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Sep

19

I ♥ Copenhagen

Filed Under Bicycling, Copenhagen, Sustainability, Transportation 

Letter From Copenhagen Hamburg & Lubeck

I was in Germany (specifically Hamburg and Lubeck) over the weekend and I found this:

That is a bike lane, and a really questionable idea. As a result of running these bike lanes on the sidewalk I witnessed many “near-hit” incidents between cyclists and pedestrians. Admittedly, some of these were a direct result of clueless tourists not recognizing that the seemingly arbitrary lines in the middle of the walkway were actually a separate bicycle right of way. However, even native Hamburgers (?) were occasionally seen to mistakenly venture into these lanes only to be nearly run down.

By running the lane down on the sidewalk, what you are essentially creating is a woonerf (mixed space street) for cyclists. The success of the woonerf is that they make it uncomfortable to drive at speed by forcing drivers to share the right of way with cyclists and pedestrians. By eliminating their separate vehicular right of way, the street no longer “belongs” to the driver as pedestrians and cyclists are given free rein on where they can be. Instead of pedestrians and cyclists entering the cars “domain” when they cross the street, as is normally the case, a woonerf makes the car become the “intruder.” This in turn makes the driver slow down, and can even discourage them from driving all together.

When you eliminate the car from the equation, the people whom you discourage are the cyclists. By running these lanes down the center of the walkway or right of way you guarantee that pedestrians will enter the cyclists’ “zone,” and this will (in principle) cause the cyclists to slow down. Or at least it will most of the time (as an aside, the lack of open container laws creates a very interesting dynamic with pedestrians and these bike lanes, especially later on in the evening). Ultimately, making cyclists uncomfortable hardly seems like an incentive for them to get out and ride, much less to replace their cars.

On to other things -


I want there to be a Segway City Tour in Seattle (although that may just be my love of Arrested Development talking). But should these things be allowed to drive on the sidewalks? Unlike cyclists, who will slow down somewhat while riding on a crowded sidewalk, the Segway driver (or at least the ones I have encountered) will not do that. Making them tourists and parading around in herds does not change the behavior, even if it does look a bit hilarious. These are motored vehicles, and their top speed is 20 km/h – just about the speed a bicycle should be traveling in the city.

Bicycles belong in a place where riders won’t be worried about mowing down pedestrians (be that on a cycletrack or sharing the right of way with cars on the street) and so should vehicles that travel at the similar speeds. Why should Segways be treated any differently?

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