Your title is a big lie. "One simple step"?
See, this is at least 4 steps! I call bullshit!
/jk
In all seriousness, this is indeed great. Next step is to remove some of the now unneeded asphalt and replace it with greenery
This sort of treatment costs so little to install, just a few thousand euros and political will. And the tragedy is that most towns could easily come up with the former but can't muster the latter.
It needs a barrier to separate bikes from pedestrians
Naw, people on foot and on bike mix pretty well, it's the 2+-tonne metal cages that ruin cities.
No. Lots of people think pedestrians have to get out of the way of bicyclists.
Additionally, the crashes hurt and people can be killed regardless of the participants, so separation is good.
Yeah if I'm biking on a sidewalk I'm making sure to not bother pedestrians. Bike is a guest there.
the crashes hurt and people can be killed regardless of the participants
Not what I recall from accident stats, assuming Belgium is somehow representative. Bike and pedestrian hardly lead to death, same for bike and bike, only bike and cars did.
I'm obviously not advocating for bikes to go anywhere without respecting others (my own rule of thumb is to be always be more mind of the small or slower people share the space) but I don't think considering risk regardless of participants is realistic either.
TL;DR: yes I prefer separation whenever possible but there is a big difference between separating car with others.
From what I recall there are some documented deaths due to bicycle/pedestrian collisions. Mostly old people who can't really afford to eat a faceful of pavement.
The reality is that it's situational. A 10 m wide street with a peak of maybe 100 people/hour of traffic (like the OP) is not a 2 m wide path with 1000 people/hour of traffic. Segregating traffic in the former is way overkill, in the latter it's absolutely necessary for public safety. Cyclist/pedestrian conflicts are a real problem that not only causes injuries but also simply makes pedestrians feel unsafe, which is unfair.
I expect most bike and pedestrian accidents are not reported. None that I know of had been reported. No deaths, but a lot of pain caused by irresponsible people.
@MNByChoice @fpslem Yes, but the need for separation depends on the amount of traffic. The separation that low traffic areas get (paint) is ignored by pedestrians anyway and that probably leads to more collisions from cyclists expecting pedestrians in the cycle area to disappear. Without markings they are more likely to cycle around the pedestrians.
High traffic needs clear separation (usually just give the road to the bikes, the existing footpath to pedestrians)
Motorcycle using pedestrian path is very common where i from.
I'm picturing an SUV trying to squeeze between those gates obliviously
Where is this
Paris. OP wrote as comment :
This is on my walk to work. The best thing about pedestrian streets in Paris is they help you avoid the dog shit covered sidewalks.
France has stray dogs on the streets?
Just people not picking up after their pets.
Thanks
I'm concerned that that entrance is uncomfortably narrow for a bike. Or even for two pedestrians walking side-by-side.
My city has recently been removing its banana bars at the entrance to pedestrian and shared paths, and honestly it's so much better. You don't need to be as narrow as this to keep cars out.
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