The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan is a one-dimensional approach. It is exclusively about building segregated facilities, which are then claimed to be safer and encourage cycling.
The Seattle Bicycle Master Plan ignores the alternative of training cyclists to drive a bicycle competently with traffic and overcome their fear of traffic so they can enjoy cycling.
Competent traffic cyclists who are willing to learn how to use the rules of the road from a bicycle report excellent access and safety. They often avoid using segregated bicycle facilities as they are intended and often used by untrained cyclists.
However the participation of competent traffic cyclists has been discouraged and largely excluded by the process so far. Only the facilities with the highest crash rates (door zone bike lanes on hills see www.bikedexter.com) have been limited.
No study has ever been conducted of competent traffic cyclists who ride with traffic and compared their results to cyclists who rely on segregated bicycle facilities. Facilities promoters simply claim their facilities are safe.
Studies of typical (untrained) cyclists show that they have no increased safety on segregated facilities, but the public strongly feels that segregated facilities are safer due to their lack of knowledge of competent cycling.
The facilities planners rely on the increased numbers of cyclists (riding poorly) so that motorists become more familiar with their behavior and that provides the safety noted by the planners, not the facilities that are claimed to be safe.
The alternative to the Seattle Bicycle Master Plan would take an honest and informed approach to cycling. It would be informed by the effects of segregated facilities and compare this with the results of trained cyclists riding with traffic. That would provide a sound basis to judge the difference between the two different approaches.
Discussions about these issues have taken place in Cranked Magazine, and the Cascade Messenger boards at http://crankedmag.com/issues/issue-5/the-bicycle-driver/.
The mayor ought to be questioned about these important issues and the discussions taking place around them.
David Smith
West Seattle
