How disconnected bicycle routes are ruining the bike-friendliness of our cities

Рет қаралды 47,036

Күн бұрын

If your city is like mine, there have been many initiatives over the years to improve its bike-friendliness, from painted bike lanes to pathways to separated bike lanes. But if you're city is really like mine then many of those routes remain islands unto themselves, disconnected from each other and untethered to a more comprehensive plan intended to help cyclists really get around the city.
So after exploring these disconnections, I have a theory that there are four different types of disconnections that can be easily fixed to make our cities more bike-friendly. Here they are:
0:00 Introduction
1:15 Roads (pathways) to nowhere
2:30 It was too hard so we gave up
4:29 C'mon cyclists, get real
6:10 WTF Gaps
7:20 The magic that happens when gaps are filled
#cycling #bike #bikecommute
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Пікірлер: 465

@steemlenn8797 2 жыл бұрын

The worst case is that the gaps are used as an argument for not building any bike infrastructure. Because nearly nobody is using the existing biek lanes, so we don't need to build more!

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Yes! This is such a good point.

@CochiseGE 2 жыл бұрын

Exactly this! My small city has less than one straight mile of painted bicycle gutters. They don't get used much because they lead from/to nowhere. This prompts people to think that bicycle lanes won't be utilized, so we shouldn't have more of them. It's the equivalent of not having any roads, but only having cul-de-sacs.

@moisesrosario9716 2 жыл бұрын

self-fulfilling prophecy at it's finesst

@gilliancollins8825 2 жыл бұрын

Totally agree

@guillaumekaas6505 2 жыл бұрын

There's always a reason to build one more car lane instead of these "useless" bike stuff.

@blaughblahh 2 жыл бұрын

Love how you put this. "Storing their private property in public spaces."

@DiogenesOfCa 2 жыл бұрын

This simple sentence destroys one of cult of cars arguments against bike lanes.

@superfly2449 2 жыл бұрын

This is something I’m going to enjoy using with the cagers. (Motorcycle term for car drivers)

@ryanarmishaw3305 2 жыл бұрын

So well said👍

@justin9484 2 жыл бұрын

@@DiogenesOfCa While roads are a “public space” the gas tax, and vehicle registration fees are what was intended to pay for the creation and maintenance of roads. Currently bicyclists do not pay either a registration or a maintenance fee in North American cities for bike lanes, so essentially drivers pay for the infrastructure and maintenance of bike lanes. Moving to a European model of bike ownership and pathway building would require licensing and fees which I think would anger many bicycle enthusiasts here in North America.

@DiogenesOfCa 2 жыл бұрын

@@justin9484 You are funny if you think car drivers pay for roads. All those fees do not cover the expense of maintaining roads. Most people who ride bikes also own cars and they pay taxes as well. Next....................

@danielschnipke 2 жыл бұрын

"Get off the road!" ~Many a motorist One of the main reasons I ride on the road all the way to destination is the combination of so many disjointed paths and gaps. A lot of multi-use paths in my area are clearly only meant for residents of a neighborhood to go for walks, and don't even connect up with the roads at the corners. You have to know the end is coming, and get off early, or turn around. It quickly becomes not worth the effort to use the paths at all when on a bike

@ben24763 2 жыл бұрын

My thoughts exactly. As a "serious" cyclist I ride defensively, fast, and am wearing a helmet at all times. And this is the only way to bike around my city. As you said, you will just not be able to get anywhere efficiently if you want to be safe and restrict yourself to real bike paths. I think that's a tragedy

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, this is the way that many people have to ride, and the way I rode for many years. It still beats driving a car, but it would be nice to get the point where everyone can ride, whether they are fearless road warriors or not. Glad it's working for you.

@seanm105 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite is when people shout "Ride on the sidewalk!" (legal in my town) and don't realize there isn't a even a sidewalk to ride on. Little patches of sidewalk here and there, nothing continuous

@yeastov5470 2 жыл бұрын

I found it quite funny recently that some kids were yelling at me to "use the road" when I passed them on a mixed use path. I rang my bell and they moved out of my way but were somehow shocked to see a bicycle pass them.

@illiiilli24601 2 жыл бұрын

> and don't even connect up with the roads at the corners shit, i thought perth had it bad, but we at least do that

@bikequestwithmikewest 2 жыл бұрын

Gotta love that publicly subsidized parking for those homeowners that they claim is “theirs”. As a city planner who strives to fix these types of issues, it is often traffic engineers and civil engineers who are a big hangup in getting things done. Luckily I work with some great engineers in my town, but unfortunately that is a luxury that other planners don’t have.

@eugenetswong 11 ай бұрын

Are you able to use street parking on both sides to calm the car traffic?

@grahambonner508 2 жыл бұрын

In UK I would add a category - Roundabouts. These generally work well for cars but not for bikes, the cycle lane dumps you at the roundabout where you often have to walk across each exit until you get to the one you want, the frustration is that it doesn't have to be like this as anyone who has ridden in Netherlands knows.

@extrastuff9463 2 жыл бұрын

Indeed I'm very happy with the roundabouts in the nearby city here in the Netherlands. Except for those that cross the main ring road around Leeuwarden as far as I'm aware cars trying to exit them often have to yield instead of the usual ones you've probably got there. Can't really imagine what kind of abominable hell the scenario you're describing would be, that said I do remember the time when cars still had priority in the past when I went to school. It was the choice between waiting for a lull in traffic or a driver that'd let you go first at times then, or plan B which is basically get off the bicycle and use the pedestrian crossing which does typically get priority over cars. I'm glad they switched over to the current consistent design, when I had my lessons for the driving licence it was a weird transitional mixture. So some of this is a relatively recent development, but we did at least have seperate gathering spots for both pedestrians and bicycles/mopeds even during my school days! They even went through a lot of effort to turn one of the busier with incoming bicycle traffic roundabouts (including a lot of out of the city school kids that are among the most unpredictable lot when they ride in groups) into a big construction project that took a while but now cars can do their stuff above and both pedestrians and bicycles have their own roundabout at a lower level for 3 of the 4 exits. Throwing "Europaplein leeuwarden" into your search engine of choice should give a few suitable images of either the current reality or the plan (plan looks a bit prettier but has the same effect), as someone who usually goes into the city either by bus or bicycle and very rarely by car I must say it's been great. There are way less cars backed up waiting to pass the roundabout (which isn't great for the bus either) and on a bicycle you're better off too.

