In my Friday column, I admire the newly upgraded Central but ask: Why no bike lanes on city streets? It would be a low-cost way to encourage bike riding and enhance safety.
posted by Randy Scholfield
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47 Comments
We got ‘em in Tucson, and they’re frequently used. The city buses also have bike racks on the front, in case you want to ride motorized for a while. Unfortunately, there are areas where the paths unpredictably run out. Since “share the road” is the law.
One thing Wichita has already though, that the Old Pueblo doesn’t: segregated bike paths. I used to work downtown, and bike to work–it was kinda like a highway. I think that would be impossible here.
It takes a little nerve to ride alongside the traffic, but in a year, I haven’t heard of anyone getting hit. A capital idea!
. . . except. . .now I remember the irrational hostility toward cyclists–even motorcyclists–in Wichita.
So maybe not such a hot idea.
We have those here as well as bike racks on the bus. You can also take a bike on the subway trains although at rush hour it will not endear you to other passengers. But Wichita is a car town. People in Wichita drive. Wichita does not have traffic congestion issues that other cities have and it has terrible weather 10 months a year which means that few people would use the paths.
When I lived in San Diego, I used to ride about 25 miles every day. Had we a CCL, I would have carried. I almost got ran off the road way too many times to be just bad driving. Bike paths? Only if you wall them off from a**ho*e drivers.
At the rate motorcyclists are killed in Wichita traffic, I would hate to see the death rate if bike lanes were put on major streets.
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Glad someone brought up bike racks on buses. That and dedicated bike lanes are excellent ideas.
Bicycles are really only for the recreation cyclist enthusiast. While it is fine to have bike trails and lanes for recreation, I don’t see a need for it to be public policy to encourage people to use bicycles for transportation. It’s just a waste of time.
The argument people make is that bicycle transportation is good for the environment and is a healthy alternative because it promotes regular exercise. That’s fine and dandy, but that is a personal choice for individuals to make. It shouldn’t be policy to change streets to have bike lanes, because that is beyond recreation and is moving towards transportation, and we don’t have the climate, culture or infrastructure set up for that, nor should we start.
“Bicycles are really only for the recreation cyclist enthusiast.”
Gee, I commuted for years in LA by bicycle, rain or shine. And I know people in Wichita, Chicago and elsewhere who commute that way.
The argument people make is that bicycle transportation is good for the environment and is a healthy alternative because it promotes regular exercise. That’s fine and dandy, but that is a personal choice for individuals to make ”
Yes Joe. But if they make that choice, where is their infrastructure to exercise it?
Agreed J R. Keep in mind that local road construction is paid for by taxes on bicyclists; not just taxes on truck and car drivers.
Granted Ben! But it’s all about economies of scale. To transform the road grid for bike lanes when hardly anybody going to use it, especially not year around doesn’t make sense.
I’m not saying to discourage bike use, but it’s just not practical for the vast majority of people. For one it’s recreation mostly. If people do use it for transportation for work that is either an conscious choice or a financial condition. And our work places are set up for bicyclist either. Most places of business or even government don’t have showers and locker rooms.
I myself used to bicycle to work all the time when I worked at the Boathouse, that’s because it had locker rooms and showers.
To promote bicycle use for transportation is has to be much more than just painting stripes on the street for a bike lane. It’s our whole culture and infrastructure as well. And to accommodate a very few minorities at the cost of quite of bit of tax payer money, it’s just not very rational.
In that case Joe, why not finance ALL road construction via the gas tax. No more sales tax revenues for a highways that are ILLEGAL for bicycles to use.
Touche Ben.
I think he has you Joe. You yourself say that when you were given a choice you exercised it. Now you want to deny it to others?
We have sidewalks and parks and bike trails. They are accommodated Ben.
It isn’t like a bicyclist cannot use the street if they wish. Why not have a special tax imposed on bicyclist for bike lanes then.
