Yeah so frustrating! I've visited so many towns and small cities and neighborhoods in big cities, where the only bike infrastructure was on the main drag. With cars going 45mph and nothing but paint to protect you
We need to bicyclize the small streets first, and the main drag after
In places built during the era of the cul-de-sac, sometimes the main drag is the only route from a to b. That way means we need to create woonerfs, pave the often already existing informal paths that connect one cul-de-sac neighborhood to the next
I think the reason city planners put bike lanes on the main drag is partly that it's visible, so it looks like they're doing something. And partly that it doesn't occur to them that someone might take back streets to get from one place to another
Obviously the solution is to stack the planning committees with bicyclists, and give them a larger budget than the part of the transportation department that deals with car streets
Somehow we need to convince people that the future is micromobility, and any money spent accommodating cars is probably wasted
@NilaJones City planners don't put bike lanes anywhere. City engineers do. I think the main reason they put them on the main drags is that those roads get touched more often than neighborhood streets and so they get the opportunity to restripe them vs neighborhood streets don't really need bike lanes if the speed limit is 20 mph. Better signage, yes. But lanes, no.
Planning commissions also have no dog in this fight. They do not make engineering decisions.
AI6YR Ben
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