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)
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.
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.
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@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.