Second class

On Wednesday night apparently the City’s Transportation Commission voted 4-2-1 against the Clement Street bikeway design which would have been a true protected cycle track, which is such a shame.  It was disappointing to hear people who actually use their bicycles a lot advocate against the project as well.

Here’s why protected bike lanes are so important: it makes people who are not confident on bikes feel safer biking.

The Knight Foundation recently funded an organization called 8 – 80 cities which advocates for making public spaces accessible and safe for walking and biking.  The headline, which is extremely relevant to all discussions in Alameda about bicycling: Want to build a bikeable city? Focus on those who don’t bike, highlights:

Yet many cities “are investing in the 2 percent who already bike, not the 98 percent who don’t,” said Penalosa, citing trail maps, bike parking, racks on buses and lines on streets. These are all well and good, but the only thing that will attract new riders is making them feel safe on the road.

That in turn takes two things: slowing speeds down to 20 mph or less, and separating bike lanes from roadways with raised curbs, planters or dedicated streets.

That night parents came out to advocate for the protected bike ways for their own use, but also the use of their children, who they would feel safe allowing to ride their bikes on a protected bikeway, but perhaps not on a simple Class 2 (lines on the street) bike lane.

As other cities have realized, if we want to encourage bike usage, you have to build infrastructure that helps people who aren’t confident navigating the streets vs cars feel comfortable.  That’s what these protected bikeways do and right now, while we’ve created — with the completion of the Shoreline bike track — a mostly protected bicycle route on the bay side of Alameda, we’re still lacking in protected infrastructure on the Estuary side.