My city hates me because I ride a bike. Here's why.

These days, politicians and city builders like to pay lip-service to the idea of bike-friendliness, but when you use a bike for transportation, you quickly realize there is a fundamental disconnect between those platitudes and the reality of a street. So in this video, I do two things: First, I ride a route devoid of any accommodations for bikes, and take note of all the things that make me, on a bike, feel unwelcome. Then, I take a different route full of bike infrastructure and compare the difference. The result, for me anyway, is a reminder about how good bike infrastructure completely changes the experience of riding a bike in a city.

0:00 Intro
2:06 Stop signs
2:31 Residential roads
2:56 On-street parking
3:21 Sidewalks
3:46 Speed limits
4:12 Who pays for roads?
5:12 Bicycle-only signs
5:28 Slow-speed zones
5:34 Painted bike lanes
5:44 Bike parking
5:47 Separated bike lanes
6:26 Conclusion

#bikecommuting #bikelanes #cycling

Follow Tom Babin on:

[peterbaskind]

Yes; advocacy matters. But a city does get to a tipping point.

I live in Memphis, not a city known for being forward-thinking. Indeed, it was once deemed one of the worst bike cities in America. But about 15 years ago, the City build a 6-mile bike/ped trail along an old rail line. It almost didn’t happen. The City Counsel just didn’t get it. But, once built, the Greenline became wildly popular. It got extended. Other trails were built. A path was built over the Mississippi River. A 22-mile path is under construction. Frankly, it’s hard to keep up.

The point is, once a city sees the benefits, infrastructure follows. But it takes a little push.

[NotJustBikes]

I should do a response video to this showing all of the ways my city (Amsterdam) IS friendly to bicycles, between my home and the park! :)

Actually I've already made videos about most of these things, which you might be interested in, if you haven't seen them already:

[Duxar]

Around 5:30 into your video, you talk about a painted bike lane being a start of some bike infrastructure. These type of lanes are far worse than no infrastructure at all. Bicycle organizations should fight these type of lanes ever being built. They are incredibly dangerous to cyclist for several reasons. Cars have to cross the lane to park and reenter the road after parking. Many motorist look at the outer line of the painted lane as a boundary and drive along it giving the cyclist very little room to maneuver and as we all know, the cyclist is totally set up to be doored by your average motorist who just tosses their door open. There is no punishment for this either. A cyclist was killed in Vancouver in Jan/2019 in a bike lane like this and the motorist who doored him and knocked him into the path of the truck that killed him, received a fine of less than $100. Whenever I encounter a lane like this, I leave it when passing parked vehicles and take the driving lane instead. We need cycling infrastructure but these painted lanes outside parked cars are garbage and should never be built.

[letsgocamping]

Painted bike lanes tell car drivers that it doesn’t matter how close you are to the cyclist, so long as you’re in your lane. It tells drivers to disengage their brains. Whereas no cycle lane encourages the driver to think as they overtake.
Also bike lanes fill with road debris.

[rafaecreatesedu]

I live in Brazil and I’ll tell you how frustrating it is down here. In my city the traffic is very dangerous for cars and there are a ton of motorcycles which makes bikes squeeze in between very narrow spaces in order to get going. The only bike lanes we have are only bike lanes during Sunday and they are located around parks and areas like that, which means that bikes are still seen as leisure and not a mean of transportation, the only actual bike lakes don’t even sum up to 40km...

[pedal-ninja]

Hi I'm from Jakarta, Indonesia. our city become more friendly to cyclist. the city recently expand its bike lane, and more people commute with bike.
at the same time rules for cyclist has also improve, we required to wear helmet, and needs to intall bell and mydflaps, even if you use mtb or roadbike.

anyway, thanks for nice video, and have a safe ride.

[buckettraveler]

I have been yelled at because I didn't stop at a stop sign but where I live I don't need to. Man this lady that was behind me was pissed, I wasn't even blocking her, I turned right into the shoulder, not the road, and she was still pissed. She stopped in front of me blocking the shoulder and started yelling at me saying I need to obey the law. Tried to tell her the law didn't require me to stop on a right hand turn but she wasn't having it, she peeled off and flipped me off. I don't think I was the cause of her road rage though, I'm pretty sure as I did not impead her in anyway. It was mind boggling to me why she even did that.