@MarcelinoDeseo 2 жыл бұрын

Same here, I hate roundabout. When you enter a roundabout without a clear bike lane and your exit is at the opposite end, it's better to move to the inner lane, then once you're near the exit , you move to the outer lane.

@yawnberg 2 жыл бұрын

One roundabout near my house has bike lanes leading up to it that end at ramps to the sidewalk. Of course it's illegal to ride on the sidewalk so it always feels like I'm being led into a trap.

@dannyzuehlsdorf3697 2 жыл бұрын

My town in Northern CA added a roundabout for some reason at a busier intersection and unfortunately a cyclist lost her life at that roundabout last summer. I think the old 4 way stop was much better and safer in that area.

@pavelsmolin849 2 жыл бұрын

Same here in Australia. When turning right, I always leave the dedicated bike lane on the left of the road and take a car lane because, well, it's SO much safer that way.

@ryanarmishaw3305 2 жыл бұрын

I love how you call out the city for all their WTF mistakes, but still take the time to give them credit when they get something right. It adds so much credibility to you and your cause. Keep up the great work Tom! Cheers from Edmonton - sister WTF city in Alberta :)

@harindergill7221 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, Credit where it is due, is great. 🍻

@martinkent333 2 жыл бұрын

Do you obey traffic laws, does your mama?

@joeswanderings 2 жыл бұрын

This works well. Giving credit where it is due is catching more flies with honey than with vinegar. The traffic engineers will say "how are you and how can I help?" as opposed to "WTF do you want now, all you do is whinge?"

@logtron 2 жыл бұрын

He kind of mentioned it, but most streets have ~30 year lifecycles, so often times changes can only reasonably (financially) be made when the entire street gets repaved. This can easily lead to WTF mistakes.

@yawnberg 2 жыл бұрын

Incredibly, this looks like a bike paradise compared to my city (Louisville, KY). We have exactly one separated bike lane that runs along a relatively quiet street for two blocks before ending at a park. Generally speaking or bike lanes only connect residential neighborhoods to parks, with very few bike lanes connecting areas of the city. Gaps are the rule here. There is exactly one bike lane that I know of connecting the downtown to the areas of town outside of the beltway interstate highway--and that's really just a wide gutter. I hate using sidewalks but there are just so many high speed, heavily trafficked roads that represent a serious danger to my life if I try to share space with cars. Every time I ride I feel like an outlaw here because the city is designed with such hostility to the idea of bike commuting. I don't really have a point; just needed to vent.

@hemaccabe4292 2 жыл бұрын

Shout out to Louisville, a great town, from Richmond!

@Indusxstan 2 жыл бұрын

You did make a point! Cyclists need to get organised and get loud ! Then real change will happen.

@yawnberg 2 жыл бұрын

@@Indusxstan I don't think that's true. At least not here in Louisville, not yet. There just aren't enough bike commuters, and the organizing we end up with is for weekend cyclists who drive to the park to ride a bike. And so that has become the common notion of how bikes are used: for fun and exercise but not transport. We're talking about reforming cultural practices, redesigning cities, and rebuilding infrastructure. This is not the kind of problem that needs a revolution. It needs communication. Whenever someone yells at me to get off the road or off the sidewalk I try to stop and talk to them about it. Not to convince them they are wrong but just to suggest that they have a stake in it and should support improving bike lane networks whenever the opportunity arises. I point anyone who is interested to channels like this so they can educate themselves. Making effective changes in places like Louisville is going to take a lot of time, a lot of money, and a lot of support from people that never use a bike.

@sergarlantyrell7847 2 жыл бұрын

The problem is these routes are never designed by the people who are actually going to use them, so they have little incentive to make them user-friendly. Either employ cyclists to design cycle infrastructure, or force the people who design it to use it for a year to motivate them to make something good.

@timfinnegan3514 2 жыл бұрын

I suspect that in my city bike lanes are now planned by somebody actually using bike. Riding on newly build or renovated streets (mostly outside city center) is quite nice. In the center however it is much worse, bike lanes surface is often badly damaged and they often end suddenly and reappear after 200 meters. So often I am taking much longer route, just to avoid those crappy lanes.

@robins2389 2 жыл бұрын

Still looks better than my city. We use the "paint the intention" on the road and hang a few signs that say "share the road" methodology. We also just added a map of imaginary bike racks to the city hall bike page and got rewarded with a "bronze star" to say that we are a bike friendly city. Amazing stuff.

@rafacanical 2 жыл бұрын

Man you have the come to Bergen, Norway. I live here for 3 years now and the bike routes are simply amazing. Its a way smaller city, so it should be easier to manager, but still, bike-friendliness here is on another level. Sometimes even creating tunnels under the main traffic road to keep cyclists and pedestrians safe

@SeekTranscendence 2 жыл бұрын

You lucky human I’m jealous :)

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, I need to visit. Thank you!!

@NIRDIAN1 2 жыл бұрын

I remember it being very multi-level/tall when I visited, though? How is the verticality solved for bikes...?

@rafacanical 2 жыл бұрын

@@NIRDIAN1 well there is nothing really that solves it 100% but most of the ramps I know around my place, seem to be carefull tought to have less degree of elevation. But most Norwegians are very athletic and that usually is not a problem, others have electric bikes. I have electric to commute without any sweat since my street is very steep, and a normal road bike when I want to roam around

@fluuufffffy1514 2 жыл бұрын

What I find hilarious is when our city repaves a short section of road--just a few blocks--and 'upgrades' it to have a bike lane (or sidewalk, etc.) when none of the sections of road around it have that. It's like the inverse of a bike lane gap!

@syiridium703 2 жыл бұрын

Around where I live (central Europe) we have a lot of "Cyclists dismount!" signs. Prompting you to get off your high horse, I mean, bicycle and walk some distance. While there are some genuine usages (e.g., a detour through a busy sidewalk around a construction), it is mostly "we couldn't be bothered" type of solution. For example, if a multi use pathway goes around a bus stop - instead of widening the path or anything, you are just supposed to push your bike. Or a sidewalk (which is connected to a bike path and you cannot rejoin the road, unless you carry your bike over some barriers) on a bridge several kilometers from the nearest building (thus, there are never any pedestrians) but it's narrow, so you are supposed to push your bike through it. Funny how this "brilliant" solution is never used with cars. Like "ok, this residential are has very narrow roads, you have to push your car through it". And I know it might seem like a minor thing but when you encounter several of these, it can slow you down quite a lot.

