Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Stay calm, don't panic, bikes on the road

Mike Goodno of DDOT posted a link to a newspaper article by Jeff Heinrich in the Montreal Gazette claiming that bike sharing in Montreal has a traffic calming effect and few bike share riders are involved in crashes. 

The report also lists common problems associated with biking in Montreal, which appears to be as problematic as biking in the District.  Suzanne Lareau, who is the director of the Vélo-Québec cycling organization stated that because its bike sharing program, Bixi, removes its bikes due to the harsh winters,
When spring arrives, the bikes come out and everyone has to get back into the habit of sharing the road. In winter, there aren't that many cyclists, so drivers are often surprised to see them again when the weather turns nice.
Hopefully, according to Mike, we'll see similar results here (and, hopefully, we'll be able to track this data).  There's also a list of common situations that contribute to crashes.