"How Expanding Bike Lanes Can Actually Decrease Traffic"

[IaninSheffield]

An interesting finding from this study in New York ... which is OK when you have five-lane avenues! But are there any lessons for us, with our more modest urban infrastructure, to learn?

View: https://youtu.be/XN-tSpQZmYk

Links to the research are provided below the video.

 

[mjr]

Only five lanes? The main road into King's Lynn is nine lanes (plus cycleway one side) in places! Severa! others are three or four lanes. We've plenty of room to use their lessons but local government seems hell-bent on removing cycleways, or rather, technically, letting cars onto them. Maybe I can send some of them this video. Thanks!

 

[IaninSheffield]

Only five lanes? The main road into King's Lynn is nine lanes (plus cycleway one side) in places! Severa! others are three or four lanes

Nine?! I've only skirted the periphery of Kings' Lynn in the past. Perhaps I should make a concerted attempt to see more of the town.

local government seems hell-bent on removing cycleways, or rather, technically, letting cars onto them

Or perhaps not ☹

 

[mjr]

Nine?! I've only skirted the periphery of Kings' Lynn in the past. Perhaps I should make a concerted attempt to see more of the town.

Or perhaps not ☹

They've not taken them yet! It's a fine old Hanseatic port and had a lot of regeneration over recent years, which makes the attempts to inflict more motoring in the old town all the more annoying.

The best cycling entries are NCR 1 from each direction (both threatened by the council this decade), even though that means passing by the smaller Whitefriars (southwest) and Guannock (southeast) gates, rather than the biggest and more photographed South Gates - that's good but IMO not worth all the motor traffic squeezing through its arch from the nine lane A149.

 

[Andy in Germany]

An interesting finding from this study in New York ... which is OK when you have five-lane avenues! But are there any lessons for us, with our more modest urban infrastructure, to learn?

View: https://youtu.be/XN-tSpQZmYk

Links to the research are provided below the video.

This is "Induced demand" the known phenomenon that building more roads causes more traffic and congestion, and removing roads reduces traffic congestion. It is the same all over the world and was first recorded in 1930.

Traffic planners and the car industry don't like it though, so it gets ignored.

 

[Drago]

Just ban cars. Bristol looks set to ban diesel cars, which may be the pebble that starts the avalanche.

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Just ban cars. Bristol looks set to ban diesel cars, which may be the pebble that starts the avalanche.

Few in NI have done so but one that has (Coleraine) has a main street heaving with pedestrians and a great sit-outside coffee/cafe culture.

Nobody does that with 4 lanes of traffic a matter of ft away. Seen it argued more often that removing veh access or parking will shut businesses

 

[presta]

So the cars move faster because left turners can wait in the parking lane.........what has that got to do with the cycle path? The path was hopelessly narrow for two-way cycling, with pedestrians wandering into it.

 

[Drago]

Why not cram all the cars into the daft little afterthought cycle lanes, and thus leave the roads free for cyclists?

 

[Sixmile]

Few in NI have done so but one that has (Coleraine) has a main street heaving with pedestrians and a great sit-outside coffee/cafe culture.

Nobody does that with 4 lanes of traffic a matter of ft away. Seen it argued more often that removing veh access or parking will shut businesses

Did Coleraine main street have cars up it in any stage over the last few decades? I certainly don't remember vehicular traffic going past the town hall and on up. It would be interesting to know at what stage it was fully pedestrianised as the street certainly looks to have been built wide enough for traffic.

I would also challenge the statement that coleraine has a great sit-outside coffee culture! Sure it's great that we don't encounter cars for the short stretch through the town but it's hardly limavady!

 

[T.M.H.N.E.T]

Did Coleraine main street have cars up it in any stage over the last few decades? I certainly don't remember vehicular traffic going past the town hall and on up. It would be interesting to know at what stage it was fully pedestrianised as the street certainly looks to have been built wide enough for traffic.

I would also challenge the statement that coleraine has a great sit-outside coffee culture! Sure it's great that we don't encounter cars for the short stretch through the town but it's hardly limavady!

I've no idea 😂

 

[dutchguylivingintheuk]

Yes it works with a five lane that as the op pointed out easy as it will not limit traffic in any way, however in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany it is much more common that children cycle to school, that people go for a quick shop on a bike and so on. All little things that add up in causes of traffic jams, and if imported to the uk also will on the slightly longer term save money on the Nhs.(because of the health benefits of regular cycling)
However Government, counties and councils have to do a lot more and in much more different ways than they do now. If i look around me for example now, there are two cyclepaths i can think of that are good, but in order to reach those i have to go to mud path first and once i'm on that path on the end it leave on needing to merge on a busy lane.(having to cross it first) If i want to cycle to London from here i can but i have to merge on to several A-roads. If i want to drive to Rotterdam from the city i was born in i could do that like i did years ago when i was 14 without having to merge on any A road because the whole route has a multiple dedicated cycle paths. It's not that the Netherlands, Belgium or Germany don't have any traffic jams at all sure they are there, but again comparing with the town i was born in, which is about the same size as the town i live in now there is a huge difference in terms of that there is much more built up traffic here.

 

[Drago]

None of it will work here due to the culture of laziness and self entitlement that pervades society. Draconian legislation to curtail unnecessary private car use (or perhaps the fickleness of the market and financial and/or commercial considerations intervention to make it too expensive) is the only way things will ever improve here in the UK.

 

[briantrumpet]

None of it will work here due to the culture of laziness and self entitlement that pervades society. Draconian legislation to curtail unnecessary private car use (or perhaps the fickleness of the market and financial and/or commercial considerations intervention to make it too expensive) is the only way things will ever improve here in the UK.

I think you mean 'Dragonian legislation'

 

[sabcycling]

Did Coleraine main street have cars up it in any stage over the last few decades? I certainly don't remember vehicular traffic going past the town hall and on up. It would be interesting to know at what stage it was fully pedestrianised as the street certainly looks to have been built wide enough for traffic.

I would also challenge the statement that coleraine has a great sit-outside coffee culture! Sure it's great that we don't encounter cars for the short stretch through the town but it's hardly limavady!

Yes, it had cars around it many years ago. Maybe before the 90s or sometime in the 90s they changed it? I've only seen old photos, only 24 myself!