@user-jk2zm7uq5s Жыл бұрын

I'd add beg buttons for carists too. (You want a green traffic light? Gotta push that button and wait your turn - oh, just missed it? Bad luck, gotta wait some more. The guy in the car in front of you failed to beg for green? Gotta get out of your car, press that button yourself and wait yet another turn)

@NIRDIAN1 2 жыл бұрын

"These gaps probably exist in your city, too!" [Giggles in Dutch] But yeah what a fascinating look at these car-centric infrastructures that completely fail to consider anyone without a car needs to go places sometimes...!

@jimius 2 жыл бұрын

These videos are great to show what NL could've been. Because NL was a cycling nightmare 30-40 years ago.

@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 2 жыл бұрын

You Dutchies live in heaven. I'm so jealous coming from Canada

@pedrobarros4837 2 жыл бұрын

@@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 *you Canadians live in heaven.* I live in Night City from Cyberpunk 2077, but without the "cyber" part... Aka São Paulo, Brazil. Most bike lanes around here are the "WTF" type, transit infrastructure sucks hard even for cars, and most times you cannot integrate bike riding with public transportation because you can't board trains with bikes during peak hours... For real tho, I wish more places were like the NL...

@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 2 жыл бұрын

@@pedrobarros4837 Brazil and Latin America in general is home to better urbanism than North American cities, even if the cities in Latin America are more dangerous than those in Canada. The neighbourhoods in Rio and Sao Paulo are a lot more interesting than in Canadian cities like fake London and Calgary because Brazil didn't abandon the traditional development pattern the way Canadian and US cities did. I would love to live in a Latin American city like Medellin or Rio de Janeiro because they seem like very interesting cities with their own vibrant cultures, quite a contrast to the boring city of fake London where I grew up.

@NIRDIAN1 2 жыл бұрын

@@jimius Not entirely true! While many cities saw a surge towards car-centricism in the 60s, a lot of the Netherlands was and still is quite rural (but small) and so cycling was always the main mode of transport for MOST of the country. Hence there was probably a larger push against car-culture and now a much quicker return to "car last" infrastructure in cities, as opposed to much else of the world.

@ymi_yugy3133 2 жыл бұрын

What I find pretty annoying are the change side of the road gaps. Often times there aren't separated bicycle lanes on both side of the road but a two way cycling path on one side. For inexplicable reasons though they change sides from time to time. My theory is that this happens when cycle paths aren't planned as a network, but as segments. When these segments eventually get connected it doesn't really fit together.

@caroljoywolf 2 жыл бұрын

We have a bike lane on a pretty busy street that has a freeway entrance running right through it. It's not a gap, but having an onramp crossing a bike lane is not safe.

@mattstewart9055 2 жыл бұрын

My city is full of these and they are the most dangerous parts of my bike trips

@harindergill7221 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for this video. You've highlighted one of the (Probably - the most) important lacunas in cycling infrastructure. Such gaps are dangerous for confident, fit cyclists and killers for kids, seniors and not-so-confident cyclists. Sadly, this oversight is common in many cities. Great to see that there is a begining in addressing such gaps, Thanks for the positive news. Cheers

@peterj.teminski6899 2 жыл бұрын

This is my first comment here. Keep up the good work. I am a firm believer that bike lanes are the Drāno of urban planning. A stationary parked vehicle should never ever be occupying valuable roadway. Some condos charge $25,00.00 and more plus monthly fees for the privilege. A loonie or twonie an hour just does not cover the inconvenience to cyclists. Cheers.

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

The Drano of urban planning 🤣.

@dwarftoad 2 жыл бұрын

Where I live (very small city in northeastern US) our (walk/bike) paths are rail trails (former railroad lines). Which is awesome -- they are completely off the roads, they go fairly long distances, are already graded flat, and were cheap to build (just had to pave them). Except they were turned into bike paths in the 80s and 90s, so the paths are on whatever abandoned rail lines still existed at that time, and sections of them had been replaced with typical north american car centric commercial development, which means basically finding a way through their parking lots. Also there are neighbourhoods with no direct connections to the paths because they were developed next to or around the abandoned lines before they turned into trails. The three main rail trails into and out of the city were bisected by very busy roads/highways as well, but amazingly the state and city have been adding pedestrian/bike bridges over the roads to connect the trails!

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

I've ridden the rail trails in Minneapolis and they sound similar. Such a great use of what could be completely neglected space.

@lukewarm4553 2 жыл бұрын

I have a rail trail that is about 5ish miles long and connects to an existing commuter train station that goes to the city!

@EricJacobson1990 2 жыл бұрын

We have the same kind of trails here in Victoria, BC! The main one is called the Galloping Goose. It makes bike transit across long distances in the greater victoria area very convenient by a North American standard.

@hemaccabe4292 2 жыл бұрын

Tell us your city’s name please?

@CalicoJack-uv8yd 2 жыл бұрын

5 years after everybody moved in with their cars, the city added painted bike lanes to my new suburban neighbourhood. Just near the houses though. If you want to cycle to the closest grocery store, or connect to more painted bike lanes on any main city road, you have to brave a 1-lane each way, 70 kmph road, with no bike path, and no sidewalk. Absolutely shocked I never seen anyone bike commuting here.

@brianclark6568 2 жыл бұрын

In my 70s, I bought & learnt to ride my first bike in February. When choosing a bike to ride in Edmonton, disconnected routes was a major factor in deciding on which bike to get. I ended up choosing a Brompton as it had wheels smaller than 50 cm and therefore permitted on the sidewalks under the local by-laws.

