Post any interesting links in the comment section.
National
- Sustainability Busts Out of Its Cubicle, Permeates DOT, HUD, and EPA
- Tell Us About Your “Commuter Idyll”
- NHTSA: Traffic Deaths Shot Up 5.3 Percent to 34,080 in 2012
- Eyes on the Street: From Parking to Parklet in Hell’s Kitchen
- Loopwheels Move The Bicycle’s Suspension Directly Into The Wheel
- Metro Detroit draws 2-wheel makers as bicycling on the rise
- Man tries to deflate cop’s bicycle tire in downtown Athens
- Five Surprising Laws About Bikes in the Bay Area
International
- Metro Detroit draws 2-wheel makers as bicycling on the rise
- A Bicycling King of the Netherlands
- Paris on Wheels: See the City Lights on the Fat Tire Bike Tour By Night
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/road-runner-stretch-of-sixth-ave-downtown-will-become-/article_fa681df2-1924-5ee1-a51c-e0812f0f9981.html
What an odd thing to do. Two lanes North, one lane South and using sharrows for cyclists. I can’t think of any other application of sharrows in a two-lane situation on a connector street. I try to imagine Tucson Blvd. with sharrows instead of the current bike lane arrangement. Didn’t South 6th Ave. get bike lanes? I think drivers ignore sharrows pretty much. They disappear after a year anyway.
It would seem rational to have all of 6th Ave. configured the way it is north of Drachman. Did bikes lose (again) in this case?
@zz Well it’s only paint so it can be changed. Bike lanes on the south end are ALL in the door zone. They went with bike lanes there in lieu of sharrows because bike lanes narrowed the roadway which has the effect of slowing traffic and the Armory Park folks liked the idea using bicyclists as moving traffic calming devices. I did talk to Diahn Swartz about the 6th Ave 2 way re-stripe and what I got from that conversation is this is what we can do.
Traffic north out of downtown is heavier hence the 2 lanes. One of those 2 lanes is pretty narrow. Somewhere I have a drawing of it. On the West University front their board declined to weigh in on the matter deferring to city staff present and former. Nobody even wanted to think about the BAC request to eliminate some parking along that stretch of 6th which could have allowed for more bicycle space.
I agree, this is less than ideal from a cyclist’s point of view especially when you consider that we’re missing an opportunity to provide an alternative to 4th Avenue which was recently marginalised by the street car tracks of death.
I’ve never been thrilled by University Blvd and the sharrows because you still get buzzed by cars and shouted at. There’s one plus for the tracks. I now no longer cede the space, door zone, getting honked at? It’s an easy decision, get honked at.
Well, I’d like to know when a cyclist has ever calmed a motorist down.
Which method, sharrows or bike lanes, would be more effective in attracting the new riders the city is interested in?
Any BAC suggestions incorporated in this profile?
Seems like a unique opportunity lost for dealing with the standard problems encountered mixing the modes of traffic for what has the potential to be an additional and useful entryway to downtown.
@zz “Any BAC suggestions incorporated in this profile?” No not really. It would have been nice to pursue losing some parking on the currently under parked 6th Ave. I think one of the problems there was depending on the block the car parking was occuring either on the west or the east side of the street or mixed. I guess automobile drivers had a realisation that once they leave their cars they become pedestrians and every step mattered all of a sudden.