Bikes are legal road vehicles Joe. Now you could change THAT. But what you are arguing was taxation without representation. Now you are arguing special dispensation tax.
New York City is the city were there are many bicyclist use bikes for work purposes. They don’t have bike lanes.
Bikes are vehicles, regardless if they are human powered. They have the right to use a lane on the street if they want. It isn’t anymore dangerous than a motorcyclist or even an automobile on a city street.
My point is that there aren’t enough people to justify changing our entire street grid system for specific bike lanes.
Joe! If I get arrested for bicycling on a sidewalk will you pay my fines? As for parks etc they don’t tend to criss-cross the city to accomodate COMMUTERS.
“It isn’t like a bicyclist cannot use the street if they wish.”
They ARE prohibited from many highways such as Kellogg.
Of course, I had to chuckle when a friend got a ‘two-count’ ticket – biking on a freeway and speeding (70 in a 55).
Joe! I agree that we cannot change the grid overnight. That was NOT the point of the editorial. Rather it was to make beginnings in that direction as we do other ‘non-gas-tax’ highway improvements.
I would add to that ‘rail/trails’ and riparian bike ‘freeways’ that could then serve as a backbone.
Again Ben! How many people actually commute to work in a Bicycle?
What about skateboards and roller blades? Can we have a special lane for them too?
Do you commute to work in a bicycle Ben?
Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Do I commute by bicycle? I used to; I don’t any more. It is ILLEGAL for me to use the main thorofare I use by bicycle.
My point is that there aren’t enough people to justify changing our entire street grid system for specific bike lanes.
Posted by: Joe Williams | October 06, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Not everybody has figured out how to use all those handy center left turn lanes they are putting in all over either Joe. It doesn’t make them any less a good idea.
Good point JR. By the way – what are those funny blinking lights on trucks and cars for? Christmas decorations?
Good point yourself Ben. Were that Wichitans were better drivers.
Joe? This extra space would also improve traffic flow. Stalled cars and police pulling folks over would be out of the way and easy for cyclists to navigate around.
How/where to start building a bicycle network. Interestingly enough Joe, in many ways it would be in the same area you and I discussd long ago for a sort of ‘people-mover’ transit. (By the way, since nobody here currently uses a people-mover we should not build one?).
Downtown and the ‘inner do-nut’. Roughly a five-mile radius out to start. This would allow people who live in or near downtown to use this as transportation. Who knows, with bike racks at the Arena maybe that would put a dent in the parking situation.
Then add arterials – both along highways and separate – especially riparian routes.
Improve bus transit including bike racks. This could then integrate with the downtown network and benefit downtown.
The parts of Central mentioned should have been a part of that. ALL of the road improvements being done to support the Arena and Old Town should have bike lanes. Then, businesses might realize that bikers get hungry and tirsty – and provide racks so we can eat and drink.
Changing the subject a bit. I served on the group working on Ark River access along the 100-mile stretch through Reno, Sedgwick and Sumner counties. Included in our group were ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT interests in small communities. They realize that people traveling by means other than truck or car also spend money.
And lots of those new downtown folks are just the sort of forward thinking people that would use bikes.
This is tangental but relevant.My son and I have a tradition the last 7 years. Bid last day of Riverfest, we park the truck at Harry and McLean and ride in to the Riverfest area. When the fireworks end it’s back down the bike path to the truck and out.
We always get home less than 20 minutes after the fireworks end.
One of the things that has been discussed extensively in some of the eco-devo meetings I have attended is the need to attract so-called ‘knowledge workers’ to grow our economy. Surveys have shown that this demographic wants good outdoor recreation and also the possibility of ‘non-car’ commuting.
Maybe we should think about that – unless of course we don’t want these outsiders CHOOSING to live in Wichita.
Lord I’ve heard it all now. We can’t fix the potholes or repair the roads we have now, and some idiot wants to take part of the vehicle lane for one or two bikes.
Nuts.
I’d be real happy of the road crews could paint the yellow and white lines they already have on our roads.
