Families: indicator species for safe cycling routes

Flamboyant/dynamic commissioner of New York City dept. of transportation, Janette Sadik-Khan delivered presentation in Vancouver on how NYC repurposed some major downtown roads into more bike lanes.

http://planningpool.com/2009/10/tran...tte-sadikkhan/

In her speech last night (which was repeated at a meeting earlier that day), she felt that the safety of a bike route, can be measured by whether or not parents felt safe enough to ride with their children. To quote: "Families are the indicator species" for truly determining bike route safety.

It's a great goal to strive for certain areas of a city/region.

Ha I consider bike routes more dangerous if there is a high concentration of families as there is a much greater chance of kids and dogs darting out in front of me. Although I agree if someone would take their kid on the route it is safer, just as long as there aren't too many families. I hate riding in parks where there are a lot of families as no one is paying attn to other cyclists.