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1. goda90+(OP)[view] [source] 2023-05-18 21:43:24
Dedicated bike lanes are totally feasible in a sparsely populated suburb. After all, much larger and more expensive car lanes are already in place. The main problem is that city planners don't even think about it.

Recently there's been a surge of 5-over-1 apartment complexes replacing old businesses and houses along my suburb's main road. Great, more dense housing, that's good. The main road has painted bike lanes in the middle of town, and dedicated multi-use paths further out in each direction. For some of these complexes, they had to tear up the road and sidewalk to add safe entrances. Not only did they NOT add more multi-use paths, but they actually approved the buildings to be closer to the road than ordinances typically allow, making a multi-use path unlikely to ever be put in.

replies(1): >>bombca+eS
2. bombca+eS[view] [source] 2023-05-19 04:48:12
>>goda90+(OP)
This is the big part; if the people ask the city to do bike paths, they do them! They're insanely cheap when designing and building a new development; you can put them in the storm water runoff areas, etc.

Most sidewalks you see are set back from the road already, leaving a grass median for snow collection, etc. You can put a bike path in that area, if anyone cares.

replies(1): >>kortex+Nv1
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3. kortex+Nv1[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-05-19 11:21:48
>>bombca+eS
They absolutely aren't insanely cheap. Folks have been pushing my town for bike lanes for years and it usually gets nowhere. We have like a handful of shitty bike paths and sidewalks that don't actually connect to the important centers.

The main commercial thoroughfare which runs north-south and would be the ideal place for one since it has Walmart, Aldi, Depot, pizza places, etc, doesn't even have a sidewalk. That's how ass-backward this area is designed.

I need to import this whole place into SimCity, bulldoze and redo huge swaths of it.

replies(1): >>bombca+542
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4. bombca+542[view] [source] [discussion] 2023-05-19 14:31:55
>>kortex+Nv1
https://www.pedbikeinfo.org/cms/downloads/Countermeasure_Cos... - this is a bit out of date but the costing per mile relative to roads is going to be somewhat there.

It does take a bit of will and time, but it's a great thing to grumble about at the council meetings; around here all new developments have to have a sidewalk plan (it's not required to be "both sides" but most do that anyway) and connect to the bike paths. They even had a fundraiser a few years ago to raise money to make a connector path, which is quite nice; every business had a little "bike path" jar and it got done.

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