I grew up riding a bike, my children grew up riding bikes, and my grandchildren. None of us needed our own lane to ride them in.
Which tree hugger sponsored this? I want to contribute to his opponents campaign with money.
so-called ‘knowledge workers’
As I said – “Nuts!”
I don’t know ANK – maybe some college graduate who is tired of sending so much money to Osama bil Ladin and his pals.
“Of course, I had to chuckle when a friend got a ‘two-count’ ticket – biking on a freeway and speeding (70 in a 55).”
Posted by: Ben
Down a steep hill?
Reminds me of the movie ‘Breaking Away’. Dave is on his bike, drafting behind a big Italian bike racing team’s truck on a highway.
The truck driver speeds up, and uses his fingers to signal Dave how fast they’re going. Dave gets a great workout… until a cop pulls the truck over for speeding. Dave keeps riding.
Hey Ben…My Amish cousin would like to commute to work with his horse and buggy. To be fair, we need to make horse and buggy lanes on every street too.
wade – in towns where the Amish live they do.
cosmos – no, it was flat road – freeway. I got stopped in Tucson for speed too but the guy was nice and let me off with a warning.
Ben,How do you know that there aren’t Amish people who live and work here who have simply made the choice to adapt instead of demanding that everyone else give them what they want?
Ben,
How did he do 70 on a flat road? Tail wind? Lots of aero devices, fairing, etc? Doing 35, but radar read top of front wheel?
Do any of the major plants- Cessna, Sprit, Beech have bike racks? Do any major office buildings have them in the garage?
cosmos – he was in very good shape. My radar was only 50 in a 35.
Kev – I don’t know about them but I have seen a few bike racks around town.
How did somebody achieve 50mph in a standard bicycle?
Oh well!
The people mover concept is different, because it’s a commuting infrastructure that creates and satisfies demand for transportation in a congested area, such as Downtown Wichita (although not as congested as we might think). Much like the Q-line does now.
To promote and encourage bicycle transportation for commuting purposes is more than just painting stripes on a street and putting out bike racks in front of buildings. The climate and environmental concerns we have in in Kansas makes it uncomfortable for daily commuting. Because of very cold winters and hot humid summers. You ride a bike and you’re going to sweat.
A knowledge worker isn’t going to come to work with bicycle shorts and a sweating ass and back. You have to have businesses set up showers and locker rooms for those bicycle commuters for it to work. And that is asking private businesses to invest in something they believe hardly anybody will use or even really bring in knowledge workers like you said.
The people mover is outside the business realm of investment and instead is an environmentally comfortable mode of transportation that uses the public access network to make it possible.
We could get more people to ride bikes, if some thinking was exercised. For example, consider the healthcare costs of overweight people. Suppose major employers like Spirit, Bombardier, Cessna, HCA and Via Christi paid bike-riding employees $2 per mile biked per day.
Sometimes the weather would be too inclement to allow bike riding, but people would have an incentive to get exercise commuting to work.
I’ve found the vast majority of Wichita area drivers to be courteous. I remember one hick yahoo geezer driving a p/u who didn’t know the law who thought I should be next to the curb, even though that would have put me into a right-turn-only lane, which would have put me onto the I-235 freeway, so I instead picked the right-most through lane to ride in, and he yelled at me that somebody should drive me off the road. But except for occasional ignoramuses most people are reasonable.
I personally feel a little stressed holding up traffic and so I’d like to see bike lanes that give cyclists space, and car drivers what they want.
On making cyclists pay for bike lanes, that’s not thinking-things-through proposal. Adult cyclists pay taxes for streets and roads already, and they are contributing to society by A. reducing roadwear, B. reducing our dependence on foreign oil, C. reducing greenhouse gases, and D. reducing healthcare costs for everyone.
Joe! I don’t know anyone who commutes by either Q or by people-mover. Therefore the demand is not there (using your logic).
