Here in Oakland, 57% of people want to ride a bike more than they do now, according to a NACTO survey conducted in 2019. And biking makes a lot of sense for short to moderate distances. A 2-3-mile bike ride that takes 20 minutes by bike may take the same amount of time or longer by car – because of traffic and parking. I timed this recently. Here’s a 2.1 mile bike ride that took 10.5 minutes. Google maps estimates a 12 minute car drive, that doesn’t include parking time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDJ27-AfMm4 Many trips are distances that one can easily bike The Federal Highway Administration keeps data on automobile trip distances. 45% of trips are under 3 miles, and 35% are under 2 miles. More than 1 in 3 car trips could be replaced by a bike ride! This would be […]
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Protected bike lanes separate people on bikes from moving cars – and parked cars.
I rode my bike down the protected bicycle lane on Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland the other day. It was not as pleasant as I’d hoped, but still way better than what it was like riding a bicycle on Telegraph Avenue before the lanes were installed. Back then, it felt like riding next to cars on a highway, with some obstacles in between. Traffic speeds are slower now, but there are still a lot of obstacles. Most of the obstacles were at driveways and intersections, and were mostly drivers who were trying to drive their cars somewhere. When the bike lanes ended downtown though, the painted bike lane became an auxiliary parking lot for cars. This was frustrating, as the parked cars render those bike lanes useless. I guess one could argue that they were already useless to start, since […]
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Cars parked in the bike lane. It’s dangerous, but surprisingly not illegal.
The other night, I was riding home from UC Berkeley with my kid. We rode through a bad stretch of Dana Street, where the bike lane is on the left side. It’s a one-way street with heavy car traffic. As usual (unfortunately), someone was parked in the bike lane, blocking us. We scanned for traffic behind us, looking for an opening in traffic. We found a break in traffic, and tried to go around as fast as possible. More cars arrived as we started to go around. The driver blocking the lane was playing on their phone while idling their car. Oblivious or ignorant to the problems they were causing. Perhaps they were waiting to pick somebody up? It’s unsettling to watch your child ride while surrounded by moving cars. You already feel vulnerable, and your child looks even more […]
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Is this bike lane safe? (Riding to Creston Park was kind of scary)
I took my child to Creston Park by bike during our last visit to Portland. Aside from a few issues (it was hot! and my kid wasn’t used to their borrowed bike!) the ride there was mostly pleasant. We took some of the calm neighborhood streets and Greenways. Our general path was along SE 34th, Clinton and SE 45th Avenue. I knew we’d have to cross SE Powell at some point, but I guess I had hoped that there’d be a decent way to bike across it. Especially since Portland has relatively (for the USA) good bike infrastructure. I also hoped that since there’s a park with Creston Elementary school nearby, the city might have provisions for easier biking to school and play. We saw another adult and children riding, presumably headed to the same destination. We stopped […]
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Protected bike lanes on Milvia in Berkeley
Protected lanes in Berkeley! I noticed a lot of new construction activity on Milvia Street in Berkeley a few months ago, after visiting Sports Basement and Missing Link in search of a new bike rack. I was pretty excited to see that it looked like protected lanes were going to be installed. Recently, coming back from University, it was nice to see the construction taking place around Addison, Center, Center, and along Berkeley High. Why protected lanes? I’ve asked a lot of friends what would make it easier for them to ride their bike more. Most have answered that they’re scared of automobile traffic. While painted bike lanes can be helpful, there’s not much preventing a distracted driver from drifting or veering into a bike lane and harming a person on a bike. Protected bike lanes are great, because […]
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A kids bike ride through Berkeley
We went for a bike ride through Berkeley last week with some friends and kids. Our friend’s child has a 20″ Frog 52 and we have a 20″ Opus Doppler. Both red. We enjoyed the Ninth Street bike boulevard and riding around the makeshift traffic circles (aka Healthy Streets Traffic Octagons)Third (and final, for now at least) Healthy Streets quick-build traffic octagon installed at 9th and Page! @CityofBerkeley https://t.co/Z2eIZVCGn9 pic.twitter.com/Kg8gbn7Z1C— Walk Bike Berkeley (@WalkBikeBerk) May 20, 2021The kids enjoyed singing, racing, playing games, and just chatting while riding, and I’m sure we’ll repeat this sometime in the future.We rode through West Berkeley and got food at Pollara Pizzeria and Tacubaya on 4th street when everybody got hungry. Then we headed home. Or follow along for updates:
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On Oakland potentially removing our first-ever protected bike lane on Telegraph Ave
I was really disappointed to read that OakDOT is planning to remove Oakland’s first-ever protected bike lane presumably after pressure from a lot of pressure from the KONO (Koreatown Northgate) business improvement district. Initially, I heard a lot of mixed reviews from cyclists about the protected lanes in the KONO district, mostly because of parking confusion. Drivers would park their car in the middle of the bike lane, despite markings, because they expected parallel parking to be at the curb rather than offset from the curb. This would then cause a big problem for a bike rider when the lane would be fully blocked by a parked car. After everyone got used to this, I felt that it worked a lot better. I feel that it’s a lot safer because there are physical barriers (parked cars, bollards) between someone on […]
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