Cycle Paths
Discussion
A cycle path or bike path is a track, pathway, or road lane designated for use by cyclists. Many cities have installed, or plan to install cycle paths, often in extensive networks, to encourage cycling.
Off-road cycle paths
Off-road cycle paths may follow a dedicated right-of-way, or run alongside an existing roadway. They may be surfaced or unsurfaced.
Some off-road cycle paths are shared with pedestrians. These are more suitable for recreational cycling at slower speeds, than to high speed commuter cycling.
Off-road cycle paths can provide safe and convenient links between destinations for both cyclists and pedestrians. They should be designed to allow cyclists, pedestrians and other users to share them with minimal conflict.
An off-road cycle path may form part of a wider footpath, with markings or different coloured pavement to indicate to pedestrians where not to linger to avoid conflict with cyclists.
On-road cycle paths
On-road cyle paths or "bike-lanes" are specially marked road lanes from which motor vehicles are excluded, but where there is no physical separation between cyclists and other road users.
The paving of cycle lanes may be colored (eg green) to make them stand out. This is useful if the cycle lane continues through an intersection. (Mere line markings may be lost in the tangle of painted lines that typically trace out various possible pathways in an intersection.) It also distinguishes them from bus lanes (painted a different colour, eg red).
Cycle path safety
Both off- and on-road cycle paths are attempts to improve the safety and attractiveness of cycling. But safety may be compromised in situations where cycle paths and vehicle traffic paths intersect, especially if motorists and cyclists are less able or likely to see or anticipate each other.
Off-road cycle path safety
Off-road cycle paths are unsafe where the path crosses a road but oncoming motorists are less likely to see a cyclist about to cross in front of them.
On-road cycle path safety
On-road cycle paths are unsafe when vehicles are travelling at higher speeds. Here, while the risk of collision might be low because motorists are able to see or anticipate cyclists, and so avoid colliding with them, the consequences of collisions that do occur are more serious.
Sometimes cyclists use footpaths as unauthorised off-road bike-paths, in order to get some physical separation from fast moving motor-vehicles on the adjacent roadway. But there is risk of collision as soon as they cross a road, or indeed from motorists coming out of lanes and driveways, if motorists are not expecting a cyclist to suddenly emerge just in front of them.
Cycle lane intermittency in Australian cities
For the purposes of safety, a cycle lane should be present at all sections of the road, and at all times of the day. But many cycle lanes in Australian cities are not.
They may be present midblock but disappear at an intersection. Or some metres before an intersection - to make way for a turn-left lane, or be merged with the adjacent traffic lane in order to make room for a turn-right lane.
Sometimes bike-lanes exist as such during peak hours, but turn into parking lanes the rest of the time. This parking lane may be empty for most of its length, but when a cyclist using it does encounter a parked vehicle, they must shift into the adjacent vehicle traffic lane, which is a dangerous manouvre when vehicles are coming up from behind.
Cyclists who get sick of dangerous lane changing, and occupy the vehicle traffic lane (especially those who ride down the middle of this lane, to avoid being "doored" by adjacent parked cars), can raise the ire of motorists who mistake the parking lane (and part-time bike-lane) for a full-time bike lane, and insist on the cyclist using it (even despite the obvious presence of cars parked further along the supposed bike-lane).
Library
Cycle Path Debate. Wikipedia
Cycle Path Safety: A summary of research. Cyclecraft.
Cyclist Safety at Intersections. Austroads. 2002
Gold Coast Veloway. Burchill VDM.
Green Bicycle Lanes. Australian Bicycle Council
Pedestrian-Bicycle Conflict Minimisation. Australian Bicycle Council
Segregated Cycle Facilities. Wikipedia
2007.6.24