Actually, I think the demand IS there. Also, based on what we have learned in other cities, the demand is there for bicycle commuting if we make it feasible.
I favor BOTH bikes AND people-mover.
‘very cold winters’? That’s funny – I find them rather mild compared with other cities – cities where biking is encouraged. Like Chicago. Where I also find the downtown packed with pedestrians in the Christmas season.
Davis is probably on of the most bike friendly U.S. cities.Interesting stats on average daily bike traffic on paths — several around 1,500 per day, and one of 6,673.
http://www.city.davis.ca.us/bicycles/bikecount.cfm
Population ~ 64,000
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davis%2C_California#Bicycling
And check out the “toad tunnel” about 1/2 way down page.
http://www.wampoks.org/IconMenu/Pathways.htm
But Chicago have bike lanes in downtown Chicago?
There is a difference when you are asking for people to commute by bicycle for 15 or more miles in one direction.
City of Wichita’s website on Bike Paths.
These bicycle routes were specially selected on the basis of access to points of interest and low traffic volumes. By using the maps provided here, a bicyclist can enjoy an outing almost anywhere in the City. In the interest of safety, one should use the sidewalk when riding on a busy street
Whether it is worth introducing bike lanes in Wichita will depend on the balance of pros and cons in relation to the size of the available budget. Some of the relevant factors can be modified, while others cannot, such as the distances to be traveled and extremes of climate.
Other contributors have already discussed at some length the issue of inadequate infrastructure as a disincentive to cycling. I will add that Wichita’s grid-based road layout, which includes some very wide streets, gives this city more scope than many others for a basic network of cycle lanes. In fact, one out of (say) four arteries could eventually be reduced to just one lane of motorized traffic in each direction instead of two, in order to make room for extra-wide cycle lanes and sidewalks, each of which would thus be segregated from other types of traffic. I have seen a similar system operating very effectively in Copenhagen (Denmark) and Amsterdam (Netherlands), where many of the main roads have a sidewalk that is raised above the adjacent purpose-constructed cycle lane; this in turn is raised above the regular carriageway. Pedestrians, cyclists and motorists can therefore all inhabit their own individual spaces without encroaching on each other. (See http://www.bv.com.au/change-the-world/11522/ for photos and more info on this topic.)
As a result, these cities’ cycle lanes are heavily used, partly because the intersections – always a danger zone for cyclists – are also designed to enable cyclists to make left turns safely, using such devices as painted lanes and traffic lights that make particular allowance for them as well as for other traffic.
My suggestion would be to start with the installation of continuous cycle lanes in the downtown area of Wichita, taking advantage also of the opportunity that exists there of using the riverbanks to separate cyclists from other road users, and then to see how well the cycle lanes work in this part of the city before extending the network further. However, I highly doubt it will be realistic to install cycle lanes along every main road; the financial cost would be unjustifiable in relation to the economic return, and the priorities of cyclists must be balanced against those of other road users, who in Wichita will remain the overwhelming majority for the foreseeable future – clearly, Wichita has a strong interest in regular vehicle traffic, not just cyclists, being able to travel efficiently across the city.
But from my perspective as both a cyclist and a motorist, the greatest single discouragement to cycling in Wichita is the poor road behavior of non-cyclists. For the road user on two wheels, their obliviousness and inconsiderateness is the main threat to survival. The prevalent aversion to using indicators, non-existent lane discipline, cellphone use while driving, and general inattentiveness of motorists in this city are all potentially deadly to cyclists.
Cyclists are not all saints either – they often behave as badly as the motorists, with many appearing to think that a stop light does not apply to them, or that it is fine to zip past pedestrians from the rear without any kind of approach signal, and passing them just inches away on the sidewalk. (As well as being dangerous, this tends to scare the living daylights out of people who are on foot.)
