Cycling infrastructure
It includes amenities such as bike racks for parking, shelters, service centers and specialized traffic signs and signals.
Cycle tracks demarcated by barriers, bollards or boulevards are quite common in some European countries such as the Netherlands, Denmark and Germany.
Montreal and Davis, California, which have had segregated cycling facilities with barriers for several decades, are among the earliest examples in North America.
[10] In the Netherlands, the Tekenen voor de fiets design manual recommends a width of at least 2 meters, or 2.5 metres if used by more than 150 bicycles per hour.
[24] Other transportation planners consider an incremental, piecemeal approach to bike infrastructure buildout ineffective and advocate for complete networks to be built in a single phase.
[25] Proponents point out that cycling infrastructure including dedicated bike lanes has been implemented in many cities; when well-designed and well-implemented they are popular and safe, and they are effective at relieving both congestion and air pollution.
"Service stations" with air pumps are located at regular intervals, and where the route must cross streets, handholds and running boards are provided so cyclists can wait without having to put their feet on the ground.
The cost of building a bicycle super highway depends on many things, but is usually between €300,000/km (for a wide dedicated cycle track) and €800,000/km (when complex civil engineering structures are needed).
In the US, slow-street movements have been introduced by erecting makeshift barriers to slow traffic and allow bikers and walkers to safely share the road with motorists.
Starting in the 1970s, the city of Copenhagen, where now 36% of the trips are done by bicycle,[45] adopted a policy of reducing available car parking capacity by several per cents per year.
[50] German research indicates that making one-way streets two-way for cyclists results in a reduction in the total number of collisions.
[56] German research indicates that making one-way streets two-way for cyclists results in a reduction in the total number of collisions.
In Belgium road authorities in principle allow any one-way street in 50 kilometres per hour (31 mph) zones to be two-way for cyclists if the available lane is at least 3 metres (9.8 ft) wide (area free from parking) and no specific local circumstances prevent it.
[60] In general, junction designs that favor higher-speed turning, weaving and merging movements by motorists tend to be hostile for cyclists.
[40] Features such as large entry curvature, slip-roads and high flow roundabouts are associated with increased risk of car–cyclist collisions.
[61][62] Cycling advocates argue for modifications and alternative junction types that resolve these issues such as reducing kerb radii on street corners, eliminating slip roads and replacing large roundabouts with signalized intersections.
[64] On large roundabouts of the design typically used in the UK and Ireland, cyclists have an injury accident rate that is 14–16 times that of motorists.
[61][65] In the UK, a survey of over 8,000 highly experienced and mainly adult male Cyclists Touring Club members found that 28% avoided roundabouts on their regular journey if at all possible.
[69] For instance, poorly adjusted vehicle detector systems, used to trigger signal changes, may not correctly detect cyclists.
This can leave cyclists in the position of having to "run" red lights if no motorized vehicle arrives to trigger a signal change.
[40] On undivided roads, width provides cyclists with adequate clearance from passing HGVs while being narrow enough to deter drivers from "doubling up" to form two lanes.
Depending on the width of the lane, the speeds and number of buses, and other local factors, the safety and popularity of this arrangement vary.
According to the Sustainable Safety guidelines they would violate the principle of homogeneity and put road users of very different masses and speed behavior into the same lane, which is generally discouraged.
It also will help if certain legal arrangements are put into place to enable legitimate ad hoc parking, for example to allow people to lock their bicycles to railings, signs and other street furniture when individual proper bike stands are unavailable.
Since mid-2004, France has instituted a system of registration, in some places allowing stolen bicycles to be put on file in partnership with the urban cyclists' associations.
In some areas of the United Kingdom, bicycles fitted with location tracking devices are left poorly secured in theft hot-spots.
[92] The key ingredients for this are claimed to be: It has been argued in relation to this aspect of Dutch or Danish policy that ongoing investment in rail services is vital to maintaining their levels of cycle use.
The Rheinbahn transit company in Düsseldorf permits bicycle carriage on all its bus, tram and train services at any time of the day.
[99] There have also been schemes, such as in Victoria, British Columbia, Acadia, and Canberra, Australia, to provide bicycle carriage on buses using externally mounted bike carriers.
[106][109] Where such services are not available, some cyclists get around this restriction by removing their pedals and loosening their handlebars as to fit into a box or by using folding bikes that can be brought onto the train or bus like a piece of luggage.
