Speed Limits For Bikes?
Caught this quote on The WashCycle, as part of another discussion about the George Washington Memorial Parkway…
The unnecessary bike ban on the roadway south of Dangerfield Island and the moronic 15 MPH speed limit on the parallel Mount Vernon Trail must be changed. A 15 MPH bicycling speed limit is a de facto ban on transportation bicycling.
I’ve seen this sentiment expressed in other discussions regarding mixed use trails, and I find it puzzling. Is this really a deal breaker for people when deciding whether or not to commute by bicycle?
I realize my circumstances are my own, commuting about 5-6 miles each way, and typically on an Xtracyclized mountain bike with 60mm tires. I usually glide along at somewhere between 15-20 mph when I’m up to speed, but I don’t mind floating along at 10 mph either. I’m usually pretty happy to be on my bike regardless.
So it’s always a little strange to my ear to hear people say that putting a speed limit on a trail, or even on a section of trail, makes it unusable for transportation cycling. I mean, if, in the course of discussing a proposed city street, someone were to suggest that 25 mph made it unusable because it wasn’t fast enough for their car, wouldn’t that sound strange? Don’t we accommodate the needs of others for all sorts of shared resources? Isn’t that part of city livin’?
I’m not saying that these people are wrong, but I’m clearly missing some key aspect of this argument, aren’t I?
Tags: bicycle commuting, bicycling, urban cycling
October 14th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I agree. As a seasoned, halfway fit rider, my typical commuting/city-riding speed is probably about 15 mph. Around here most bike trails are “multi-use” and have a speed limit of 10 mph, which is less of a factor than oblivious pedestrians and dog walkers who intersect the paths unpredictably. Of course, speed has a reciprocal relationship to time. A 10 mile commute at 15 mph takes 40 minutes, while at 20 mph it takes 30 minutes. What’s ten minutes spent doing something pleasant? By the way, how many riders can ride 20 mph for 30 minutes. A lot of people at a popular local time trial aren’t that fast. (I did 21 mph for 20 minutes and was far from comfortable at the end).
Also consider that lots of people who are obsessed with bicycle racing statistics have unrealistic expectations of speed. A few years ago, at my first bike shop gig, we had a female customer who was a newbie racer and triathlete. She frequently talked about cruising along at 23 mph or faster (probably on group rides). One night she came in late and was nervous about riding through tough neighborhoods in the dark. Since she lived near me, I rode with her. I was riding at my normal pace on my old 3-speed and she was on something racier, and she had a hard time keeping up with me. Speed limit or not, she was not a 23 mph commuter.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:34 am
Yeah that’s the thing, I guess, that I don’t understand. Even if we were talking about a 15 mile commute, and we’re talking about being held down to 15mph instead of being “set free” to do, say, 20mph, does that 15 minutes make it unusable? Does it make driving a car in traffic a more attractive option?
This, of course, is an obstacle to my understanding their point. If everything went wrong and I had to choose between my 4 y.o. daughter’s Princess bike and driving my car to work… it’d be a tough choice. I’d rather be on a bike.
I remember from a video of John Forester giving a bunch of Google employees a presentation on effective cycling railing about mixed-use trails, and his example was how he was doing a gig in Seattle, and he freaked out his hosts by doing 20mph on the Burke Gillman Trail. He thought that was hilarious that they’d be so shaken up by his “normal commuting speed”. It just left me thinking, “Jesus dude, it’s a mixed-use path, what’s your deal?”
But I think that’s where the disconnect lies: I look to Amsterdam and Copenhagen for what a “perfect biking environment” looks like: people in regular clothes without helmets, toolin’ along on heavy, comfortable, useful bikes. I suspect those more into carbon-fiber flavors think that floating along on cruisers, at say 10-15 mph, talking on phones, carrying passengers on racks is a vision of hell.