Comment 20560

By ratbagradio (anonymous) | Posted March 31, 2008 at 10:31:18

I'm glad I've found this blog as it addresses a lot of issues I've been grappling with. But I don't live in your Hamilton. I've lived in Hamiltons here in Australia but not one that gets snowed on..

My view is that our urban climes have to get away from vehicular cycling to pedestrian cycling like the Dutch have done. There is no other way to proceed. that is not only a shift in engineering but also one in transit culture.

As one commentator has written:"It actually comes down to a single point. Generally when you cycle in the Netherlands you are not sharing space with cars. This makes cycling very pleasant and relaxed. It reduces conflict with motorists and it leads to much greater safety. What isn't necessarily so obvious to outside observers from locations with less advanced cycling infrastructure is that it also leads to cyclists having journeys which are more direct than those of motorists. As a result, cycling is a much more appealing form of transport."

So I think the whole vehicular culture needs to be targeted -- and that's why I agree with an earlier post here in favour of trams over buses. I grew up in Melbourne -- here in Australia -- which is like Lisbon in regard to its tram preferences. And trams rule OK!

I find in my present city that while the local authorities will foster people into recreational cycling by adding bike tracks to parks and such; restructuring the road grid so that bikes are given clearly defined pathways and lanes independent of car traffic is merely deferred to very superficially..



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