@doriandouma 2 жыл бұрын

The "well you already kind of have something" gap: Here in Toronto, they made a cycletrack along Scarlett Road. It connects with the Humber Valley musti-use path, which you can take to the Eglinton path just a couple blocks beyond the end of the Scarlett Road cycletrack. But the cycletrack is maintained all year and the Humber path is not. And the humber path is covered with pedestrians and their kids and dogs. And the portion of Scarlett that forms the gap has so much extra capacity. So because of a nice path, we didn't get a bike lane that we needed. So I think the plan with these places is, provide something that is better than nothing, then see how many cyclists use it, then improve it and bridge the gap when enough cyclists have been inconvenienced. Instead of just assuming that roads have potential and a connected network is useful and just giving cyclists access to the roadways that are also important to drivers. It's part of pretending that cycling is special and different and weird and thus making it special and different and weird for cyclists.

@lafamillecarrington 2 жыл бұрын

I hate the disjointedness of cycle paths at junctions. In the UK (even in the relatively cycle-friendly Cambridge) there are often cycle paths or cycle lanes all the way to crossroads and roundabouts - and they just end! This leaves the cyclist to navigate the most dangerous parts without any help.

@FlagstaffslowTV 2 жыл бұрын

Do you know when (and how) your city started adding the dashed bike lane markings through intersections? My city strongly refuses to do this, even though its in the NACTO manual. Even the most well marked protected lanes here do not have them, and it gets pretty scary when cars pull out right in front of you and completely block the lanes.

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Only in the last few years. I feel like we're finally getting to the point where this kind of thing is becoming a natural part of the ubran environment.

@FlagstaffslowTV 2 жыл бұрын

@@Shifter_Cycling Hopefully as more N.A. cities continue to adopt this, it will become "normal" and conservative cities will adapt. The cycle routes are only as strong as their weakest link. Thanks for your reply!

@mariadebake5483 2 жыл бұрын

As a Dutch person living in the Netherlands, I really can't imagine NOT having perfect bicycle infrastructure

@bindingcurve Жыл бұрын

FLAT as a pancake, almost prefect population density to support the infrastructure. FYI you need to get out and see the rest of Europe.

@AWriterWandering Жыл бұрын

@@bindingcurve to be fair, population density is influenced by transportation. Cities in the middle ages and renaissance period were tightly packed, since, unless you had a horse, you would have to walk. The advent of motor vehicles has encouraged people to spread out.

@aaronkuntz668 2 жыл бұрын

After moving to Toronto recently, I've been noticing the amount of gaps in the city, despite some recent pushes for increasing bike lanes. Thanks for categorizing them for me!

@molybdnum 2 жыл бұрын

In my city there are a few more to add. 1: "We've tried nothing and we're all out of ideas" gaps, aka we painted a sharrow symbol on the lane and will never do anything else because this is already marked on a map as a "bike route" now and our grants only cover complete streets if they're new infrastructure. 2: Schoolzone gaps: there are excellent multi-use path networks to and surrounding the elementary and middle schools, but they only go about half a mile out from each school - so there's gaps between, because it's seemingly unimaginable that the same people who want their kids to be able to bike to school safely would want them to be able to bike anywhere else safely. 3: Curb gaps: It'd be a bike-able route but there's several hundred yards of unbroken 8-inch curb with no openings, meaning you can't get onto or off of the existing bike path easily except at the endpoints. 4: Redevelopment gaps: There'll be a complete bike lane here in 30 years - maybe - after every single property along the route is redeveloped, because we'd rather passively put a hypothetical bike path in the code as "you have to build your section when you next build something on this land" than give citizens a usable piece of infra at any point in the indeterminate time before that happens.

@juandelcastillo4115 2 жыл бұрын

I’m glad that something connects. Keep up the good work with this channel.

@lizsavage1178 Жыл бұрын

I don’t wallow in any grief over this kind of stuff anymore, because like your friend from Not Just Bikes, I moved from North America to places where I could actually walk and enjoy it. I don’t like biking, I prefer walking and being in a walkable city is like a dream for me. But you keep on fighting the good fight and I wish you the best!

@christill 2 жыл бұрын

You’re right that lack of imagination and backwards priorities are the main problems. The reason the Netherlands is so good is because they started seeing bikes as the primary mode of transport. But I don’t think everywhere else has time to realise that and to build out full networks because the climate crisis is now so bad (Vancouver is basically on life support at this point). So what it’s going to take is a realisation that private cars have to cease to exist in urban areas especially. I don’t think car-centric places will ever have imagination, so the best thing is just to get rid of the cars entirely.

@yeastov5470 2 жыл бұрын

One weird trend I've noticed with the infrastructure I use is that for some reason bicycles aren't allowed to cross bridges. There will be a segregated bike lane going alongside the road, but if there's a road bridge, even if there is no change to the width or quality of the lane, they'll put up signs saying "cyclists dismount" when a bridge starts. Sometimes it makes sense since it's narrower and can be dangerous for pedestrians, but sometimes there is literally no reason why you should get off the bike since the road is identical to the rest of the lane.

@RuukuLada 2 жыл бұрын

You should take some wire cutters and fix up that fence! There's a fence like this on one of our city's paths and people have taken care to cut away to make accessibility to businesses better

@michielvoetberg4634 2 жыл бұрын

For some of the roads I would argue that they might not need a separated bike lane, but rather a downgrade to 30 kph. Not just the speed limit but the design needs to change. Why is EVERYTHING made of wide asphalt/tarmac or smooth concrete? Calgary might do some work on proper road hierarchy

@superfly2449 2 жыл бұрын

Somebody might want to land an Airbus there one day. Gotta be prepared!

@mah6183 2 жыл бұрын

You are right. It’s shown that wide roads that are made to be “safe” promote high speeds, even when (especially when.?) they are posted at lower speeds.

@ianbarr4716 2 жыл бұрын

Fantastic points raised here, Tom. Cheers.

@mithuharjani3620 2 жыл бұрын

Hello good morning Shifter, I congratulate you for the phenomenal work you do in your city and for the delivery that you do to improve the day of the cyclists, I wish there were more people like you in all the cities of this planet, I congratulate you on your work , greetings and move on 😊👍☘️

@jakemayell1546 2 жыл бұрын

Great video clip. I've had the same questions since I cycle those routes frequently and always wondered why!

@definitelynotacrab7651 Жыл бұрын

Ending on a positive note was a good touch. Glad to see they finally improved that last bit.

