Bold?-More separated bike lanes into downtown

[shootingstar]

So our city is gettin' serious and real about actually putting in more separated bike lanes going through the downtown area by end of this year. Wow. That is bold. But then maybe the Olympics road closure experience helped make locals see how city coped. :) when we exceeded original 30% goal of LESS cars into the downtown core during the Games.

We have 2 main separated bike lanes in city that are adjacent to a busy road.
Most recent one was created without too much public outcry/teeth-gnashing.

In case, some folks aren't clear what separated bike lanes look like:

http://thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/building-on-low-cost-low-effort-opportunity-dunsmuir-viaduct-separated-bike-lane-into-downtown-vancouver/

[OakLeaf]

I think those are SUPER dangerous. They used to have them in Columbus, Ohio, and with those high Jersey barriers in your picture, those look even more dangerous yet, because they block a large part of the cyclists' bodies and bikes from motorists' views. And how do you make a left turn? It's just like riding on the sidewalk, except worse.

[Biciclista]

it looks like they are putting them in places where you couldn't make a left turn anyway; like on a Viaduct.

[shootingstar]

They do have to be positioned safely.

The one featured is on a hill, cars at the four way traffic intersection stop, can see cyclists coming down the lane.

The lst separated bike lane (Burrard Bridge) is in this photo with woman pulling the trailer below:

http://thirdwavecyclingblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/thinking-outside-the-helmet-for-2010-building-on-2009-cycling-milestones/

It goes over a well-used road bridge that hooks into downtown core in different area of city. Cars can see the cyclists because there's a rise on the road bridge in both directions. Cyclists used to share a lane with pedestrians on a raised sidewalk. Not a good thing. Many cars were going fast on the road that alot of cyclists wouldn't have felt comfortable sharing road with or without a painted lane/shoulder. The barrier actually is clear signal that the cars stay out of the lane/shoulder for cyclists. There was huge car-driver outcry at the beginning. But not much now.

Now some car drivers have just shifted to use other parallel road bridges a few blocks away where there's more room and less heavy car traffic. This is precisely what the city engineering dept. and cycling group wanted --redistribution of heavily car-loaded routes. Some of the other road bridges were underutilized, according to traffic counters. We can see 1 of the alternate road bridges from home and most definitely was underutilized for huge hunks of time during the day.

It takes several months or up to a year before car drivers, cyclists, etc. change their travel route habits. But it can happen if there are other parallel route options very close by.

[shootingstar]

Magazine article on effect of road closures and how it changed the downtown core, people's use of public transit during the Olympics:

http://regardingplace.com/?p=8014#more-8014

There is mention of cycling.