On Monday I spoke of my long weekend trip, and recounted some good riding. Today I’d like to share a bit of a different view of that trip.
While I was gone, I rode a bike, and drove a car, somewhat extensively in Virginia. My travels covered the area north of Charlottesville, and then over the mountains into Rockingham County and Augusta County. That is a fairly broad area. The things I’m reporting below are not isolated, but rather are observable in a large area of the state, and can be assumed to be typical. They have bearing on road vehicular cycling. The following are observations. I’ll draw some conclusions at the end of this post. Please read on.
Infrastructure in advance of growth: Much of the area I traveled through is obviously experiencing a period of growth. That means increased population, development, and increased traffic. Interestingly, the roads have been widened well beyond the areas of current development activity, and intersections have been improved (signage, traffic signals installed, etc.) well out beyond the current areas of activity.
Traffic signals: I’m not sure how this is done, but it’s not like here. The traffic signals sense traffic and respond. They are not triggered by magnetic sensors embedded in the roadways. Perhaps they use optical sensing. I don’t know. What I did observe is encouraging. The traffic signals can sense, and do react to cyclists. I was riding a light carbon bike. On many occasions I was the only vehicle approaching an intersection, and was approaching from the non-dominant road. Yet the signals still reacted to me. More, they reacted appropriately. If I was in a left turn lane, the left turn signal took precedence. If I was in a through lane, the left turn signal did not activate, but the through signal did.
I observed enough intersections to be sure this wasn’t coincidence. Further, the effect was the same whether I was operating a motor vehicle or a bike.
Road design: Where new road construction has take place (rather extensively) the shoulders have been widened and paved. In many places there are extensive, ASHTO compliant, bicycle lanes. Most notably, these bike lanes are installed in higher traffic locations. Pedestrian sensors are obvious, and pedestrian signals are installed in all high traffic locations.
Motorist courtesy: Almost universally, I was treated with respect and courtesy while riding a bicycle. In four hours of riding, I experienced only one “buzzing incident,” and that may have been due to inattention. Generally motorists obeyed posted speed limits, and operated with courtesy to other motorists and to bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
Bike lanes and sharrows: As I’ve already mentioned, bike lanes were fairly common, and well designed and placed throughout my areas of travel. In addition, I encountered several locations where a dedicated bike lane would have been impractical. The road was an existing urban four lane, wide enough for two travel lanes in either direction, but not wide enough to accommodate a dedicated bike lane. This problem had been solved handily. On street parking had been eliminated in these areas. This resulted a wide right hand lane. The new lanes structure was now much wider than standards, but not wide enough for a travel lane and a bike lane. The streets in these areas were marked with “sharrows.” Those are painted symbols, which indicate that motor and bicycle traffic will share this lane.
Conclusions: My cycling and driving experience in Virginia was extremely pleasant. I saw a lot of bicycle traffic, and it mixed well with the motor vehicles. The design and construction of the roads showed signs of planning. More, the planning had included all of the road users. The roads were safer, and traffic congestion much less than it might have been.
Why can’t it be like that here? If they can do it there, we can too. We can do better.
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