@hazelisaacs2201 2 жыл бұрын

You are right, there's definitely a paradigm / mentality blockage in many wealthy nations who see bikes not as useful everyday modes of transport but as "toys" - a sort of outdoor Peloton just with fresher air, scenery & more lycra. They'll load bikes onto a truck or car rack at the weekend, drive to a velodrome /park/ 'trail' to ride around the wilderness then load back onto the truck & drive back home as if it's a competitive sport / leisure activity for designated places only (like ice skating) rather than a practical, affordable, healthy way to get from home to work / school / social meets / shopping etc. in regular normal life. This shows also in the lack of proper mudguards (fenders) carry rack/ lamp bracket brazings etc on almost any new bike. In the UK many cities just paint a stripe & bike pictogram in the gutter / carriageway of an already busy road usually full of parked cars & delivery vans or force bikes to share bus lanes; the bus overtakes a cyclist then stops at the very next bus stop just yards ahead forcing the cyclist to brake hard & start again from scratch . These hazards & frustrations mean what infrastructure there is doesn't get used much, then live-count surveys will show "there's no real demand for bike infrastructure, because everyone prefers to use cars." Parents are reluctant to let kids ride to school & even fewer people see bikes as a safe, healthy viable alternative. How many people sit in fume - filled traffic jams in their cars while musing "sure I *could* ride a bike .....but it's too dangerous ....because of all the cars"

@Chrishm0 2 жыл бұрын

Great idea for a video, it is totally these types (and even shorter) of gaps that ruin a great ride, and leave you thinking, "next time I am taking the car"

@charlesbain8262 2 жыл бұрын

Thank you so much in your effort to bring awareness to bike safety on the road with dominating cars.

@christianktm2910 2 жыл бұрын

Your videos are informative and helpful. 👍

@georgeemil3618 2 жыл бұрын

In Toronto, Leaside-Spur Trail/Don Mills Trail used to be a railway track. Now it's a multi use trail for pedestrians and cyclists. At the very south end of the trail, it abruptly ends with it being cut off by a chain-link fence. On the other side of the fence is a cliff and a railway track so don't want to continue and fall off. The only way out of the trail at this location used to be a short trek through some mud and bushes and into a hole in another chain-link fence. When you emerge, you have to go through the parking lot of a private corporation then onto the sidewalk on the east side of Leslie Street. From there you navigate your way to the park entrance on the west side of Leslie Street and Eglinton. After a few years, the hole in the chain-link fence had been made into a properly framed entry point with a properly paved path instead of a mud trail. The path through the parking lot is cordened off with fencing clearly defining the path for cyclists and pedestrians. But in the winter, it is blocked with piles of snow. One year, I complained and it got shovelled. The following year, the owners must have pushed-back against the city saying since it was their property, they could grant access or not.

@WheelersAtLarge 2 жыл бұрын

Great stuff again Tom...👍

@matthewk2725 2 жыл бұрын

great content, informative and entertaining. Thanks for putting this out there :-)

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@gavinm9507 2 жыл бұрын

I appreciate your mention of people working inside government to deliver bike infrastructure. I'm a Local Government Landscape Architect and navigating the bureaucracy from the inside can be a huge task. After dealing with land owners/managers, other authorities, grants, flora/fauna, heritage/archeology and so on, the actual construction is the easiest part. Keep advocating to your elected representatives. I have no doubt there are designers on the inside who want better cycling (and walking) outcomes too.

@jacksonsplace9754 Жыл бұрын

I live in Montreal. Good thing you mention those famous WTF gaps. The best dedicated lanes are the existing ones for decades, the REV and La Route Verte. Some recent ones are fragments of "supposed to become bike lanes". Hope they would be fixing those.

@jessegee179 2 жыл бұрын

Hurray for the connection! 👍 Bike paths are like lawns, ask any talented landscape gardener, the best way to create a lawn is to design the shape, and everything else is flower bed. Planners should create infrastructure like that.

@RenM908 2 жыл бұрын

This video is really crispy being shot on an iPhone I presume! Thanks for the awesome videos!

@Soundbrigade 2 жыл бұрын

“We cannot imagine a world where the car isn’t the primary focus ….” So true! You live in a big city and I live in a very small and I see much of the “end of the roa … bikelanes too. The worst ones being the kind that ends, leaving you on the wrong side of heavy trafficked road.

@kalle911 2 жыл бұрын

I had one of those disconnects. They created a parking lot next to a bike path. I wrote to the real estate developer and asked them about it. Their response was: "that fence has been approved by the city". So I asked the city and they said that "the owner can do as they please on their property". Sure. One day I saw that one little gap that we still had left had been fenced up. Somebody had also piled up some trash behind it. That pissed me off so much that I rode to a hardware shop, I bought a pair of wire cutters and made short work of it in full view of all the passing traffic. I took after & before photos as well, but I didn't go posting them anywhere. :P Not that the authorities care, it's not like I took down the whole fence.

@djavanh2538 Жыл бұрын

Winnipeg is chalk full of these gaps 😭 thank you for addressing this issue!

@douglasstraight3648 2 жыл бұрын

The percentage of bikes to cars will change as gas prices get up to $10 a gallon. Great video. Thanks

@pjstraw 2 жыл бұрын

Love your videos, thank you!

@Theoddert Жыл бұрын

I recently started using a grade separated bike path that stretches from a suburb of Glasgow almost to Kilmarnock in Scotland. There's a gap in Kilmarnock between the end of that path and a path that takes you all the way to the coastal towns and cities. At the Glasgow end theres a decent width painted bike lane (that I think may be grade separated at some point) that runs quite far in and then dissapears through Clarkston (a suburb that has a reputation of being high end but all I see is a car infested crumbling decrepet place) before linking up with some Dutch grade cycleways leading into the city centre. It just blows my mind that, by filling a few gaps and protecting the lanes on the Ayr road, it would be hypothetically possible to cycle from the centre of Scotland's largest city to the coast separated from cars

@havefunandbikestuff 2 жыл бұрын

That brings me to a memory when I used to commute to palolo Valley that's 18 miles away from my home in ewa Beach. When I'd get to work people would ask me how I got there. I would have to explain my personal route that connected paths or sidewalks together, but wasn't really safe for new commuters since it was very confusing and did not agree w the bike route on Google maps. I did it for a couple of months and it seemed doable to me. But without my history of bicycle racing and audax riding, I don't see a new commuter building up confidence to try it. I live on Oahu Hawaii an island and bicycling/commuting to different cities is super hard. Even here on an island it is a "car culture". Any questions about it... just ask me.

