Best practices in bicycling

Remember the mention of the report from Portland that defined the types of people willing (or unwilling) to bicycle, and the impediments? See the blog entry"Segmenting and rethinking bicyclist behavior and the supports necessary to increase bicycling.

1. Portland has just introduced a cycle track, a dedicated lane for bicyclists, inserted next to the sidewalk, on street formerly used as parking. The parking has been shifted to on street, between adjacent to the cycle track, and next to in-use street lanes.

Portland's KGW-TV has a video story about it, "Mayor Sam hopes track will encourage cyclists:
European-style cycle track downtown."

This slightly "breathless" report says that Portland constructed the first cycle track in the country. That's not true, as was reported in the New York Times and by BeyondDC, showing cycle tracks in Manhattan.

Separated bicycle lane in New York City (Manhattan), southbound 9th Avenue from 23rd Street to 16th Street. Photo from BeyondDC.

And even St. Petersburg, Florida has had such a lane for awhile... (When will it be DC's turn?)




St. Petersburg's Bicycling Master Plan has some interesting discussion about vision and their creation of the St. Petersburg City Trails system. St. Petersburg Florida Bicycle and Pedestrian Programs.

2. Plus, Portland has just introduced a new manual for bicycle boulevards, the Bicycle Boulevard Planning & Design Guidebook.