random observations

[mindstalk]

North Oakland has become rather aggressive about traffic calming on residential streets. Lots of circular planters in intersections, like a micro-rotary, to slow cars down; that's been around for a while. But new was lots of barriers: say you're allowed to enter a street, then you probably passed a barrier blocking exit in the opposite direction. And when you reach the end of the block, you'll be facing a barrier across the intersection, so that you'll have to turn left or right rather than go straight. (Legally, anyway -- I saw a few drivers cheat.) So the streets are internally two-way, but a maze of limited accesses to prevent traffic from running through.

Lots of bicyclists without bike helmets in Montreal. I'd guess helmets are like 50%, though I haven't really counted. Common, unlike Osaka or Amsterdam, but not as ubiquitous as I recall from the US. Some of that is people on Bixi bikeshare, but I've seen road bikers in traffic without a helmet. There did seem to be more helmets yesterday on the canal shared path, but that's the sort of thing that probably attracts faster biking (apart from having to share with the pedestrians.)

More bikers than I was used to in LA, not sure about Boston or Oakland. I see a lot on Maisonneuve but it has a physically protected bike path.

Montreal forbids biking on the sidewalk, unlike LA. The one sidewalker I recall seeing was laboring uphill toward Mont Royal. Can't say as I'd be happy to bike on the major streets here.

Comments

[mtbc]

I have the sense of the maze just making drivers have to drive further while being more irritable but presumably some studies suggest goodness.

[squirrelitude]

I recently heard someone around here (Somerville, MA) describe it as a method for separating bike and car traffic: Bikes go around/through the obstructions and use the residential areas as their thoroughfares, but cars are diverted to larger, faster roads except for last-few-blocks travel. They said that Portland has been doing a lot of this.

Somerville doesn't have that to speak of, but we *do* have a lot of one-way streets, and a handful of them are two-way for bikes (to similar effect). I'd like to see more of that!

[mindstalk]

Yeah. See my other reply.

[mindstalk]

What squirrel said. Drivers only have to go significantly further if they're going just a few blocks. For any real trip most people would be going to the main streets like Alcatraz or College anyway; stuff like this just prevents 'rat-running', people gunning through the residential neighborhood. (Something Google Maps has been encouraging by telling drivers about low-traffic streets.) Makes most streets cleaner, quieter, and safer for bikers or kids.

It's a common goal with various approaches. Barcelona superblocks have one-way streets in a crescent. Netherlands had two way streets with bollards that block cars from going through, they call it filtered permeability. Japan has one-way streets that go through but are so narrow and busy with non-cars you wouldn't want to be on it for long.

[mtbc]

Aha, thank you to you and squirrelitude for explaining. And, yeah, Greater Boston's old and dense enough that I guess it ends up rather more integrated than some other places I've seen. E.g., the last couple of places I lived in Scottish villages, driving past my house just does not get one to anywhere far away on the other side in any sensible way because there is no good connection at all. Even in central Ohio, a fair few large housing developments had an entry from larger roads on one side but no useful way out from the other side, so the topology wasn't tempting in the first place, probably not where I am now either, though that might partly be because the state route one might want to connect with is on the other side of a stream.

[mindstalk]

Yeah, these tend to be adaptations of a street grid or near-grid. Preserving the connectivity for foot and bike traffic while blocking it for cars.