@kurisu7885 Жыл бұрын

I've noticed this in a few spots where I live. In one area fairly close to a small airport there's a spot where paved path just ends, then there's a little worn dirt path, then it picks up again, and plenty of spots where it just ends, and some where it ends, but continues across the street.

@SkaN2412 2 жыл бұрын

In Montreal they started building REV - a connected (at some point) network of wide, well maintained bike lanes that take people where they need to be. So they started in a neighborhood that was already super bike-friendly (the Plateau) and it proved to be a massive success. It connects well to the surrounding bike infrastructure, it's separated, it's comfortable, so high quality that you don't even notice going uphill. Then they started building other parts of this network, but instead of going A-Z on a given route, they started building multiple routes in semi-connected chunks... At either end of those chunks it's either not clear where to go, or it just dumps you into a busy street. And there's no timeline on when they're planning to even continue the construction. And then the city administration almost changed and the funniest thing - their opponent wanted not only to cancel the project, but even scale it back in some parts, give space back to parking. Which means a nice and connected network was about to be disconnected and useless... Kinda sad. But all that to say, maybe some of these moments were projects in construction that were cancelled/halted for "research" for political reasons. And this maybe should be another comment! But Imma put it here lol. Part of that network actually influenced how they rebuilt an intersection in the city that used to be an uncyclable (and even undriveable) mess - St-Jacques/Pullman/St-Remi, if anyone wants to check it out. So they rebuilt it to account for bikes and to get from one side of the intersection to the other, there are 3 bike-specific lights with bike buffers at each corner. Pretty cool, eh? Well, almost (the motto of cycling infra in Montreal). To trigger the bike light, you need to press the button which is waaaay out of the way. And you have to do it at every corner. Stop->get off the bike->press button->get on->wait->cross->repeat 3 times. Technically not a gap, but a huge oversight indeed. And there's not even that many cars to warrant a button!

@krob9145 2 жыл бұрын

In the UK we have many paths to nowhere especially in my neighbourhood. They're still trying to work out how to deal with bicycles. Some cities have a few good paths in the centre but the quality fades when you get to the outskirts. We still have a huge issue with no bicycle infrastructure at busy junctions.

@lkruijsw 2 жыл бұрын

Hi Shifter, from the Netherlands. I looked to some North American cities with online maps. One thing I noticed with cul de sacs is that cut throughs are missing. In a suburb in the Netherlands the car traffic is somewhat similar limited, but for cycling and walking you are not limited. Sometimes it can be very easily fixed, for other places not :-(

@georgplaz 2 жыл бұрын

I can add another category of gaps in bicycle routes: abandoned e-scooters

@TeasyLove 2 жыл бұрын

wonderful presentation and love your authentic energy!

@kruthent 2 жыл бұрын

Bicycle infrastructure still an after-thought in North America.

@NickDelDuca 2 жыл бұрын

In my city its more like nota-thought.

@filescopying 2 жыл бұрын

It's getting pretty good here in Boise!

@MrTwostring 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, we have much of the same in my city (Rochester NY). We have a GREAT bike path along the Erie Canal -- which goes through many canal villages, and many new bike lanes/tracks have gone in - but we have a lot of "roads to nowhere" - especially ones that seem to have been put in as a recreational concession tied to expressway projects. The 390 bike path doesn't connect to the canal, and the 104 bike path seems to miss every spot worth stopping at on that side of town.

@gingermany6223 2 жыл бұрын

Type 5, the worst type, when a city installs a gap on a currently continuous shared use path. This happened recently near my house where the city removed a 14ft wide connection between two shared use paths because it was not ADA compliant and installed a narrow wheelchair width connection to connect two 14ft wide shared use paths. Our local transportation advocates got involved and the city had to reinstall the 14ft connection (and kept the ADA compliant connection) at extra expense.

@beerenmusli8220 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome Video!!!!

@Laurynas_LTU 2 жыл бұрын

Great, great, GREAT video!

@Bigbossperson 2 жыл бұрын

There's a beautiful bike path in Vancouver, the Central Valley Greenway. Goes all the way from Downtown Vancouver to New West. Near New West, there is a block gap where the official path takes you up a 50m incline, 1 block over, then 50m back down to the first street. All that to avoid 1 block of infrastructure on a city street.

@evosportychop8332 2 жыл бұрын

Here in Spokane we had a tract of land scheduled for light rail, this was almost 20 years ago or so, funding fell through and it sat as an empty greenway for years. The city has recently paved a trail and put crosswalk lights in making it a nice little multi use path. It doesn't really connect to anything right now and getting to it can be kind of a pain, but they're trying

@lindatisue733 2 жыл бұрын

Yes!Tänk thanks, 감사합니다, for this topic. Every country I have ridden has these problems with bike lanes. Right now I am really annoyed with the WTF piece meal rerouting Stockholm has done for a new subway line under construction, it is going to be messed up for at least four years, if not more. There is a two km stretch that is now rerouted to about three km plus large loose gravel on the detour.

@b2bp 2 жыл бұрын

The Wtf gap on Edmonton Trail is great for anyone north and east of the pedestrian light. I come down from Renfrew or out of Bridgeland. That WTF section makes a safe lane from the neighbourhoods to the infrastructure along the river. It is very safe and a great addition to the area. Yes, it sucks if you only want to go up Edmonton Trail. A true WTF is what is up with the bike lane along 8th ave NE (especially east of 10ave across the deerfoot). Painted lane, no lane/merge into 50km/hr traffic, onto pathway down the hill, back onto narrow bridge across deerfoot (merge to traffic again), back to painted lane.

@JaeIV 2 жыл бұрын

I have never paid attention to the many gaps in my own city/state. There’s one you can look up for Washington state, it’s called the inter-urban trail. Part of the trail system includes sidewalks and roadways where they would put signs that says this is part of the interurban trail. Particularly the reason why I’ve never paid attention to it is because as a city kid I have always learned to use number of ways to get to my destination.

@panzerwolf494 2 жыл бұрын

My town has one bike lane that goes from the main highway through town to the intersection where the road intersects with the one that goes downtown. Then the lane starts on that road till you get downtown and it's done. We also have a path that starts half way through town along that highway and heads south to the end of town. Problem is the driveways over businesses are so poorly down you have to come to a near stop at every one or they eat your rims up. Then there's about a quarter mile of a trailway out on the edge of town you have to ride surface streets to get to and the streets are trashed from years of filling and refilling potholes.