I suspect the low standard of competence required by the Kansas driving test contributes significantly to the problem of poor driving. The test needs to be made much more stringent, and cyclists too should be compelled to attend courses in riding considerately and safely. (For instance, such courses could be included at intervals in a school’s curriculum. I also can’t see why someone taking the driving test should not also have to pass a cycling component before they can cycle legally as adults, or else take a separate cycling test if they do not want to drive.)
Cellphone use while driving or cycling should be outlawed. A working bell or horn should be mandatory for a bicycle that is ridden on the streets, as should front and rear lights and reflectors for a bike that is used after dark. Indeed, to see a bike that has any of this equipment fitted is the exception nowadays, as is a cyclist (or motorcyclist for that matter) who is wearing a helmet.
In passing, it should also be mentioned that the layout and maintenance of many existing roads leaves a great deal to be desired. Potholes, sudden dips, too-closely-spaced entry and exit lanes on highways, wrongly-cambered corners, and erratically-changing lane widths make everyone’s journeys more dangerous. I would also dearly love to see mini-roundabouts replace most four-way stops, and the installation of stop signs and white stop lines in many residential areas where many intersections are currently unmarked, and where it is therefore not immediately apparent who has the right of way.
Finally, many residential neighborhoods lack continuous sidewalks. This increases the danger and inconvenience to pedestrians, and is a great disincentive to getting around on foot, which in Wichita is another much-neglected way to get around.
“”"‘very cold winters’? That’s funny – I find them rather mild compared with other cities – cities where biking is encouraged. Like Chicago. Where I also find the downtown packed with pedestrians in the Christmas season.”"”
Having lived in both I find the winters in Kansas are less comfortable. The wind is higher in Kansas making it feel even colder than it is while in Chicago the temperature is higher in much of the city than the “official” reading because that is taken at the airport which is far away from the lake where most people are. The temp is really about 10 degrees more than the official reading.
I spent a winter in Boston. It was colder than Wichita. My friend rode 10 miles to work, and back, on days when snow crews cleared the streets and salted them.
My son went to school in New Hampshire. WAAY colder than Wichita. Goodly numbers of students rode bikes through much of the winter.
In Phoenix, people ride year-round. That’s WAAY hotter than Wichita from June through September.
My wife rode 22 miles RT in Wichita to work and back, from spring to fall. She found the morning temps fine, late afternoon temps hot, but not unbearable.
During the cold months, you can’t ride on ice. But last winter, our lawns were green through late February.
Wind may be a ride-breaker, but wind-chill is no problem. With modern textiles, windproof top and leg shells underlain by insulating layers, and modern gloves and headgear–including neoprene head and face coverings– wind-chill is a non-factor. You can stay completely warm on cold and windy days.
On the other hand, riding 10 miles into a 25 mph headwind is very taxing. You can’t take rest strokes, you have to keep pedaling all the time. But serious cyclists here do it. When they go to bike races in Colorado’s mountainous terrain, serious Kansas cyclists do really well. This originally surprised non-flatland competitors, until they figured out that prolonged headwind riding was physiologically equivalent to extended hill-climbing, due to continuous resistance.
We can create bike-supporting corridors. For instance, take 21st. Turn the far-right lanes into bike lanes. People who want four+ lanes of car traffic can take Kellogg-U.S. 54, Douglas, Central or 13th.
Build bike lanes, or better yet, separated-from-the roadway paths, in the rural parts of 21st. There’s some really nice potential riding east and west of town. A bike lane to Cheney Lake would be wonderful. I’ve ridden 21st east of Andover Road, and it’s really beautiful out there. But I hate to obstruct traffic, and franly big trucks are scary. There’s not even a paved shoulder for cyclists to ride on so the semis can pass without having to drive over the centerline.
We could turn Pawnee’s right lanes into bike lanes too. Then convert some of our north-south streets into bike-lane streets. To get to final destinations, some sidewalk riding may be necessary.
We have to make decisions. Do we want Wichita to be one of the most obese cities in America? Do we want our children becoming overweight being driven to school in cars and buses, when they could be fit exercising between home and school?