The essence of the bicycle part 3 – Bicycle lane alignment

But where do we construct bicycle lanes? We previously stated that the government's mandate to build bicycle lanes is based on the determined need to serve biking as a mode of mobility, that is, to serve its citizens who go to work (and back home) using bicycles. Other bike users can use these government projects any time they want, but these are not purposely built for their needs. Especially as to location and alignment.

In a previous article last month, I intimated that there is a general consideration in locating bike lanes along secondary streets instead of main thoroughfares, and this is dictated by safety concerns. The wider the road, the greater number of lanes it has, the faster the design and actual speeds of the vehicles racing through it. There is an established science which links mortality rates of vehicular-pedestrian collisions to speeds. Thus, unless absolutely necessary, when there’s no other alternative, bike lanes should not be placed on highways but on quieter streets.

The current trend seems to be the opposite. The government is rolling out bike lanes on major thoroughfares, with a seeming inclination to highly-commercial and business areas. This needs to be reconsidered. Bike lanes, to as much extent as possible, need to connect between the biker’s home and place of work. We cannot do this for all, but a simple, honest-to-goodness origin-destination (OD) data set should guide planners where the bulk of the bike-to-work (B2W) bikers live and where they work. Then we can trace the needed alignments to roll out the lanes.

As a general way to start, all daily bike trips start in the residential areas of the barangays. There’s a specific demographic on which family income levels will likely use bikes to work city planning offices can readily pinpoint. The other end of the needed infrastructure would be where these particular people groups will likely work. Or they can actually pinpoint the clusters if they did a proper OD survey. Then, it’s just a matter of tracing alignments between these two, with the governing principle of using secondary roads as much as possible and deferring on main roads as much as practicable. But if the OD survey were properly done, it could even include the B2Wers’ “preference” on where they want to pass through! At the end of the day, user preference should dictate where infrastructure would be built! Bottom-up approach with consultation and participation.

Building bike lanes along highways is a “streetlight phenomenon” – looking for a lost item where there is light (where it is easiest to look), not where it was lost. We build bike lanes along major streets because that’s the easiest way to do it – it’s already there and there’s probably space for them. But do the actual users (B2W’ers) prefer and use them? Or would they still pass through those streets without bike lanes because it’s faster, safer, convenient, and comfortable to them? I would! We’re all happy with this newfound interest of the government for biking. Let’s not waste it by rolling our questionable infrastructure devoid of proper analyses, and sufficient logical, legal, institutional, and economic basis. (To be continued)