I fell in love with Minneapolis, thanks to its bike-share system and its amazing bike routes. Some of you have read bits and pieces about that on previous blog posts. Here’s my Globe story on same.
The one negative I experienced, which I had to cut out of my story for space reasons, was that the city was good about providing bikes and routes that I came to expect they would have mapped perfect routes out for me everywhere.
So I was startled when I found myself on a busy commuter road, riding along in the left-hand bike lane on the one-way street, and suddenly realized that no one had indicated a way for me to get over easily to the right at Nicollet Mall.
I ended up crossing three lanes with frequent nervous shoulder checks for speeding cars coming up from behind. I asked a Minneapolis bike person about what I should have done in this case and learned a new term. I could have tried a “Copenhagen turn” — a turn into the crosswalk when the light was right and go across like a pedestrian but riding.
I had actually employed that technique a couple of other times when the bike lane suddenly ended and I wanted to avoid getting out into a busy street with no protection. That, plus riding down the sidewalk if it was empty, if the street looked too scary.
Something to think about for route planners here.
And, ah yes, the helmet thing. Yes, I rode around for two days with no helmet, which is not required there. Given that I’m a slow rider and was mostly on the very separated bike routes, it felt really like no problem. But if I knew I was going to be using a bike share system that much, like if I went to Paris for a few weeks, would I be tempted to pack my helmet for the trip? You bet.
14 responses so far ↓
1 James Deroux // Jul 16, 2012 at 12:25 pm
Great to hear you speak in favor of helmet choice Frances. I hope Van-BIXI next spring results in more people sharing your bikeshare epiphany, and our “greenest city” streets can finally catch up with Minneapolis’!
Maybe Premier Dix will change his anti-cycling tune then …
In the meantime, hopefully Gregor, Heather et al. read and agree with your experience of slow, separated safety and get rid of the ridiculous $200 seawall fines.
Perhaps your city plumber could look into the carnage that has no doubt followed the mass of fairweather cruisers descending on the seawall these past sunny weekends. If there is no noticeable uptick in injury rates, perhaps the city can finally admit the law is bad, an unnecessary deterrent to a positive mode of transportation. Most people don’t like breaking the law: change the law.
2 Agustin // Jul 16, 2012 at 12:54 pm
What does this refer to? I must have missed something.
Regarding the article:
1. Sounds like an awesome time!
2.
Very interesting!
3.
This is key. It’s one thing to use a bicycle for recreation (which is excellent in its own rights), but it’s another to use it for transportation.
4. I thought comments had been a bit sparse lately; good to have a bike post to bring them back
Gonna be tough to compete with the beautiful weather we finally have, and get people in front of their computers instead of outside basking in the beautiful glow! (Unless, of course, we’re at the office procrastinating…)
3 Chris // Jul 16, 2012 at 1:00 pm
Adrian Dix (and other NDP MLAs) have made it perfectly clear that they have NO intention of adjusting the adult helmet law, to allow for more utility cycling, and a successful public bike-share system: http://www.openfile.ca/vancouver/blog/2012/adrian-dix-says-he-wont-scrap-bcs-mandatory-helmet-law-if-he-becomes-premier
Meanwhile: Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Blackpool, Boston, Bordeaux, Boulder, Bristol, Broward, Brussels, Bucharest, Budapest, Bueno Aires, Cardiff, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Chicago, Des Moines, Denver, Dublin, Frankfurt, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Houston, Kailua, Kansas City, Krakow, Kyoto, Lille, London, Luxembourg, Lyon, Madison, Marseille, Medellin, Mexico City, Miami Beach, Milan, Minneapolis, Montreal, Munich, Newcastle, New York City, Nottingham, Omaha, Oslo, Ottawa, Pamplona, Paris, Phoenixville, Portsmouth, Pottstown, Reading, Rome, Rotterdam, Santa Monica, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Spartanburg, Stockholm, Stuttgart, Tel Aviv, Toledo, Toronto, Turin, Vienna, Warsaw, and Washington DC will ALL have functioning bike-share systems long before the “World’s Greenest City”! The helmet law has already cost us several years and thousands of dollars in delays and complications. Why do we allow it to further hinder our transportation plans?
4 Chris Porter // Jul 16, 2012 at 1:34 pm
I had a similar experience last week in Toronto using BIXI.
http://canadianveggie.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/thoughts-on-torontos-bike-scene/
The area covered by BIXI is quite small, but the system is really convenient for short trips. Coming from Vancouver, I really noticed the lack of separated lanes and bikes lanes in general, especially when I ended up on King Street (Google Maps lead me astray). It was the only time I felt vulnerable without a helmet on.
Regarding left-hand Copenhagen turns in Vancouver, I think the bike boxes on the Dunsmuir cross streets (like Richards and Cambie) are designed to help with that.
