Pretrip: City Cycle Reading

Response to City Cycling Chapter 6) Bicycling Infrastructure for Mass Cycling:  A Transatlantic Comparison 

This chapter describes in detail the various forms of infrastructure used to support cyclists in the Netherlands and how it differs vastly than the US approach to cyclist infrastructure. Many of the items covered by this article, like advisory bicycle lanes, cycle tracks, and contraflow paths are things I expect we'll see in the Netherlands, as they are all fairly rare in the US. Instead, the US seems to be dominated by the philosophical guidelines of "vehicular cycling," in which bicyclists are treated like drivers and use the same roadways. While John Forester certainly seems convinced that this method of biking is safer than the alternative (dedicated bicycle infrastructure), his philosophy seems incredibly counterintuitive both to me as a reader and to the author of this book, Peter Furth. I am excited to see how well the arguments for vehicular cycling hold up once I get to experience dedicated cycling infrastructure in the Netherlands. 

The article "What is 'Vehicular Cycling' (https://discerningcyclist.com/vehicular-cycling/) attempts to cover both sides of the vehicular cycling philosophy, making it more of an advocate for this idea than Chapter 6 simply from the fact that it presents both the pro and con position on the same level. The most fundamental difference between the vehicular cycling philosophy, based on this article's description of it, and the Dutch practice regarding biking is that VC expects both drivers and cyclists to be perfect operators on the road. By promoting the cyclist as a vehicle of equal importance and weight on roads, the stakes of bicyclist conduct are much higher than in the Dutch philosophy where both modes of transport are kept separate. While this may work hypothetically, it seems that VC advocates spend little time concerned with the possibilities of human error and mistakes, which have much greater consequence when cyclists and drivers are kept together. In the Netherlands, the separation of these modes inherently builds protection for both groups and, therefore, has a greater allowance for human error.