True, though of course encouraging people on to bikes is as much about improving perceived safety as anything. This sort of intersection design I would say gives potential cyclists both a real increase in perceived safety, and as you say, given most accidents between vehicles of any sort occur at intersections, so almost certainly will improve real safety. However if building these intersections meant less money to spend on other basic upgrades (I mentioned a few examples towards the end of my latest blog post) I'd be hesitant to support them - they need to be the sort of thing that convince governments to allocate more money towards cycling infrastructure.il padrone wrote:More and more it is a case of encouraging more people back to the bike by providing bike lanes, even the separated lanes. If we want to do this it is much wiser to provide the lane protection at the intersections as it is in these locations, more-so than mid-block, that most of the urban cycle collisions occur.
Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:36 am
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 28, 2013 7:45 am
Kind of irrelevant given our current Napthine medication for cyclingwizdofaus wrote:However if building these intersections meant less money to spend on other basic upgrades (I mentioned a few examples towards the end of my latest blog post) I'd be hesitant to support them - they need to be the sort of thing that convince governments to allocate more money towards cycling infrastructure.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:09 am
So the goal then is to prove that they save money in the medium to long term!il padrone wrote:Kind of irrelevant given our current Napthine medication for cyclingwizdofaus wrote:However if building these intersections meant less money to spend on other basic upgrades (I mentioned a few examples towards the end of my latest blog post) I'd be hesitant to support them - they need to be the sort of thing that convince governments to allocate more money towards cycling infrastructure.
Not sure where to find figures but I've no doubt that the Netherlands spends a much smaller portion of its government budget (at all levels) on transport infrastructure than we do here. And yes, it has a number of advantages of density and flat terrain and close connectivity to other countries that will always mean this is the case, so a more interesting comparison might be, say, the Netherlands with Germany or France, that haven't prioritised bicycling infrastructure over alternatives quite so much.
Unfortunately I suspect for most of the benefits from improving cycling infrastructure around Melbourne it would be hard to measure the dollar value, and by and large it wouldn't be savings to the sitting state government's budget.
Some interesting stats - in Australia I believe we spend (across all 3 layers of government) about $1-2 per person annually on bicycle infrastructure. In the Netherlands it's ~$40 (USD equivalent) - at least 20 times more, but still hardly a mind-blowing amount.
Just federally we spend about $270 per Australian on roads every year, I can't find exact figures for state and local spending but it would be at least another $20 or $30 per resident (supposedly the Victorian State Budget for road projects is at about $100 million for this year), so let's say $300 per person annually - well over 150 times as much as is spent on bicycle infrastructure. But...the only figure I found for the Netherlands it that it's annual budget to "keep traffic flowing smoothly during rush hour in traffic-heavy areas" was 50 billion which sounds far too much, nearly $3000 per capita! Maybe that's entire "infrastructure" project, not sure. No time to find more reliable numbers at this point unfortunately.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:24 am
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:41 am
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby human909 » Thu Mar 28, 2013 9:55 am
Local trips in the Netherlands are by bicycle.wizdofaus wrote:Interestingly though, the Netherlands has one of the highest average commute times in Europe, and certainly higher than in Australia. My question would be how does this break down by mode type, and maybe it's a good thing if lots of people are spending 1-1.5 hours every day on their bicycles getting to/from work.
Commuting to work is often by bicycle and train. Very few dutch would be spending more than 30minute on their bike to work.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Thu Mar 28, 2013 10:59 am
I wonder why...supposedly the mode share for journeys between 4.5 and 6.5 km is about 24%. 6.5 km along flat good quality paths seems like an easy comfortable ride for an average everyday utility cyclist, 10 km isn't that much more...but then I'm the sort of person that wishes they could do their 18 km commute through Melbourne's hills battling against distracted and/or hostile drivers every day (I can't only because I have to get my kid to school along that same distance). It does seem the authorities are betting bicycles will start to be used for longer journeys, particularly electric bicycles, hence the construction of various longer-distance 'bicycle highways'.human909 wrote:Local trips in the Netherlands are by bicycle.wizdofaus wrote:Interestingly though, the Netherlands has one of the highest average commute times in Europe, and certainly higher than in Australia. My question would be how does this break down by mode type, and maybe it's a good thing if lots of people are spending 1-1.5 hours every day on their bicycles getting to/from work.
