Reed D wrote: The real hallmark of a bicycle boulevard is reduced automobile traffic and the prioritization of bikes within the design hierarchy.
----------------------- I agree. There's no real engineering/indrastructure change there; it's the same street now that it was before, we've just signed signed it (which I suppose helps those who didn't know it was such a good cycling route, but doesn't do much for everyone who uses it frequently). Why didn't we, e.g. turn the stop signs facing E Wilson St and the bike path at Dickinson so that they stop traffic on Dickinson? The City Traffic Flow maps: http://www.cityofmadison.com/trafficEngineering/documents/Flowmaps/Flowamps.h tm show 1450 cars on an average weekday on Dickinson just south of East Washington, and only 800 cars/day on Dickinson just north of Willy St. Now, I'm guessing there's more traffic on E Wilson (counting bikes, peds, and cars) on average than there is traffic on Dickinson. And we might know that, since there are counts of path users at a very few locations, but I don't recall if that's one of them. If so, then it would make more sense for the intersection of Dickinson and E Wilson/bike path to give precedence to the traffic on E Wilson and the bike path. But instead we give precedence to Dickinson. Also, I don't see how the cul-de-sac of Thornton by Mickey's could possibly have more traffic than the main east-west through corridor for bicycles and pedestrians that is the bike path there. Why do those stop signs still exist? They are routinely ignored by all (and while I don't condone bicyclists running stop signs, they are patently ridiculous when the give precedence to a cul-de-sac and a parking lot over a thoroughfare carrying as many people as that path does everyday). All the signs at Thornton and the bike path are doing is teaching people to ignore stop signs. They should be removed. chuck
_______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
