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]

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.