Charlotte trying to be more bike friendly

[Bikeguy]

CLT Bike Camp is now in full swing.  Running two camps every week til the middle of August.. Please keep your eyes peeled for these young explorers, and give them plenty of room...

[videtur quam contuor]

Saw a group coming out of Sedgefield Park going north on McDonald yesterday. Well led, mix of ages and bike sizes. There was a leader with flag on his bike and an 18-20ish  y. o. leader blocked traffic and had the group make the turn up toward McDonald behind him so he was in front of me, not the bikers as their line curved, then he caught the last rider as the group continued uphill. Looked like fun.

[Bikeguy]

Today

 

https://www.facebook.com/cltbikecamp/videos/499033231414068

[Bikeguy]

Traditional final ride on Friday down Tryon St. These kids did 80 + miles this week exploring our fair city on two wheels..

[Bikeguy]

Double pace line on Tryon.  The Friday tradition ( like no other..)  continues... 

This is community impact at its best. Send your kids, volunteer or send your money. Guarantee it goes to a good cause.  www.cltbikecamp.org 

[Bikeguy]

Your Friday CLT Bike Camp (and our next generation of urban cyclists) update.....

 

 

Huge double pace line from Romare Bearden to Camp North End.  

[Bikeguy]

Bike Camp at Romare

[Bikeguy]

Bike Camp is off to UNCC to visit the Botanical Gardens for lunch.  Teaching our kids how to be multimodal, early. 

Edited July 21, 2021 by Bikeguy
add photo

[Bikeguy]

Your Friday supplement.  Check out kid #3.... an awestruck urbanist, for sure.  

[Bikeguy]

CLT Bike Camp being multimodal, again.  This time to Raleigh to actually camp in Umstead State Park.

[Bikeguy]

Chandler has been learning to ride his  bike this week.  Yesterday, he rode 10 miles.

[michaelef]

New bike lanes on Parkwood from the plaza are looking good! Hopefully the cars won't completely destroy the flexible posts like we've done to other bike lanes. 

[Matthew.Brendan]

Indeed! I love bombing it down Parkwood now

[carolina1792]

Due to restructuring of a major road in Raleigh, real deal European-style protected, separated bike lanes will be built in North Hills in Raleigh. These are much safer and are less misused by drivers as they are separated from the road by a proper median . Project isn't cheap which is why you don't see this a lot in North Carolina. 

 

 

[Merthecat]

On 9/27/2021 at 12:19 PM, carolina1792 said:

Due to restructuring of a major road in Raleigh, real deal European-style protected, separated bike lanes will be built in North Hills in Raleigh. These are much safer and are less misused by drivers as they are separated from the road by a proper median . Project isn't cheap which is why you don't see this a lot in North Carolina. 

 

 

Raleigh is actually in the process of amending the street cross sections contained in their Unified Development Ordinance to include more of these lanes in the future.  If approved by City Council they would become the standard on most new streets.  You can see what it would look like in this text change document from the Planning Commission:  https://cityofraleigh0drupal.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/drupal-prod/COR22/TC-03-21.pdf

[michaelef]

On 9/15/2021 at 2:46 PM, michaelef said:

New bike lanes on Parkwood from the plaza are looking good! Hopefully the cars won't completely destroy the flexible posts like we've done to other bike lanes. 

Already seen some damaged ones. Is this normal? I feel like we can barely have things near the road before they are ruined 

[kayman]

11 hours ago, michaelef said:

Already seen some damaged ones. Is this normal? I feel like we can barely have things near the road before they are ruined 

Unfortunately it is normal. Someone crashed into the station platform of one of the LYNX Gold Line stations on Davidson Street and Trade Street requiring repairs prior to the streetcar opening. People seem to drive distracted often everywhere.

[michaelef]

1 hour ago, kayman said:

Unfortunately it is normal. Someone crashed into the station platform of one of the LYNX Gold Line stations on Davidson Street and Trade Street requiring repairs prior to the streetcar opening. People seem to drive distracted often everywhere.

Ughh this is why we can't have nice things. I'm wondering if readers with perspectives from other cities see similar things. I guess this is what happens in a car dominated society.

[Matthew.Brendan]

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/amp/waller-bicyclists-hit-truck-teen-driver-ironman-16490862.php

 

I’m sure some of y’all have seen this. 

[InSouthPark]

23 hours ago, Matthew.Brendan said:

https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/transportation/amp/waller-bicyclists-hit-truck-teen-driver-ironman-16490862.php

 

I’m sure some of y’all have seen this. 

Been there (coal rolled out in union county) while training for an Ironman.

Also had water bottle and arizona ice tea can thrown at me (the water bottle hit me). 

Also had cars swerve toward me to scare me. 

Almost always teens, almost always in Union County. Almost always in a white pickup. 

Then broke my neck (3 fractures in C6/7) in a bike accident...who knows what happened there...I have no memory of the day until after I woke in the ICU where I spent 48hrs + another day in a regular room.  I was riding 5000+ miles a year so I knew what I was doing on a bike.

Needless to say I retired from triathlons and haven't ridden but maybe 50 miles total on a road in 8 years and most of that is on vacation.  F that. It's not worth it. 

[Owenorange]

The Europeans are public transit ninjas. 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Owenorange

[carolina1792]

 Raleigh UDO adopts above-the-curb, protected bike lanes as standard design of all city avenues (large streets). (TC-3-21 – Bicycle Street Cross-Sections) Effective next month. Meaning that all new developments that will have large streets will have to design them to this new standard. For existing avenue streets this means that when it comes time to refresh or expand a road they will need to include protected bike lanes. This does not affect 'Main Street' type streets that include most of downtown Raleigh however that is in motion.  This took two years to go through the motions to adoption.  This also means those painted bike lanes with the cheap plastic posts will be disallowed as an alternative. 

 

From what I understand, Charlotte's UDO process is a whole different beast. 

 

Edited October 22, 2021 by carolina1792

[michaelef]

On 9/29/2021 at 11:09 AM, kayman said:

Unfortunately it is normal. Someone crashed into the station platform of one of the LYNX Gold Line stations on Davidson Street and Trade Street requiring repairs prior to the streetcar opening. People seem to drive distracted often everywhere.

Drove down parkwood today and so many delineators (flexible posts) we're gone, damaged, etc. This is just sad.  But it doesn't look like the new bike lanes have calmed traffic on Parkwood at all. Charlotte drivers are the worst.

[Matthew.Brendan]

 

Some inspiration from Berlin. 

[JRCLT]

Drove down parkwood today and so many delineators (flexible posts) we're gone, damaged, etc. This is just sad.  But it doesn't look like the new bike lanes have calmed traffic on Parkwood at all. Charlotte drivers are the worst.

I read in an article a while back Charlotte was rank No. 20 on a list of cities with the best drivers based on data of vehicle incidents, DUIs, citations, etc. which makes sense considering the drivers here aren’t too bad compared to the other cities I have visited. In general though it’s a small amount of people that are terrible and humans aren’t the best at driving considering we make mistakes. The delineators though…those are just people that need their licenses revoked since they can’t stay in a lane. Lol.