@philiprayner1772 2 жыл бұрын

we had comunity trails in Kitchener Ontario that would go in about 300 yards through bush and then just ends with no warning

@DougGrinbergs 2 жыл бұрын

Suggestions: 1) help map bike/ped infrastructure using crowdsourced OpenStreetMap 2) capture street-level images using crowdsourced Mapillary (sequences and/or static) 3) if your local govt uses issue-reporting system, submit reports, include Mapillary link

@brittanyouldcott2912 2 жыл бұрын

Recent pet peeve of mind as my city is undergoing a lot of construction, road signs placed in bike lanes! They went through all this trouble of making beautiful separated bike lanes only it stick a temporary road works sign in the bike lane!

@robinrussell7965 2 жыл бұрын

They cut the perfectly flat road, and then fill it with haphazard bumpy asphalt. That is my pet peeve. First world problems.

@johngoforth3797 2 жыл бұрын

The whole time you were filming I did not see a single other Rider. My town has zero bike Lanes, narrow streets that aren't even wide enough for the traffic and very few sidewalks to ride on so seems to me your city is doing pretty well with the bike lanes. Well that sounded a little more negative than I wanted it to, anyway I appreciate the videos, Stay safe.

@peteturner8493 2 жыл бұрын

The bike route map you showed at the very beginning mirrows what we have in the UK town suburbs, disconnected routes leaving you dumped in with car traffic. When you do get on dedicated bike routes its great and they are there to be found, but no quick fix on the horizon I'm afraid for the majority of our road infrastructure.

@RobertAdairWorkshop 11 ай бұрын

The city where I live has a really nice east-west bike dedicated path that would be great except that at each street crossing, they require you to stop and walk your bike a crossed the cross walk. You actually have to dismount, walk a crossed, then remount and get going again. They did this at all road crossings whether the roads are busy or not. It’s just enough of a hassle that people don’t ride the paths. It’s easier to ride in the painted lanes and deal with traffic than it is to use the bike path. It’s a real waste.

@pauljakeman Жыл бұрын

In a town near me there’s a bike lane like number two. It cost half a million £ to put in, only runs about half a mile (seriously) and just ends where people park their cars. It’s on a road that’s busy so using it is needed but coming off it involves either going into parked cars or cars that are queuing. I’ve not seen people using it at all.

@BaronvonMoorland 2 жыл бұрын

What type of jacket is that you’re wearing? Looks cool.

@Surestick88 2 жыл бұрын

@4:21 I imagine a big part of the issue is the city allowing those apartment buildings to be built without sufficient parking space for the tenants to park on the property necessitating parking on the road.

@mariusdufour9186 2 жыл бұрын

If the city had good cycle infrastructure and a good public transportation system, most of the tenants wouldn't need cars, and the problem wouldn't exist. Adding more parking space requirements to private property reduces density (because proportionally more space is taken up by parking lots/structures vs housing/commercial units) and makes public transport and walking/cycling less efficient. (fewer people live within walking range of bus/tram/metro stops, and everything is further apart, so you have to walk/cycle further)

@brockferguson5522 2 жыл бұрын

I like your comment about the freight rail line going right through the city. I’ve been living in Parry Sound Ontario for about a month now and there are FIVE at grade rail crossing in the town and Via only comes once a week. There’s something like 30 freight trains a day going through town and no facilities to onload or offload the freight so it doesn’t better the community at all

@ymi_yugy3133 2 жыл бұрын

I lived in a rural area for quite some time and with the help of EU funds a lot of cycle paths where build between small towns. Unfortunately these funds only cover lanes in between towns or maybe the towns don't want cycle paths, but every time you enter a town you are dumped on the street again.

@MrThatnativeguy 2 жыл бұрын

Oh my god this is such a huge problem in Vancouver area too, broken up strips of bike path that don’t connect, they’re pretty annoying, the only places ive found we have good long stretches of path is along railroad tracks or the waterways.

@duduoson5278 2 жыл бұрын

This kind of brainless implementation of routes is also a plague in Poland. This is a huge obstacle for bike commuters, especially when we're not legally allowed to ride on sidewalks. The enforcement of that law is totally non-existent though, but it just shows how uncoordinated the urban landscape is.

@andrzejsupermocny2386 2 жыл бұрын

I found a good path on my route in Poland, but the path is alongside a stroad, so cars leaving the housing estates to get onto the stroad yield/stop for the cars blocking the cycling path and crosswalk. It's super dangerous as they ignore you coming and expect you to stop, getting around the cars forces you on the part of the path for pedestrians and stopping abruptly is also dangerous. Kinda sad.

@ianmahon4396 2 жыл бұрын

The one thing I've noticed around Calgary is that in a lot of these gaps are adressed by signed bike routes (the little blue bike usualy posted on quiet residential roads) the thing with these is they often are hidden or missing entirely. They also tend to push for more circuitous routes like your first example where it pushes you a block south before moving to connect with the river path. A lot of the time the only way to figure this out requirers studyng the city map even then its not the best solution but I feel that the city just goes with the good enough attitude. Side note about the fence, so far the only time I've come across a similar example the path bisected a school yard. There was a fence gap a few meters away but I do wonder weather it is the result of poor communication between the school board and the city.

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Yes, I agree the routes with the blue signs are pretty unreliable. And I think you are correct about that fence. It sounds like a breakdown between the school board and the city.

@LadyShadowSilence Жыл бұрын

Its absolutely nuts. I know my city is doing major work on my main route to work to potentially put in a trail to meet up with another major trail but currently there's no safe way for me to cross that road on my bike. It's a massive work as in they tore out a good several feet worth of sidewalk and ground to put in new drain system and redo all the sidewalk along that block. It's very frustrating to be incapable of riding to work as its the only route available unless you go around about 3 more miles to make it through another direction. Such poor planning

@ben24763 2 жыл бұрын

I'd add another kind of gap--the Under Construction gap! Often there is supposed to be some kind of bike lane, but something funny is going on... Endless construction or parked vehicles related to construction means the bike lane is blocked almost indefinitely at one or many spots, and we just have to ride in the road

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Yes! Too often bike detours are forgotten

@carlhuyts1452 2 жыл бұрын

I live in the most southern in the Netherlands ( not flat, a lot of steep hils), now I'm 50 , and I am a bike commuter. Riding here is real fun, but you always need to look around and visualy scan your surroundings and make eye contact with car drivers. Stay save and be friendly, I guess that' s a good way😜

@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 2 жыл бұрын

One time while I was riding my bike on the Thames Valley Parkway in fake London I rode headfirst into a barrier and had to spend the next four hours in the emergency room. Luckily I had my bike helmet on and did not suffer a concussion or other TBI as a result but barriers along bike paths can pose a serious danger to anyone riding their bike.

