanes downtown as a major part of their platform, including the current runner up candidate, who is backed by the premier of Ontario.

Cycling a hot topic in Toronto election as number of mayoral candidates tops out at 102

Joshua Freeman, CP24 Web Writer
Published Saturday, May 13, 2023 4:56PM EDT
Last Updated Monday, May 15, 2023 9:54AM EDT

Friday marked a major milestone in Toronto’s mayoral race. With nominations finally closed, there are a record 102 candidates running for mayor in the city.

That is sure to lead to lots of debate in the remaining six weeks or so of the campaign.

Speaking of which, cycling was a topic which dominated much of the Toronto mayoral race this week.

Mark Saunders vowed that if he becomes mayor, he will put a halt to any new bike lanes on major roads, rip up existing ones on University Avenue and rethink bike lanes elsewhere with a new consultation process.

https://www.cp24.com/news/cycling-a-...97435?cache=42

[SFBruin]

^ That's a bummer.

Hopefully Seattle doesn't notice.

[jdcamb]

Eleventy Billion Dollars has been spent on bicycle infrastructure in Rochester Ny. I have been struck by errant motor vehicle operators twice. The inability to differentiate the roadway and the bike lane seems to be the primary problem.

[jdcamb]

Originally Posted by Doady

Candidates in Toronto's upcoming mayoral election are promising to halt ongoing and future new bike lane construction and tear up existing bike lanes downtown as a major part of their platform, including the current runner up candidate, who is backed by the premier of Ontario.

Cycling a hot topic in Toronto election as number of mayoral candidates tops out at 102

https://www.cp24.com/news/cycling-a-...97435?cache=42

Torontos bike lanes lead to nowhere. They do not integrate into the transit infrastructure at all. You can take your bike on transit only at times when you're most likely not be able to need too.

[Nouvellecosse]

^ The bike lanes are well used regardless, and fortunately the leading candidate who has a pretty strong lead does not share Saunders' anti-bike stance. Saunders of course claims his position isn't anti-bike, but that's false.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by jdcamb

Torontos bike lanes lead to nowhere. They do not integrate into the transit infrastructure at all. You can take your bike on transit only at times when you're most likely not be able to need too.

Huh? Toronto's bike lanes follow many of its major downtown/inner city streets, including along the length of Bloor/Danforth, University Ave, and much of Yonge (all parallel to the associated subway lines), as well as many of their various perpendicular cross-streets. I mean, you literally have bike lanes linking up at some of the city's most prominent & heavily-trafficked streets.

As far as I'm aware, bikes are allowed on transit at any time; though as trains can get quite crowded it's just kind of a dick move to bring a bike onboard at rush hour (while only buses are equipped with external bike racks, obviously).

Existing & U/C bike lanes in Toronto as of 2022:


http://www.twowheeledpolitics.ca/202...bike-plan.html

[Doady]

Originally Posted by jdcamb

Torontos bike lanes lead to nowhere. They do not integrate into the transit infrastructure at all. You can take your bike on transit only at times when you're most likely not be able to need too.

Bike lanes and streets and transit lines and sidewalks aren't supposed to lead anywhere. They are supposed to be everywhere. That is called a network. And of course bikes are not restricted to bike lanes to begin with. They can also use regular lanes.

All buses in the Toronto area have bike racks as far as I know. I'm not sure why it is so important anyways. If it is close enough to walk to and from transit, then you don't need a bike. Taking a bicycle onto a transit vehicle seems purely a recreational thing (i.e. not during rush hour). Even Montreal has restrictions for taking bicycles onto transit, as any sensible transit system would.

[benp]

Buffalo has been going on a series of "road diets" converting former 4-lane roads in the city into 3 lane (1 lane each way and 1 center turn lane) and adding dedicated bike lanes on most of the major streets, though most are not protected lanes. Niagara Street, though did have several miles of protected lanes created beginning in Riverside and continuing down to the Peace Bridge, where it continues on dedicated (not protected) bike lanes to downtown. Niagara Street also has direct connections to major bike trails like the Shoreline Trail (Niagara River and Lake Erie), Kregal Trail (to Delaware Park), and Canalway Trail (full length of Erie Canal), so it serves commuters as well as recreational bikers. The city is also expanding areas of its rails-to-trails into underserved parts of the East Side, which will expand connectivity into different neighborhoods that were formerly isolated by the former ROW. The North Buffalo trail, for example, while connected to the more recreational Tonawanda Trail, is used by some commuters to and from UB and Main Street into North Buffalo, connecting to the Lasalle Metro Station.

[SFBruin]

Originally Posted by benp

Buffalo has been going on a series of "road diets" converting former 4-lane roads in the city into 3 lane (1 lane each way and 1 center turn lane) and adding dedicated bike lanes on most of the major streets

This seems to be pretty common here, as well.

[Crawford]

Toronto seems to have pretty good bike ridership along Queens Quay, I think? That arterial along the lake. In theory, it seems to be a pretty good city for bikes, with the relatively flat landscape and consistent density, though winters are a bit tough.

[sentinel]

Chicago bike lane network pdf (image too large to post separately):

https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/...Bike%20Map.pdf

[bilbao58]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

Delete.

Not “cool!” anymore?