Sunday, December 14, 2008

A soapbox moment..

Recently, there were some road "improvements" on the stretch of PCH in Long Beach. Added to the road were some really poorly implemented bike lanes. I would argue that they do more harm than good. The southbound lane abruptly ends in several spaces, one of which is a bridge with some surface irregularities.

This is a quintessential example of people with no bicycling expertise designing bike facilities. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to see that the lanes are dangerous. I wonder how many people have to be nearly run over or run over before things change. Anyway, here is a short assemblage I'm going to be showing at a presentation tomorrow with some city people.

3 comments:

Laura Crawford said...

Hurrah!

aleezajbohm said...

i dont live in long beach, but i commute at least 2 to 3 times a week. and compared to some place, probably most, the streets are crazy. i try to ride my bike as often as i can, and im glad i don't live there. for someone who is new to cycling, it's a nightmare.

nollij said...

Awesome post Russ. I recently attended a talk at the SF Commonwealth Club featuring Gill Penalosa from Bogota Columbia... he mentioned the 8/80 rule that they use as their benchmark. If you wouldn't send your 8 year old child or your 80 year old grandmother out on a particular road or bike lane/facility, it's not safe enough and has to be rethought. Seemed good enough for me!