Infrastructure Expectations (pt. 2)

I shared some photos and differences in my last post. For this post I want to start thinking about how the design relates to my experiences and how that relates to my work in Oregon.

I’m a seasoned cyclist who rides thousands of miles a year. I own bikes I’ve ridden 20,000 miles on. I was actually intimidated when I first started riding in Copenhagen, because the experience was so different than what I’m used to. With so many bike lanes it can be difficult to navigate at first. In the US, bike infrastructure tends to channel you onto one or two streets, and it’s clear when you get to the next street that’s decent to ride on that you should take that way. Also, it’s illegal to turn left here – you make a right, then wait for the light and go straight. People here also ride very confidently and pass closely. In Eugene, we have people who complain about much less close interaction on the bike paths, but in Copenhagen people in suits and dresses will be elbow to elbow with you while riding. It’s very similar to riding in a group of road cyclists.

After a day or so, I got used to how people here ride and could really start to appreciate what a dense network of connected, safe facilities does for people when they need to get somewhere on a bike. The short answer is that it’s incredible. The mental load of wondering how to safely get somewhere is gone. As is the constant voice in the back of your head that you’re one distracted driver crossing the paint from a serious injury or worse. Beyond that, it feels like freedom. Movement here feels unrestricted in ways that I don’t feel in the United States – even while driving in a car.

Nearly all of that is tied back to the infrastructure that is clearly designed for (not designed to accommodate) someone riding a bike. Some of it is cultural. People driving all ride bikes sometimes and are extremely courteous and watch for cyclists, though they will get close to you (at slow speed) and will even go through gaps of pedestrians in a crosswalk. But the infrastructure is really carrying the load on providing freedom.

That sense of freedom comes from knowing that I will be safe wherever I want to go. It comes from having a dense network of facilities that allows me to go anywhere and doesn’t force me to go far out of my way to feel safe.

On the infrastructure, though, I have noticed a really big difference in how Danes design things. The best way to describe it is that everything is about context here. In the US, I hear engineers say they can’t do something that makes sense, because the MUTCD or some other engineering principle prevents them from doing what is logical. I empathize with them because they have a professional liability. I asked a planner here about standards, and he confirmed my suspicion that design standards do exist here, but they’re guidelines and not rules. the result is that each piece of infrastructure feels similar, but nothing is quite the same. Things are not as standardized, but they do make sense.

It really feels that culturally because of how we engage in more litigation and how we rely on standards, the Danish approach is not feasible in Oregon right now. I’m not an engineer, so I don’t know how to change how we’re designing things in a way that allows them to exercise their judgement, but it feels that is necessary to start to get some of the magic that I’m feeling while riding here. Engineers in the US do try innovative things, but very incrementally and in small demonstrations. I would love to see them free to throw out the manual and start to design bikeways that make sense.

We also tend to really over-engineer things. As I mentioned, there really isn’t a lot that goes into a bikeway in Copenhagen other than 8 or 11 feet of pavement, raised up above street level a few inches with a curb, and perhaps some protection by way of parked cars. In the US, I expect to see lots of paint marking conflict zones, striping of various colors, signs everywhere, and exclusive phases for bike lights when they’re provided. Here the simple approach seems to work better. While there may be some middle ground, I think the proof is in the numbers and we have much higher rates of injury for people walking and biking (and also for people inside the car). Other North American big cities have a similar feel to Eugene, but scaled up. Vancouver, BC has bikeways that look and feel like the ones in Eugene, but many more of them. They don’t feel like Copenhagen. Riding on them is just much more stressful.

Roadway space for cars is less engineered as well. People drive more slowly and watch out for folks more. I have to wonder whether that’s because the Danes don’t try to maximize traffic in a very specific way, leading to a high degree of separation and a feeling that when it’s your turn to go, nobody else should be in your way. I’ll note here that driving here isn’t a worse experience (at least I don’t think it would be). People tend to go slowly when around others, hold their line, and make their intentions clear, regardless of what mode they use. It results in little delay for anyone. There is less traffic congestion in Copenhagen at commute times and during the day than there is in the city of Eugene.

The best way to describe the simplicity of riding here is it’s more or less the feeling you get while riding on the river paths in Eugene – stress free and enjoyable. The only difference is that you get this feeling pretty much everywhere you go.

I don’t have a solid takeaway yet on what to do about these thoughts. I am left with the feeling that we greatly over-engineer roadways and bikeways in the US in a way that doesn’t make us safer and doesn’t really lead to better travel times for anyone – including people driving. Culturally, that would be a big shift away from how we’ve been building roadways and it would require serious buy in from a lot of folks, including the whole engineering field.