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Comment by 11235813213455 | Hacker News Reader

That's great, another idea we'd need is more priority to bicycles on the roads, meaning this order:

    1. priority vehicles (firemen, police, ambulances, ...)
    2. bicycles
    3. bus public transports
    4. all the rest: cars, motos, ..

Bicyles would be allowed to pass at traffic lights, and have priority in intersections on cars. This will help to promote bikes, and also because if there were only bicycles, traffic lights wouldn't be that much necessary (extreme case with dense traffic aside), with bikes the traffic is naturally fluid, health beneficial and non-polluting

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I agree with your general sentiment, but not about the traffic lights. The whole reason traffic lights work is because 99.9% of the time, those hulking monstrosities we call cars, can just barrel right through on a green light, and when they can't, it's because something with a big loud siren is making noise. Bikes can't do that.

I think the way forward ultimately involves re-thinking the way we architect transport networks:

- Replacing large non-trunk roads and traffic lights with narrower roads and roundabouts

- Increasing the number, size, and separation of bike lanes

- Having bike lanes that cut through otherwise meandering road sections. This is significant, because roads are often designed to go in a very inefficient path for all sorts of reasons that don't apply to bikes.

- Having mixed bike/car roads where the speed limit is 30 kph.

> - Having mixed bike/car roads where the speed limit is 30 kph.

Yeah, 30kph seems to low (hell, even I feel the 50kph limit in cities here is too low) to be a road limit for a mixed bike/car road. I think isolation is a better strategy and will lead to less accidents due to nervous drivers having their own lane instead of limiting themselves to 30kph behind some biker.

Here, 30kph is the default for dense city streets, with 50 for the larger roads where bikes get their separate lanes and 70 or higher for large roads carrying large amounts of car traffic where bikes cannot go.

The best solution is a mix of efficient road design, isolation, and speed limits where they make sense (which is pretty much everywhere except the through-roads). A large amount of 30kph bike/car roads are fine if the road network and city zoning is well-optimized.

Maybe I'm missing something but bikes passing at traffic lights, or just zipping in the intersections, is such a terrible, horrible idea. Being on a bike on a roundabout is terrifying already.

I agree a bikes-only traffic would be more fluid (even if only for the sheer volume of bikes you can fit in a normal road) but if you have cars, bikes, motorbikes, public transport and ambulances all together in the same space, on a complex web of roads, following a common set of rules is kind of the absolutely minimum prerequisite of a somewhat civil society.

The only situation where I think letting bikes go through red lights makes sense is allowing them to turn right (in countries which drive on the right).

When I commuted by bike there was one red light that was infuriating. It was a three way cross-section with a tram in the middle. I was going straight in a bike lane and there was no turns to the right. Yet I was stopped by the red light. I asked the local council why I had to stop on the red when there was NO obvious reason for it. The answer was that heavy vehicles like busses turning left onto this road lane couldn't clear the turn without using the bike lane. So instead of expanding the road a meter, they had me stop on a red light, which in 97% of cases was not necessary at all.

(I cycled on red most days)

Do you also cross with a red light on a car, when there's no one around anyway?

Also, in most cases expanding the road is far from easy or feasible at all.

Expanding the usability of the road is very feasible, simply ban vehicles that are larger than say 2 square metres per user from using the road. Suddenly there's more space on the road for more people.

So in the case of the parent's comment, your solution is to ban buses? What about, instead, respecting road rules when you use a bike?

I can be loaded with 20kg of fruits (a crate or 2 on the handlebar and in bags), I will go slowly of course, but I don't really want to stop at a red light if the road is empty as it's already difficult enough (other drivers usually understand it and don't get mad at it), I'll also sometimes need to ride at the middle of the road, to avoid some holes on the side. Some drivers don't understand this and get crazy, most also don't anticipate things at all, they'll dangerously pass you just to stop 50m further..

I've been also close to be hit by behind 5 times, where the driver noticed me at the very last moment, and once hit on the side (left handlebar and shoulder broken)

Bikes need a status in-between pedestrian and cars, for many reasons, not just mine, environment, security.

I'd probably get pretty mad at you for crossing at a red light on a bike. I'm sorry for your incident, but to give a perspective on "the other side": if there is a bike lane, I would fully expect you to stay that lane and not cross in the road.

And if you do, do it only after you did take a look behind you if someone is coming (and if that's difficult, because it IS difficult, consider putting a mirror on your bike, as it can save your life).

I'll always think having car-free cities will be the best, but having bikes and cars in the same roads is madness.

You forgot the main mode of transportation in there: pedestrians. It would be quite absolutly horrible to have bikes doing whatever they want.

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