Commuting to work is often by bicycle and train. Very few dutch would be spending more than 30minute on their bike to work.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:32 am
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 28, 2013 11:38 am
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:07 pm
And I'd argue that a moderately fit person can cycle 10 km at 20k/h along good quality bike paths with minimal stops and starts on flat terrain in the sort of cool climate the Netherlands has without getting hot or sweaty at all, even given the heavy sort of bikes the Dutch tend to use.il padrone wrote:Dutch commuters generally ride quite slowly. 15-20kmh on flat roads is about normal. They do not want to get into a lather of sweat on arrival at work, pretty reasonable really.
Indeed, such a mode of travel would, I'd estimate, be about as much effort as walking at 5 k/h, which is a fairly moderate walking speed.
I have to say though that seems a somewhat contrived example of a bike being faster than a car. I've said before that almost any trip made with about a 4-5km radius of Melbourne's CBD is going to be faster by bike than car unless made during particularly low-traffic periods, in large part because with a bike you can ride door-to-door with no need to find parking, and because you can filter through stopped traffic. Very rarely because the bike route is especially shorter, or avoids intersections.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:24 pm
Re. distances, many Dutch cities are very compact in size. For example this commute by David Hembrow from his village into the centre of Assen (pop'n. 65,000) - 5.4kms
Why do you say that?wizdofaus wrote:I have to say though that seems a somewhat contrived example of a bike being faster than a car.
It is pretty typical of how the Dutch are designing and modifying their cities. Car use is discouraged by making intra-city use difficult (longer routes) while cycling journeys are made easier, more direct and utilise lanes, paths and many short cuts.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby ColinOldnCranky » Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:22 am
Sorry Padre - I didn't make it clear - I was not referring to designs - just the similar effect in terms of how I have to track away from parallel to the road and then cross the cross road with my back somewhat away from traffic that is coming through. Where the ramp at the edge of the path is a bit around from the corner this is what I have to do and it seems to me that riders on the designed intersection shown would have to negotiate the intersection in a similar manner - facing somewhat away from drivers coming through at the time of entering the road it self and becoming vulnerable. And at the same time having to be curving back to be parallel with the road.il padrone wrote:I'm not sure whether you looked at the videos of the Dutch design. I'd doubt that there are any intersections laid out like this in the whole of Australia - certainly not a deliberate design.ColinOldnCranky wrote:I am most often on paths from which I cross the road. And this design looks a litle like the layout some of the ramping from path to raod, but without the pinch-point ramping.
The design makes a cyclist about to cross at the point that he is first exposed to errant motorists coming through have to twist his neck well behind his shoulder the shoulder. Which is a difficult move to do with stability while moving and maintining a precise line (that is not even straight in this case).
1. Cyclists stop line is well in front of the motor vehicle stop line.
2. Altered kerb line makes motorists turn wider
3. Both cyclist and motorist are looking forward of 90 degrees to see each other, not over the shoulder
4. The applications of this at large intersections are light-controlled and often with a separate phase for cyclists.
Also, there is no 'ramping' of the bike lane - cyclists ride a level path. So as the narrator said, "By the time the cars get to the crossing the bikes are usually long gone".
From http://wiki.coe.neu.edu/groups/nl2011tr ... ba51e/107/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;Corner islands provide a physical barrier automobiles must travel around when making a left turn, which allows bicyclists to be removed from automobiles at intersections. This also pushes the bicyclist out farther from the curb. This, in combination with a pushed back stop line for automobiles, allows the visibility between the entities to be greatly increased. Now, the automobile can see the bicyclists on its right with much less effort. This increased distance between the bicyclist and the automobile also gives the bicyclist a better chance of crossing the intersection before the automobile approaches to turn.
