Our way of life (where cars have primacy in city planning) makes biking dangerous. As pointed out in the video, biking is not dangerous, being hit by cars is dangerous. Separated biking infrastructure makes cities better for everyone, motorists included.
Here in Bloomington we have the new 7-Line separated bike lane along Seventh St, and certainly there have been complaints from some motorists, but I don’t get it!
I’ve traveled Seventh Street between Walnut and Dunn Sts. several times in my truck, and it is now a faster trip, as there are no stop signs. The lanes are narrow, so you don’t speed even going downhill, but with an even pace, it is quicker than stopping at every cross street as in the past. By prioritizing bike traffic, traffic flow was improved!
We need to reclaim our streets from the car/oil industrial complex that has almost taken over our public spaces. Our streets need people, bikes, buses, skateboards, scooters, onewheels, or any appropriately sized method of transportion. Two tons of steel, glass, plastic, gas, and oil is not needed to pick up groceries!
So while I am on this Holland theme, here is another great video from Holland. I’ve found that many of the ebike curious who come into the shop want most of the features mentioned in the video. Why? Because so many folks want to use ebikes for more than recreation, they want it as main form of transporation, to work, to school, to the store, to church, to the park…it is amazing how many activities require short trips that can be done on a bike/ebike.
Omafiets for everyone!