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

This sounds awful. I've also hit barriers at night when they weren't illuminated. Glad you recovered.

@carfreeneoliberalgeorgisty5102 2 жыл бұрын

This was in the middle of the afternoon, thanksgiving weekend. Someone had swung a barrier blocking a parking lot onto to the bike path right beside the parking lot, blocking it. I rode right into the barrier and flipped over.

@grahambonner508 2 жыл бұрын

Another issue in UK is maintenance (lack of) a path is built and then forgotten about for a good few years, tree and thorn bush branches grow out into the path, these can be dangerous, especially at night. More than once I've had to bandage up my wounds after riding at night.

@lkruijsw 2 жыл бұрын

In the Netherlands bollards are removed as much as possible. Lot of them were not really necessary. This is rather recent.

@ameenwalli-attaei6343 2 жыл бұрын

Just check out Thompson Rd in Milton ON. Milton is an awesome city that is just really friendly. Cars are really friendly to pedestrians and bikers but people don’t bike that much except for elementary and high school students. The city has a great network of multi purpose paths that are awesome but on some roads like Thompson Rd, there lacks any good infrastructure at intersections and anytime you cross the intersection- it feels like a car might come and hit you. I think filling in the gaps (at intersections) would make biking in the city so much better.

@combativebowline 2 жыл бұрын

I would be happy to have some those "gaps" as problems especially that train underpass. On my 7 mile commute to/from work the only bike infrastructure I have is a 0.75 mile long bike gutter that is usually full of loose sand and fallen tree branches and some paint they put on the side of Main St indicating there is a bike lane but everyone is allowed to park on top of it. I also have to cross a 4 lane road with a speed limit of 55mph.

@charthepirate 2 жыл бұрын

So here in nyc there are two issues that cause these gaps. 1. they often use bike lanes as a tool to fix safety issues. I’m a big fan of road diets etc, but when they are the only bike lane projects you get a nice lane that drops you onto a 2 lane road for heavy truck traffic. (New lanes at 20th street and McDonald ave in Brooklyn) The other is when one council member or community board vetos the chunk of a project resulting in a chunk missing stuff, you see this a lot in southern Brooklyn, bay ridge sheepshead bay etc

@Shifter_Cycling 2 жыл бұрын

Ugh, when politicians get involved in the details of planning, it rarely works out well.

@Mike-vd2qt 2 жыл бұрын

San Diego, CA here, best weather in the U.S., but WTF disconnects and lack of bike infrastructure is widespread. The city is car centric, and contrary to belief very conservative, like most of SoCal. The planners create short sections here and there that mostly do not connect. Then they add up all the little sections and crow proudly about the miles of improvement. Their latest flag waving is Vision Zero which is odd because pedestrian and cyclist accidents have increased here due to lack of police traffic enforcement in San Diego. Basically traffic laws are voluntary in San Diego at this point. Best of luck, great video, thanks for your efforts!

@mskitty666 2 жыл бұрын

I live in a fairly small town, in most cases the painted bike lane works well enough in most cases and Ive never seen anyone get in trouble for riding the footpath, the issue I'm hoping to get action on is one of the main streets where if you are going anywhere during a busy time (mostly school pickup and drop off times) it's too dangerous to ride on the road, as you have so many cars parked in the bike lane so you're riding in the car lane with busses and people late for work, it's so awful😭

@paxundpeace9970 2 жыл бұрын

The first example is common in germany too but cities have installed a detour that leads you back on the cycletrack or you can stay on the rural road.

@yourchildhoodbedroom9584 2 жыл бұрын

Come to Ottawa and do an analysis of our paths/transit. You'll go crazy.

@jasonarthurs3885 2 жыл бұрын

Here in Victoria BC, many improvements to bike network are provided by developers. When they approach they city with new projects, they are required to provide bike/transit accommodations along their properties' frontages. It is a low cost way to get bike and transit infrastructure built, but its piece-meal nature means cyclist are often dealing with interrupted paths. In some locations it's literally one block with bike lane, the next, challenging soccer moms for road space; often leap-frogging between both every block for a few kilometres. Good, but not ideal.

@bsenka 2 жыл бұрын

I have found that where ever my city thinks a bike lane should go rarely has any utility for getting to any place in particular. They actually feel like going for a leisurely ride to nowhere is their only intended purpose. I long ago gave up even trying to use them, even in the odd instance where one does briefly run near my route. Side streets that run parallel to the main routes are my de facto bike lanes.

@PeterSdrolias 2 жыл бұрын

I live in Winnipeg. So, I am used to this.

@andrewjohnson410 2 жыл бұрын

Grand Forks, North Dakota. The city built a wonderful bike trail from Highway 2 on the north end down 42nd street towards 32nd Ave, which is the newest and busiest shopping and dining district in the city. Unfortunately, the bike trail ends abruptly about a mile short of 32nd Ave. Instead they diverted bicycle riders straight east away from the shopping and dining. So when I reach the “end of the line,” I get onto 42nd and continue my trip to the shopping district. The posted speed limit is 40 mph, and sometimes people actually drive the posted 40 mph. Most of the time, however, speeds are greater than that, whizzing past me on the shoulder of 42nd, precariously making my way to the shopping district on 32nd. Then there’s the city snow movers who often plow snow up over the ramps leading up to sidewalk/trail level. These, of course, freeze into bike and rider maiming traps for those who try to negotiate the connection to the trail/sidewalk. I fell this morning at such a crossing at Lincoln Park trying to get my bike back up to the bike trail from the street. I’m 76 years old. I’m OK, but consider myself lucky that I wasn’t seriously injured.