[__eee__]

I am a cyclist. I don't own a car. But man, this video makes me understand drivers who despise cyclists and portrait us as entitled smugs. We will never have the entire road system adapted to bicycles. It's impossible. The best solution I ever saw was here in Korea. Roads are generally very unfriendly to bicycles, but they built separate bike paths along the rivers and streams and it's great for recreational riding. I can ride hundreds of kilometers there and never ever encounter a car. It's very difficult to combine a network where buses, trucks, motorbikes coexist and acting as if you are the center of the universe doesn't help. They are a pain in the ass for us and we are a pain in the ass for them and any attempt to fix traffic issues should acknowledge both sides.

[danielrocha]

Shit, this looks like a dream city to ride. I live in São Bernardo do Campo, in Brazil, and it’s hell. The roads are squishy, there is basically no bike infrastructure, drivers are insane and utterly disrespectful, roads have potholes all around and also some absurd inclinations. It really makes me wonder at how much this has made people be kept away from such a healthy and cool hobby that is biking

[dalendru]

I love your videos, keep it up! They are getting better and better. I just love the new dedicated bike lanes in the downtown core - I guess they aren't that new anymore. Especially when riding with my kids through downtown, they make this experience feel really safe. I don't think I would ride with my kids through downtown if they weren't there. A very welcome addition.

[drmoynihan]

I ride my bike every day, including to work and even visiting an occasional CV19 shut-in patient.
#1 State of Oregon just implemented the "Idaho Stop" and I love it.
#3 Do you think everything should be about you? Those people who park on their neighborhood streets pay the taxes and you are in their neighborhood!
#4 We are allowed to ride our bikes on the sidewalks in our town, just not downtown where there are many pedestrians. I ride my bike on the sidewalk whenever it is safest and slow down and even stop for pedestians.

[austinhemmelgarn]

#4 really hits home for me. Where I live, you actually are allowed to cycle on sidewalks (provided you yield to pedestrians, which in most cases means running off into the grass or even onto the road if you’re unlucky, and provided you aren’t using certain types of e-bike), and many drivers get really aggressive about people cycling on the road, but in practice the sidewalks are mostly in horrible condition (uneven sections all over the place, sections falling apart to a degree that would be fixed within a week if it were a road, and generally very heavily textured surfaces), the ordinance dictating that sidewalks must be kept clear is essentially never enforced except for really egregious violations (so you regularly have to deal with cars parked across sidewalks in people’s driveways), and low-hanging branches at just the right height to smack a cyclist in the face are all over the place. If I ride on the sidewalks, I end up getting where I’ going roughly 30% slower, and I usually feel exhausted when I get there because I’ve had to fight all the bumps, rough surfaces, and small gravel pits along the way to keep moving.

[jjp]

Every Thursday here in Houston there’s a huge bike riding event at downtown with hundreds of people riding their bikes

[goldenretriever]

Former Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, removed existing bike lanes and blamed cyclists for getting hit by cars.

[maxroshin]

Dont forget to wear a helmet! Take care and thanks for the video

[NotDeadYetThanksForAsking]

I love finding a channel and subscribing after < 2 minutes of watching👍

[WhenWillILearn]

Sometimes I think it's a choice between being a maimed polite person or a safe asshole 😂 great video!

[jolly]

An excellent approach to assessing urban cycling infrastructure friendliness. Most stores, especially grocery stores, will keep you from wheeling your bike inside. Retail stores are meant for pedestrians and motorists, not cyclists. Cyclists must lock their bikes outside and risk having them stolen or their bike accessories stolen. A big box store should consider adding a secure indoor bike parking area as a test case in this part of the world. A small parking fee there might be acceptable to many cyclists. I'm sure there are setups like this in countries overseas.

[adityapathak]

Mumbai. Cycling in this city is a death-defying, hardcore adrenaline junkie's dream. For the average guy on a bicycle, its a threat to life.

[JustaGuy_Gaming]

The speed limit thing is worse than that, at least in the USA. Speed limit for bikes is something like 25-28 mph by electric motor pedal assist. Not sure if you can actually pedal faster than that but it be crazy dangerous to do so anyways.