If they couldn’t by law, then I’d feel obligated to pull off or go faster or something.

Minneapolis has had a bike highway for over fifteen years, leading from downtown Minneapolis to the west in a railroad corridor. It is a three-part facility, one asphalt path for each bike direction, plus a walking asphalt path. It has been an effective bicycle facility since it was implemented, even though the last section will only be completed within the next few years or so. The bike highway connects with an existing and growing system of off-street bicycle facilities.

Bike Boulevards:
Someone mentioned on the BicycleAustin.info forum that a Minneapolis bike boulevard has “Forbidden to Pass Bicyclist”signs.

But, I have ridden down mopac from about far west to enfield (some years ago!) and imagine how long it takes to do that? About 12 minutes. Unfortunately, mopac was opened for motor vehicles, and now at many times of the day, you are lucky to make it from far west to enfield in 12 minutes in your car.

Another interesting exercise: when you’re sitting in your car, or bike, at an intersection full of cars, imagine the cars evaporate, leaving the people standing there. What you will see is that there is really hardly anybody there!

Finally, I got to ride on some bike boulevards, or bicycle streets as they call them in Vancouver. Its quite nice, and I think its the way to go. About every 4 blocks or so, the street is blocked for motorists, but cyclists can continue on. This minimizes traffic on the streets, but still allows motor vehicle access as necessary. The street signs have bicycle symbols on them, so drivers know not to take them for long distances. I used to think Vancouver had 10x more bicycle infrastructure than Austin, but I’ve been greatly encouraged at the recent developments, so I’d say that they only have 8x as much stuff now.

Finally, finally, I love Amelia’s comment about “Cars don’t seem to understand you’re a person, who you know, could die if they look away from the road to text or something like that.” In the Car/bike discussion/interaction, for cars its about inconvenience, for bikes its about getting killed.

As one of the non-car owning women I know, who uses a bike to get around pretty much exclusively I agree with this article. I handle most of the errands in my house as well, and buy the groceries most of the time. I do get intimidated by the ineffectiveness of the bike lanes in Austin a lot, though it’s more than most cities offer. Cars don’t seem to understand you’re a person, who you know, could die if they look away from the road to text or something like that. The most aggressive reactions I’ve gotten have been from men in cars, though this is purely anecdotal. I’ve also found when I’m biking with my backpack on and in regular clothes, people in cars respond less aggressively.

I was thinking the other day about bike highways, like the ones in Germany, and how useful and fast they would be, if we had them here. Even if you had to use bike lanes or gore separated lanes (which are a little better) on non-highway streets, the bike highway would take you the majority of the distance you’re going (ideally) in a fully separated venue. Ah dreams….