This “right hook” issue can also be lessened with strong pavement markings for the cycle track through the intersection. The shark’s teeth and elephant’s feet markings go a long way to alerting automobiles of the possibility that a bicyclist will be crossing there. Staggered traffic signal phasing between the bicyclists and automobiles will also allow the bicyclists more time in crossing before a conflict can arise.
I must admit your needs are more critical Colin, but hardly anything like the norm, or even fairly common. Not to say they're not important, just more tricky to allow for. The Dutch do have a slightly more rigorous expectation that turning cars must give way to cyclists. We have the same towards pedestrians on all crossings whether marked or not. It's simply that police and other authorities don't enforce this nearly enough, and our driving culture ignores it most often. It'd be a very simple rule change to clearly require drivers turning to give way to cyclists in bike lanes.
Incidentally, a question. On a unicycle are you legally classed as a vehicle or a pedestrian? In Victoria I believe it must be as a pedestrian.
Victorian Road Rules wrote:bicycle means a vehicle with 2 or more wheels that is built to be propelled by human power through a belt, chain or gears
Sorta hard to explain without a diagram.
But certainly I did not mean to imply cycle-paths designed in the way shown. Just the similarity in negotiating what I experience all the time in getting across roads from paths.
Not that I have a better design. The simpler ones we see here have a different set problems.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby wizdofaus » Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:32 pm
Which has something to be said for it, but I'd argue it's not necessary in the central/denser parts of a city like Melbourne anyway, as car use is already pretty difficult.il padrone wrote: Why do you say that?
It is pretty typical of how the Dutch are designing and modifying their cities. Car use is discouraged by making intra-city use difficult (longer routes) while cycling journeys are made easier, more direct and utilise lanes, paths and many short cuts.
Installing Dutch-style intersections would already preference bikes over cars more than enough - a big problem with a lot of current left-turn lanes in Melbourne is the obvious design goal that cars shouldn't need to stop to make the turn (e.g. the turn off Heidelberg Rd into Hoddle St). For me that's not compatible with the idea that roads are for all forms of transport. It's traffic going straight ahead that should be able to continue without worrying about those going in other directions (accepting obviously you'll still have to stop at red lights now and then).
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby il padrone » Fri Mar 29, 2013 1:46 pm
I think the Dutch are actually booting the cars out for non-essential travel to make the use of bicycles easier and safer, and to improve people's life in the city generally - quieter, less polluted air etc.wizdofaus wrote:Which has something to be said for it, but I'd argue it's not necessary in the central/denser parts of a city like Melbourne anyway, as car use is already pretty difficult.
All would be great for Melbourne CBD too.
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby Mulger bill » Fri Mar 29, 2013 4:31 pm
It might be difficult, but at this stage it's not enough to make the majority of smokeboxers consider alternates. Unfortuntely, it's been too good for them for too long.il padrone wrote:I think the Dutch are actually booting the cars out for non-essential travel to make the use of bicycles easier and safer, and to improve people's life in the city generally - quieter, less polluted air etc.wizdofaus wrote:Which has something to be said for it, but I'd argue it's not necessary in the central/denser parts of a city like Melbourne anyway, as car use is already pretty difficult.
All would be great for Melbourne CBD too.
I'd love to see a private vehicle congestion charge levied on all roads within a 1.5 to 2 km radius of the Hoddle grid with a 75% reduction for multi occupant vehicles (And a five year ban, confiscation of vehicle and $10k fine for people with simulacra in the passenger seat).
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby Percrime » Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:35 pm
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Re: Cars turning left over a bicycle only lane
Postby trailgumby » Fri Feb 14, 2014 7:56 pm
That would quickly see the death of these stupid Toorak tractors. 4WDs should have the same taxes placed on them as every other vehicle and only those who own a farm or live in rural areas get a rebate.
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