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Make separated lanes for traffic that flows at different speeds.

"No helmets, no problem: how the Dutch created a casual biking culture"

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2018/8/28/17789510/bi...




There are at least two kinds of cyclists and they move at different speeds.

One is the urban cyclist that uses the bicycle to go buying stuff at shops or take kids at school. It's short range and slow. They're usually scared by the idea of sharing the road with cars. They use cycle lanes and I often see them on sidewalks.

Then there are cyclists who pedal longer distances for fun and when they use bicycles in cities they are easily twice as fast as the others. Cycle lanes are often too slow (up and down sidewalks, tight turns, bumps.)

I belong to the second variety and I definitely prefer to pedal in a car's road than in a bike lane designed for slow bicycles. Urban designers should try to come up with different designs that suit both kinds of users.


I notice this about cyclists. Basically, I change between the types depending on how tired I am. I still feel like the majority of people will always be in the first category but unfortunately, the second category are more of the "enthusiasts" who actually engage with cycling organizations whilst the first category don't really seem to.


For the first category the bicycle is a convenient mean of transportation but it's nothing special. It's like computers are nothing special to most people except to professionals and enthusiasts.

However cycling organizations can leverage all those people to campaign for more bike lanes and the like. They vote...


In German you would be described as a Kampfradler, literally a warrior cyclist. Please slow down, for the safety of others and yourself. Just like a car driving 2x the speed of everyone else is dangerous, so is a bicycle.


The slow cyclists ride at 10/12 km/h. The fast ones at 20/25. It's still much slower than cars. Obviously it would be too fast for bike lanes, that's why I stay in the road.


Indeed, I've read similar comments about cycling in Amsterdam. Folks who live there say that they have one bike for the city, and another bike (with helmet) for weekend recreational rides in the countryside.





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