Speed limits and Speedometers

I've mentioned before that Denver has a speed limit on its trail system.

Thousands of Denver cyclists use the city's 85 miles of bike paths -- so many, in fact, that crowding has led to serious collisions and, in the fall of 2003, to the death of a bicyclist in Littleton, Colo., a suburb. Now the Department of Parks and Recreation is proposing a cyclist speed limit

And that cops with radar guns enforce it

Patrol officers use radar guns to gauge a person's speed and ticket skaters and cyclists who are breaking the speed limit, Denver television station KMGH reported. The enforcement came as a result of an increase in accidents involving pedestrians, Denver police said.

Steve Eldridge with the Examiner caught on to it and brought up these points.

The problems, as I see them, are that few bikes are equipped with speedometers any more. I used to have one on my old Huffy Stingray bike (the one with the ram handle bars and the four-foot back bar), but you just don’t see them too often on today’s bikes. The other problem is enforcement. Are police there going to stand next to the path with radar guns? Will repeat offenders find their privileges revoked? According to an ABS News story, the police aren’t even certain whether they will issue tickets. That seems to make the whole idea more of a suggestion. Even still, it might be something worth considering on certain paths and trails around here where problems exist.

Someone pointed out that he was wrong and that many people have speedometers.

“You are mistaken on the subject of bike speedometers. They are very common, but they are called ‘cyclocomputers’ now. They’re light and accurate and don’t have inefficient mechanical parts like the one on your old Huffy. They can cost anywhere from 20 to 1,000 bucks and some include heart-rate monitoring and all sorts of cool stuff.

But they added

“It’s probably impractical to enforce a 15 mph speed limit on multi-use trails. People who use the trails just need to learn to use a little common sense — stay to the right, look where you’re going, etc. And if you regularly go extremely fast on the trails, you should probably be riding on the road instead.”

I'll agree with that - except that a good road option may not always be available. I'm not sure if ticketing people is a good idea, I think it's better to try and Denver's other idea where possible

dedicated pedestrian trails to get joggers out of the way of bikers.

I think it's time to build a second pedestrian trail parallel to the Mt. Vernon Trail and separate the two. Much like here on the Orange Line Bikeway in LA (bikes ride in the middle).

Comments

[Ken]

Chicago has had dual trails for years in its lakefront parks. The runners use a cinder trail, originally for horses, and the bikes use an asphalt path.

[will]

Yet more rules to restict bicycling...and the rules will not bring back the poor cyclist in Colorado- and will likely dis-courage bicycling there. My experience with the new speedometers is that they are very cumbersome, and just like those idiotic digital watches- never seem to come with instructions on how to use them- and you have to be a programmer geek to figure them out. I bought one , and later got so frustrated with it that it went into the trash can.I am convinced that the people who make up the laws on bicycling do not ride bikes- and there are plenty of stupid laws- like restricting bicycles from sidewalks in downtown DC without having adequte bikepaths. this forces bikes into the streets, and dis-courages families, children, and older people from biking there- and encourages congestion.Get rid of these idiotic rules and give us decent bike ways !!!

[Wayne Phyillaier]

Speed limits can do more harm than good. No speed limit will be appropriate for all conditions, and cyclists may occasionally need to slow to 5 mph to safely pass unpredictable pedestrians on a crowded trail, especially children. At times when traffic is light a speed limit that is appropriate for crowded conditions is needlessly constraining.

If a speed limit is set at, say, 15 mph, then some cyclists will feel entitled to go that speed even under conditions when that is much too fast to be safe. A speed limit is no substitute for responsible behavior by pedestrians and cyclists.

[guez]

No rules for bikers, ever, just for other people. Woo-hoo!

[Paul d'Eustachio]

Are we really going to dedicate scarce police resources to enforcing a bicycle speed limit? Is it a good use of police time to pull an officer off a homicide case so s/he can patrol the bike path looking for scofflaws?

The obvious solution is to build adequate bike/ped paths so that fast and slow traffic can co-exist. We spend several billion dollars a mile to add a lane to the beltway when traffic gets bad. Let's recognize that the infrastructure cost of adding bike lanes is way less per mile traveled than the cost of adding to the beltway, and build the non-motorized infrastructure that we need.

It has been demonstrated multiple times that when you build more highways, more people use them and congestion gets worse. A trip on the Capital Creacent Trail easily demonstrates the applicability of that fact to other "highways" as well. If the goal is to get folks out of cars and into more efficient transportation let's start building transportation facilities in a way that can solve the problem.

[will]

Paul hit the nail on the head.There are some people that like to race- and they can present a danger to pedestrians and slower bicyclists; we need bike ways large enough to accomodate fast and slow traffic, and separate from walkers. My nephew was knocked off of his bike on the Mt Vernon trail by an in-line skater who was listening to music and didnt even stop to help- yes there is too much congestion on thses trails- but the answer is not to dis-courage bicyclists and other[recreational] users, but to give those of us who do not drive equality with the cars and trucks. It is obscene to see how much $$$ is spent on highways and how little is spent on "other" transportation needs.There are no excuses.

[taleswapper]

Is it still illegal in Maryland to ride on the road if there is a bike path nearby?

[Contrarian]

It has never been illegal in Maryland to ride on the road if there is a bike path nearby. Maryland requires that cyclists use a bike lane if one is available, and a "smooth" shoulder if one is available. A bike path does not qualify as either a bike lane or a shoulder under the law.

There was a bill to repeal the law this year, but the SHA argued that there was no need to repeal the law as it wasn't being enforced.

There are lots of streets in the DC area with little traffic that are much better for cycling the local bike paths. If you want to go fast, get off the trail, go to Haines Point.

[taleswapper]

I don't particularly want to go fast. I want to get to work without running into a baby stroller on Sligo Creek.

If the law isn't being enforced, why does the State Highway Administration care if it's repealed?

[Chris]

I'm all in favor of having speed limits for bikes, so long as it's treated the same way as speed limits for motorized vehicles -- that is to say, neither obeyed nor enforced.

[Doug]

One law that can and should be enforced is using lights on shared trails when it's dark.