Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by David Altenburg on April 22, 2014 at 3:37am

What type of heavy traffic? Are you talking about sidewalks? Do people not ride on the street in Barrington? If you want bikes off the sidewalks, make the streets safer to ride on.

Permalink Reply by Natalie O on April 22, 2014 at 3:40am

They do ride in the street, but certain streets in the downtown area have quite a bit of vehicular traffic. These signs would be for less experienced riders and children to get off their bikes and walk them on the sidewalk instead of just riding on the sidewalk which is what we envision happening.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on April 22, 2014 at 3:41am

Natalie, can you post a few candidate locations/intersections where you are considering adding signage? People here could then look at them using Google Street View and perhaps provide specific feedback.

I can see where you might exclude cyclists from certain routes. I live in Evanston. Much of Ridge is closed to bikes. Similarly, in Wilmette, most of Lake avenue is closed to bikes. In both cases, I believe bikes are allowed to ride the sidewalk, which I'm not sure is always a good alternative.

I think asking people to dismount and walk their bikes has to be considered with care. After all, you are reducing them to pedestrians, removing any mobility advantage the bike provides.

Finally, you might also want to contact Ken Obel, who organized the North Shore Cycling Advocates several months ago. He might have some cycling advocacy contacts in and around Barrington who know that area well and can provide more specific feedback.

Permalink Reply by Vilda on April 22, 2014 at 3:43am

A different direction would be a slow zone for cars.... A shared bike lane sign with slow zone below it at a high traffic area.

Permalink Reply by Lisa Curcio on April 22, 2014 at 4:19am

Natalie, are you talking about Hough and Main?  Northwest Highway?  Those are the streets that I can think of that might be characterized as having "heavy traffic".  I am pretty familiar with those streets although I now live and ride my bike to commute in Chicago.  While Northwest Highway is not a place I would choose to ride, Hough Street and Main Street should have space for cars and for bicycles.

It seems that in the day of the State of Illinois making plans to make our roads and streets better for all modes of transportation i..., it might be better to consider how to regulate traffic in a way to allow all vehicles to share the road rather than try to take bicycles off the street. 

Permalink Reply by Simon Phearson on April 22, 2014 at 4:30am

Cyclists have a pretty keen sense of "what's best" for them; they will naturally find those routes that get them where they want to go in a way that feels safe for them. There are roads in Chicago where I've decided I can't safely ride on the street, and I walk or take parallel side streets. Cyclists don't generally need signs to tell them "what's best" for them, especially signs whose placement and purpose are specified by people with primarily a car-oriented mindset.

Personally, I ignore most "dismount your bike" signs that I see, which are rare in the first instance. Most of the times I see them, they strike me as profoundly disrespectful of the fact that cycling is a real thing people do to get to places that they're going (and not just a recreational activity or a fun alternative to "real" transportation), because they impose significant inconvenience without providing alternative options. If you needed to close a road to car traffic, you would specify a detour in advance. If you needed to close a sidewalk, you'd direct pedestrians across the street well ahead of any closure, so they have a chance to cross. If I'm biking down a street that is suddenly a "dismount" zone, what am I supposed to do? Turn around? Walk several blocks in my road shoes (which are not designed for walking)? What if I'm going to someplace in the "dismount" zone?

Why are cyclists the only ones expected to carry this burden? Would you ask a car driver to drive at a pedestrian's walking speed in that area? Or pedestrians to take side streets? If not, why is it that it's cyclists who have to give up their preferred mode of transportation? 

The thing I've noticed about transportation planners is that they often conceptualize their task as making the obvious behavior that they see easier and safer for the users already engaged in it. This seems intuitive, but it encodes a kind of normative preference about what your community ought to look like. If you envision your task as selectively segregating cyclist traffic so that it's safer and easier for cars to move through (you're not making it safer for cyclists, because you're just making them pedestrians instead), then you're just going to create a more fundamentally car-oriented community, where everyone drives because they have to, or because they get accosted if they bike, or whatever. That ends up being the normative preference you embrace. But if what you want is a genuinely safer corridor - safer for everyone, including pedestrians, cyclists, and car-drivers - you should think about which of those three modes of transportation is actually endangering the others and figure out what you can do to lessen that danger.

Permalink Reply by Skip Montanaro 0mi on April 22, 2014 at 4:33am

We need a "like" button. Thanks for the detailed response, Simon.

Permalink Reply by Chris LaFrombois (8.5 mi - o.w.) on April 22, 2014 at 4:50am

I was thinking the exact same thing.

Skip Montanaro 12mi said:

We need a "like" button. Thanks for the detailed response, Simon.

Permalink Reply by Natalie O on April 22, 2014 at 5:05am

I am speaking about Hough and Main. I do not want to discourage those who are comfortable riding on those streets. My only concern is less experienced bikers choosing to ride on the sidewalk in those areas. I wanted to explore signage that would allow the bike route signs to continue and ensure the safety of the bikers and pedestrians in that area.
 
Lisa Curcio 4.1 mi said:

Natalie, are you talking about Hough and Main?  Northwest Highway?  Those are the streets that I can think of that might be characterized as having "heavy traffic".  I am pretty familiar with those streets although I now live and ride my bike to commute in Chicago.  While Northwest Highway is not a place I would choose to ride, Hough Street and Main Street should have space for cars and for bicycles.

It seems that in the day of the State of Illinois making plans to make our roads and streets better for all modes of transportation i..., it might be better to consider how to regulate traffic in a way to allow all vehicles to share the road rather than try to take bicycles off the street. 

Permalink Reply by Duppie on April 22, 2014 at 5:16am

Natalie, I do believe that your question is 100% sincere and driven from a desire to make your community a better place. But there is still something inherently wrong with it. Read my edited version below. Would you ever post this to a car-enthusiast site and expect positive feedback?

"I work for the Village of Barrington and currently we are undertaking a car signage project. A few of our auto routes go through the downtown and we were thinking about installing a few "slow down your car" or "drive at pedestrian speed" signs in certain heavy traffic locations.

Is anyone familiar with these signs and do they work? Are there any other suburban or even urban areas that are using signage like this?

I would really like to do what is best for car drivers in the area and appreciate the input. Thank you!"