Comments on: How in Good Conscience Can St. Charles County, Missouri Ban Bicycles?

By: Linkmanager

Linkmanager — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 14:21:00 +0000

This is outrageous.

By: Wes

Wes — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 16:17:26 +0000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slippery_slope

By: Michael Donk

Michael Donk — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:31:07 +0000

I grew up in a similar area and it was 3 miles to school by the road. I couldn’t walk due to lack of a shoulder on the road, therefore, my parents drove me. These roads were never designed for anything but cars.

There are no limited-access highways, divided avenues, or marked crosswalks, in these areas. If the speed limit was, say, 35 MPH. It wouldn’t be practical for commercial or public use.

If the bike lobby needs access, then lobby for transportation improvements. Don’t compromise your safety, and the safety of others while attempting to travel a route that wasn’t designed for your conveyance. Get out of the city once in a while. Jeesh!

By: Richard Layman

Richard Layman — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 17:36:33 +0000

This is a problem in many places, including Baltimore County, Maryland where I was recently working as a bike & ped. planner. Strong forces in the rural county fight shoulder widening because they think of it as road widening in general, not as a safety initiative, and they have little interest in encouraging biking. (Although I jokingly refer to bicycling as a form of traffic calming…)

The National Assn. of Counties has a rural road safety initiative.

http://www.naco.org/programs/csd/Pages/RuralRoadResourceCenter.aspx

And some counties in Maryland, seeing the value of bicycle tourism, support the creation of continuous shoulders to accommodate bicycling, such as in Talbot County.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/4684349813/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rllayman/4684349817/

But in Baltimore County, the govt. agencies weren’t willing to take on the rural road lobby wrt biking safety.

By: AviationMetalSmith

AviationMetalSmith — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:17:56 +0000

A road like that ought to have a 35 MPH speed limit. 55 MPH is crazy , with just two lanes, no median divider, and no shoulders.

By: Erik

Erik — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 14:20:10 +0000

@nanterking

“It’s how we’ve always done it” is not really a good rationale for unsafe rules. It seems pretty clear that if you can’t avoid something as visible as a cyclist on these roads, then you’re not driving safely. Suppose the cyclist that this 16yo girl was trying to avoid was instead a deer or a piece of garbage–isn’t the solution in those cases to lower the speed limit to give drivers time to avoid these obstacles?

I believe what people are condemning is the approach to solving the problem, not to choice to drive a car.

By: john

john — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 12:38:39 +0000

Brazil (a Defiance Republican) “MoDOT is more than welcome to challenge this”.

The entitlement attitude (“I deserve to drive as fast as I want without being inconvenienced” between the numerous bars-wineries) is alive and well in St Charles county. The area is no longer rural and is dominated by developers, strip malls, and casinos. Realize though these attitudes are quite common in the Show Me state and largely explains why the region continues to fall behind more progressive communities. Ironically locals see higher traveling speeds as an integral part of living in a “free market” and is a necessary part of individual freedom. STR is only for aliens and rabid socialists in this region.

By: CarFreeBaltimore

CarFreeBaltimore — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:55:12 +0000

Adding bike lanes on these rural routes (street width permitting) and lowering the speed limit would actually make these streets safer. Banning bikes will have the opposite effect.

This is like the outdated concept of providing huge “clear zones” for arterials and boulevards so drivers stay “safe” by not crashing into a tree. Meanwhile, design speeds go through the roof making the roads less safe for cars and everybody else.

By: Brandon

Brandon — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 02:08:15 +0000

Why not just lower the speed limits in the blind curves only, along with signs saying “watch for cyclists”. Everybody wins.

By: Steve F

Steve F — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 01:24:53 +0000

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

is restricted to motor vehicles at 55 MPH