Comment 19148

By A_Real_Cyclist (anonymous) | Posted February 22, 2008 at 11:57:41

@transiteer:

The lower city is one dominated by bikes -- however, there are astonishingly few cyclists. There are a lot of "pedestrians on bikes", people who careen down the sidewalk on a serious beater bike, brakeless and just trying to get somewhere faster than their feet can take them with complete disregard for everyone but themselves.

As far as I'm concerned, building out the infrastructure to make safe cycling possible would amount to one of the cheapest changes that the Hammer could make -- buy some black paint and use it to wipe out the existing road stripes, then re-stripe with an assumption of giving cyclists a 6' wide lane -- it would be better for everyone and honestly wouldn't increase congestion one whit (see Wilson for an example of a street wider than it ever needs to be based on the fact that one whole lane is used for heaps of snow).

Spend some money on a bulk purchase of 50,000 cheap as sh*t single speed coaster brake bikes and leave them all over the city -- they're practically indestructible and easily repairable. That'll get the worst of the beaters off the road.

Then spend the rest of the money on enforcement. I hate to say it, but if you've got wheels larger than 14" and you're taller than 4' and riding a bike on a sidewalk, you've just bought yourself a $500 fine. It's just that simple. Once the infrastructure is there to support riding on the blacktop, and bikes are available everywhere there's no longer an excuse for a ped-on-bike to side swipe anyone.

What a disorganized rant. I really need to drink more coffee and approach this one with my whole brain.

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