World's best practice bicycle facilities

[il padrone]

I thought it would be good to have a place to post photos and information about the state of the art in facilities for cycling, in towns and cities in particular, but anywhere and any situation that boosts the ease of bicycle transport of all types.

Kicking it off with a couple.

A really well set up local bus stop in Assen, Netherlands that encourages multi-mode transport - 4 metre wide bike path right beside it, and parking for bikes. I love the 'freestyle' parking - it must be a pretty safe neighbourhood



And a second one - bicycle space for transport on a German Inter-city train. Half of the front carriage is given over to racks and space to bring your bike along.




And also here is a video from the marvelous blog of David Hembrow, about new roads and cycle paths.

[Howzat]

I love those 4m wide bike paths. That is infrastructure that encourages cycling.

[wizdofaus]

I love those 4m wide bike paths. That is infrastructure that encourages cycling.

Parts of the Eastlink and Mullum Mullum Ck trail seem almost that wide, at any rate, perfectly wide enough that I felt perfectly comfortable zipping along it at 35+k/h (the best bit is not having to stop at lights or filter dangerously through traffic). But I couldn't see much sign of it encouraging cyclists - the Koonung Ck trail it connects to is probably little more than 2m wide in places and vastly more popular. And that's just for recreational use - for 'utility' use (shopping, commuting etc.) it's obviously far more important what locations the path connects than how wide it is.
Which isn't to say that I would object to wider bike paths, but it doesn't strike me as our most critical need...

[il padrone]

Parts of the Eastlink and Mullum Mullum Ck trail seem almost that wide, at any rate, perfectly wide enough that I felt perfectly comfortable zipping along it at 35+k/h (the best bit is not having to stop at lights or filter dangerously through traffic).

You evidently haven't ridden it much further south than Burwood Hwy?

One of the biggest criticisms that I would make of the Eastlink trail is that the road builders obviously thought cyclists were just an after-thought. They make cyclists go down to the major cross-roads at almost every junction, and wait for two (or even three) sets of crossing lights, rather than take the cycle trail across the bridges or through tunnels to allow a continuous ride.

After all, this was the basic concept behind the whole road - a 'free way'


It seems like Sydney's M7 Cycleway is much better designed in this regard.

[human909]

I love the 'freestyle' parking - it must be a pretty safe neighbourhood

No doubt it is a safe neighbourhood but you can still bet those bikes are locked. Almost all Dutch bikes have a built in rear lock.

Japan you will find such plenty of bikes without locks. But that is a country that runs on honesty!

[g-boaf]

Parts of the Eastlink and Mullum Mullum Ck trail seem almost that wide, at any rate, perfectly wide enough that I felt perfectly comfortable zipping along it at 35+k/h (the best bit is not having to stop at lights or filter dangerously through traffic).

You evidently haven't ridden it much further south than Burwood Hwy?

One of the biggest criticisms that I would make of the Eastlink trail is that the road builders obviously thought cyclists were just an after-thought. They make cyclists go down to the major cross-roads at almost every junction, and wait for two (or even three) sets of crossing lights, rather than take the cycle trail across the bridges or through tunnels to allow a continuous ride.

After all, this was the basic concept behind the whole road - a 'free way'


It seems like Sydney's M7 Cycleway is much better designed in this regard.

M7 is well done - it's probably the benchmark in this city for long distance cycle ways. And the thing is, we have enough room to do that elsewhere too. But why build that when you can build another road tunnel. Road tunnels win votes.

[zero]

I believe that was a Sculley initiative, but he was quite miffed that initial takeup was slow - which you'd expect given at the construction time it was largely greenfield.

However on prime cycling opportunities like people living between CBD and parramatta (CBD side has an unused railway line/yard on the route which would be ideal), but the government won't spent the 5mil to refit to being a bicycle road - which would likely extract hundreds of commuters which would be both useful long term useful in delaying 10 billion on making a 4 lane motorway out of 3 lane parramatta rd, and useful in trying to manage the sheer chaos that is going to occur when they do start work.