BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

I have been wanting to do this for awhile. It's so true, just when a person a bike does it they appear to be going much fast because of their size.

Damn scofflaw bikers at 0'58", 2'23" and 3'26" - and the thirty or so cars, trucks, buses and vans which rolled through too...

I really think philly is especially bad. In my experience in the ghetto west part, dudes would just honk as they went 15-25 mph through stop signs.

I guess that is the problem with a grid pattern is that most are 4 way stops and it is very wide open and visible.

Grid patterns don't need to use 4-way stops. They can use uncontrolled intersections or roundabouts (like those commies in Europe) too.

I just find it an interesting illustration of the issues cyclists face. We feel like we shouldn't have to stop and yet those are the rules.

The intersection in the video clearly doesn't need three stop signs and flashing lights. It's a three way stop with all one way roads. The drivers recognize this and behave as such. Yet people are pissed.

if there weren't cars there wouldn't be stop signs. jus' sayin'

why that is (sorta) relevant is because stop signs weren't created to control the movements of bicycles. bicycles had to adapt to a car specific control device.

i imagine that intersection got it the stop signs because rittenhouse square can get packed with peds, and there were probably a couple people that were seriously hurt or maimed at that intersection.

Anyone hear about the "less traffic signals" philosophy that some towns have been experimenting with? Some Teutonic country or other decided in a few towns to just remove like 80% of their stop signs and lights. People just drove carefully in the smaller streets, where they very well should have. "Incidents" went down significantly. I think an American town has now started to try it as well.

Some half-assed google searching didn't help me much to find a source. Anyone else hear about this?

Great video, also; makes me wish I could somehow upload all 4 minutes to the brains of angry drivers on the spot.

edit: 80% is a totally made up number. You get the point.

Anyone hear about the "less traffic signals" philosophy that some towns have been experimenting with? Some Teutonic country or other decided in a few towns to just remove like 80% of their stop signs and lights.

I knew I had seen what you are looking for. It was a hard search, though. Finally Wiki led me to the "Shared Space" entry: "The idea itself was pioneered and promoted by Hans Monderman" - that's the man!

Youtube has a series of videos on him:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo3KWHqmDhA

They start out kind of gray, but perk up.

BTW, the search at one point led me to this lovely video of a non-sustainable bike way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCOy-RM3DU

Mick

Thanks for the video of the guy riding the Holland Tunnel.

I lived in Jersey City for a while, getting to NYC was a pain. There's no bridge and the PATH train, even if you could easily take a bike, still sucks. Sometimes I would take a ferry. Boats are nice.