A cycle track in Saint Petersburg, FL.

DSC_0291, originally uploaded by BeyondDC.

Comments

[D. Murphy]

Of course it works in a foreign country, it is a totally different culture. :)

[Scott F]

Uh, this is St. Petersburg in Florida, which is one of the United States. (If you were kidding, you're too subtle for the internet...)

[j]

turn 15th street into this!!

[D. Murphy]

Drat. I had hoped the smiley would do it.

[w]

this is EXACTLY the right way to build a bikeway- as opposed to a bike lane- and this is what needs to be done in DC- what with the super wide sidewalks in this city this could be done almost everywhere- but we also have the bike racers who will not stop at anything to keep this from happening. All you need to do is read the commentors on this blog- they are almost all hostile to the idea of separated traffic protected bikeways.

It is very sad but true- the macho male athletic bicycle elite is holding us back.

Im amazed that you have even posted this - given the general overt hostility in this blog to anything other than the standard conformist racing and mountain biking culture being espoused and pushed.

[Washcycle]

No one has been hostile to this idea.

[w]

I beg to differ- I have read plenty of anti- dedicated bikeway comments on this very blog during the past few years.

However- my hat is off to you for posting this !!

This is most certainly a step in the right direction. Folks in the USA need to be informed about how other cities and towns are solving these problems.

We should not be forced to "share the road" with crazy SUV moms hell bent on driving us into the ditch or worse. cyclists need a safe place to bike and with bikeways like this we will see grandparents, youngsters previously forbidden from cycling, and women, plus folks doing ordinary errands on bikes they otherwise would never think to do.

Too much emphasis is placed on racing, athletic cycling, and even commuting, over the casual, everyday use of bicycles as PRIMARY TRANSPORT.

keep posting great shots like this !!!

[Chris]

I have posted my reservations about dedicated bikeways like this for practical reasons. Before building this kind of thing, a simple question needs to be asked: will it work here?

If you build this kind of thing in downtown Washington, you're talking about using up a good deal of real estate and completely rebuilding the street. That's a large expenditure of money, and I'm uncertain of the payback - most people on bikes downtown are moving past traffic on the streets because of congestion, making the need for a dedicated bikelane pretty irrelevant.

Another important thing to consider is whether or not such a dedicated bikeway will really be respected by pedestrians. I seriously doubt it. We are not a compliant people.

That may be some of the "anti-dedicated bikeway" talk w is talking about, though I wouldn't say I'm opposed so much as I'm suspicious of the practical application in Washington, DC.

[w]

well, think of it this way Chris;

How many of those speeding road cyclists that presently blast down the street in DC are grandmoms, women on shopping trips, lunch breaks, picking up their kids like they do in other countries- how many are families, how many are little kids, and how many are not on bicycles built for speed?

Not too many- I can attest to that- and I have been riding bicycles here in DC since I was a child- that is for 40 years. Of course- back then - and now- I almost always bicycle on the sidewalks in downtown & elsewhere because it is just too damn friggin dangerous to bike in the street pretending to be a "motor vehicle". Of course I am not going at the breakneck speeds of these young guys in tights, and I always have aloud bell and give pedestrians the right of way. I seldom have problems and - knock on wood- have avoided the injuries that so many of my vehicular cycling friends have endured over the years.

I wish the cyclists in this city would wake up to the fact that rules prohibiting cycling on the sidewalks were put in place by people who did not bicycle- and did not care that there was no dedicated bicycle infrastructure to promote cycling in the core city to take the place of a safe sidewalk. Most people that I know- and I talk to a lot of people outside the cycling community- stay off of bicycles because of the dangers of the street and the cars.
Simple as that.
I hear this over & over.

Forcing cyclists to dare the auto traffic is not the proper way to bring more of a critical mass of cyclists into DC.

I say build it and they will come.

[Chris]

So take the sidewalk! The only prohibition is the downtown business district, where you're not going to find a whole lot of the kind of people you're talking about riding bikes.

Also, I'll give you credit for staying on message, but are you even capable of posting something of substance without throwing in your same old rant about fast bikes?

[Jacob]

FYI, This shot is of 1st Ave, in St. Petersburg. As far as I can tell, the 2 way cycle track runs from 9th St and Bay Shore Drive. You can see it on streetsview here and here. Since it is so new, it only shows up on streetsview where 1st Ave intersects with the north-south streets.