Study: Good cycling infrastructure makes roads safer for everyone

spen wrote:

what's rarely mentioned is the amount of space available for conversion. 

THis is often used to excuse why it couldn't happen here. But funnily enough Holland until the mid-70s had the same car problems and narrow streets as we do and yet somehow they managed it just fine. Seville more recently is an example of an old world city adapting to bikes succesfully.

Anotehr  thing you forget is that roads can carry way more people on bikes than in cars. 

Overall - what you're describing is how we look at what are choices.  So those who will countenance any change (but also those seeking to neutralise it) often have the view "yes, we want change!  But we can't have things being different".

We are where we are (motornormativity) because "in the real world" it did happen.  We took all that space and allocated it to (initially) a small number of drivers.  Then as more people drove (which was strongly pushed by the motor trade and governments) we absolutely did knock down numerous houses.  And lovely trees, and pleasant grass and lots besides.

Everyone did.  Even in the Netherlands [1] [2].

But ... it's a choice.  And now *lots* of places - in many different countries - are choosing a different path going forward.

Not denying it's difficult to see how we break out of the vicious circle in the UK.  But it's really not because (uniquely) the UK has narrow streets, or cars to park, or weather, or hills, or lazy people, or bad drivers...

On US cities - interestingly I have heard exactly the opposite from some US campaigners!  Apparently in some places in the US they simply don't have the space!  The suggestion is that because the suburbs are far too sprawling they are a lost cause for active travel anyway - the only place it makes sense is the dense urban cores.  However those often have streets built to a rather narrower size (perhaps 15 - 20m wide - the buildings grew but the streets didn't).  For example see this article and the (sadly talking past each other) discussion between the Davids in the comments.

On the general issue: https://cyclingfallacies.com/en/1/our-roads-are-too-narrow

As for your example - as e.g. imajez mentioned other places "have narrow historic streets" - and yet have managed to cope.  Much of NL, in fact.  It's true some cities do have wide boulevards (centre of Paris - but perhaps not everywhere in the city?).  But plenty of other places have somehow squared this circle e.g. Oslo, Malmo, Oulu, Seville ... and even Cambridge (narrow historic streets again!) and parts of London (a work in progress).

spen wrote:

These roads are two lanes wide with 1.5 to 2 metre wide footways and many houses opening directly onto the footway.  No one ever seems to do research on how you provide facilities on roads like these without knocking down numerous houses.

Well ... you could.  The "problem" is of course "something has to give".  And it's "convenience for those using motor vehicles - and in especially private cars".

So - is there parking there?  Perhaps that could be reduced / moved elsewhere?  There are two lanes - why?  Perhaps this could be a single lane e.g. one-way?  If this is a through-route for motor traffic, should it be?  (If a relatively narrow residential street the answer is likely "no, it shouldn't be").  What are the motor traffic volumes?  Do we expect (and allow) drivers to travel at 30mph there (or even 20+)?  If so, why?

The other "barrier to thought" about this in the UK is that once people have appreciated the "separate cycle path" idea they assume that this is the only solution.  In practice this is just one of many tools for achieving the bigger goal - a rebalancing of our public spaces and transport.  Even in NL such cycle paths are not on every street - in fact they're the exception.  There are lots of other ways to make places safer and more pleasant - including "sending the traffic elsewhere" (separate networks), using "modal filtering", unravelling modes etc.

In light of these findings, it's imperative for local authorities to heed the call for investment in high-quality cycling facilities. By doing so, they can not only enhance road safety but also contribute to the creation of more livable and sustainable cities for all. If you're interested in delving deeper into discussions surrounding urban mobility and infrastructure investment, you might find valuable resources at https://writepapers.com/write-my-discussion-post, where scholarly discourse meets practical insights.