5 mezzanine // Jul 16, 2012 at 7:35 pm
It’s interesting to contrast differing bicycle helmet laws with differing motorcycle helmet laws in the USA.
i cringe when i think of a motorbike rider going ~ 50 mph with no helmet, but it makes me think that motorbike helmet laws, at least in some states, are cultural and societal.
The history of motorcycle helmet laws in the United States is characterized by change. In 1967, to increase motorcycle helmet use, the federal government required the states to enact helmet use laws in order to qualify for certain federal safety programs and highway construction funds. The federal incentive worked. By the early 1970s, almost all the states had universal motorcycle helmet laws. Michigan was the first state to repeal its law in 1968, beginning a pattern of repeal, reenactment, and amendment of motorcycle helmet laws. In 1976, states successfully lobbied Congress to stop the Department of Transportation from assessing financial penalties on states without helmet laws.
http://www.iihs.org/laws/HelmetUseCurrent.aspx
6 James Deroux // Jul 16, 2012 at 9:45 pm
Sorry, mezzanine, it’s not interesting at all to compare motorcycles and bixi push-cycles. They are very different vehicles, not least because one has an engine. That they are regulated independently and differently is obvious, banal and entirely uninteresting. No city on earth has ever, is, nor will ever design policies to encourage motorcycle traffic in the way that cities design policies to encourage bicycle traffic. Bixi-bicycling is walking with wheels, pedestrian-plus: motorcycles are more legitimately car-minus, an engine without a roll-cage or chassis.
7 mezzanine // Jul 17, 2012 at 5:03 am
IMO it is a interesting contrast. Some jursidictions actually moved to remove manditory motorcycle helmet laws despite a strong public health argument and clear rules of the road governing motorbikes. This makes me think that helmet laws for bicycles are more cultural/societal,
looking at my link above, this attitude can occur in blue states (Maine, NH) and red states (utah, texas).
8 Chris Keam // Jul 17, 2012 at 7:32 am
” No city on earth has ever, is, nor will ever design policies to encourage motorcycle traffic in the way that cities design policies to encourage bicycle traffic.”
I think cities are going to discover what markets already know. It’s easier to get people onto small powered scooters than bicycles, so I think road design than specifically addresses very small powered vehicles will become something we will see in cities.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwhi02/6435523093/
9 James Deroux // Jul 17, 2012 at 7:35 am
Three quarters of countries worldwide have motorcycle helmet laws http://www.who.int/gho/road_safety/legislation/motorcycle_helmet_text/en/index.html
Only BC, the Maritimes and Australasia have bicycle helmet laws.
Every country in Europe has motorcycle helmet laws. None has an adult bicycle helmet law.
No US state has an adult bicycle helmet law.
Motorcycle helmet laws, like car seatbelt laws, are ubiquitous because both the physical and social science are clear: the only downsides are equity concerns in developing countries (poor having to buy helmets).
Adult bicycle helmet laws are globally anomalous, similarly because the sciences are not clear. What is clear is that cycling is a quiet, pollution-free, inexpensive mode of everyday transport and is made safer by infrastructure investments which in turn are made politically feasible with broad popular support from casual cyclists. None of that applies to motorcycling.
10 teririch // Jul 17, 2012 at 2:53 pm
I find it interesting that cyclists want ‘laws’ changed, because they don’t want to abide by those ‘laws’ and don’t want to be seen or feel guilty about breaking them.
A bit of the tail wagging the dog.
11 James Deroux // Jul 17, 2012 at 5:09 pm
Thanks for your $0.02 teririch. Not sure why you think it’s “cyclists” that want the law changed.
12 rico // Jul 18, 2012 at 5:45 am
Or how that is any different from any other group looking to change a law they feel could be better. Laws are not static and people lobby to change them.
13 Dan Cooper // Jul 18, 2012 at 9:42 am
“I could have tried a “Copenhagen turn” — a turn into the crosswalk when the light was right and go across like a pedestrian but riding.”
I see other people on bicycles doing this in Vancouver and it bugs me, just like any other time bicycles get into pedestrian spaces. To me, a crosswalk is essentially a sidewalk. Better to get off and walk your bike across, if there is not a turn box or go into a side street and wait for the light going the direction you want.
Actually, just about a week ago a person on a bicycle yelled at ME – also on a bicycle – because I was stopped at a red light (14th and Main) and, apparently, was “blocking the bike lane” as he came up the sharrow, swerved around me and in front of the stopped cars so he could weave through fairly heavy pedestrian traffic in the crosswalk and turn back the other way on Main. Sigh.
14 IanS // Jul 19, 2012 at 1:59 pm
“I think cities are going to discover what markets already know. It’s easier to get people onto small powered scooters than bicycles, so I think road design than specifically addresses very small powered vehicles will become something we will see in cities. ”
Agreed, with the caveat that cities in Europe (or some of them, in any event) already know this. I’ve traveled in a number of cities and towns in Europe where the number of scooters and motorcycles far outnumber the number of cyclists and even the number of cars. In Africa too, at least in the larger towns.
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