What is Conversation Cycling?

By On January 17, 2012 · 11 Comments

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Mikael Colville-Anderson posted a link to this photo set called Conversation Cycling (his photo above). The concept of Conversation Cycling is simple:

Build a bikeway so two people can cycle side-by-side to have a pleasant chat. 

I want this for Chicago. When you ride with friends, how would you prefer to ride: yelling ahead in our narrow bike lanes or conversing to the side? This is sometimes possible on the Lakefront Trail, but not always: the Lakefront Trail’s maximum width is the same as the standard with for cycle tracks in Europe!

Bike lanes in the United States, when they’re available and not being parked in, are not even wide enough for one person to ride without danger of being doored. It’s not surprising this is the case. In addition to how we prioritize the movement of automobiles and the placement of parking before pedaling, the national minimum width for a bike lane is 4 feet (without gutter), or 5 feet when next to parked cars or with a gutter.

I gathered some hard evidence: My handlebars are 28 inches wide. The door of my roommate’s car is 32 inches wide. 28+32 = 60 inches, or 5 feet. And that’s without a buffer. Essentially, bike lanes as we’ve built them are not compatible with the rest of the street.

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Two Department of Revenue workers cycle side by side, meeting the edges of the bike lane, on Armitage Avenue in Lincoln Park. Photo by Mike Travis. 

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Door zone bike lanes are not unique to any American city. Illustration by Gary Kavanagh. 

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A group cycles on Damen Avenue in and out of the bike lane. Photo by Eric Rogers. 

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  • Mikael Colville-Andersen

    Traffic planners who insist on putting bike lanes to the left of cars instead of the right, along the curb, should be fired instantly.

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      Oftentimes they are just following “the book”. 

  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/8432336@N08/ BlueFairlane

    The problem with “conversation cycling” is that while two people are ambling along having their chat, other bicyclists are actually wanting to get places. Some of us use bicycling as a means of transportation rather than leisure, but the space available to us to safely pass grows smaller and smaller. Put two bicyclists side-by-side in a bike lane–especially an enclosed, isolated bike lane–and there’s no place for the rest of us to go.

    You mentioned in a previous post or comment or somewhere that it makes sense to separate vehicles traveling at different speeds, such as cars and bikes, or Sunday drivers and long-haul truckers (the second one’s my example … I don’t remember yours). Might it make sense to invent some separation among bicyclists? My question, if we really are going to get 100 miles of protected bike lanes, would it make sense to mark some of these routes as express, or something similar? Maybe invent a freeway of bikes, so that chatters and distance riders aren’t fighting for the same space?

    • http://www.stevevance.net/ Steven Vance

      There’s not a bikeway in Chicago where it’s wide enough to cycle side-by-side, so I don’t think you’ll be able to test out how it works. When I was in Europe in December 2010/January 2011, I rode behind several people riding side-by-side. If you wanted to pass, you rang your bell and they moved to let you pass. 

      I probably did talk about separating speeds. There’s something called the speed differential, and I think the Dutch or Danes have some idea on when the speed differential reaches a certain amount, then people should be separated. 

      Have you seen the 18th Street fatty bike lane? That actually might be wide enough for two people to cycle side-by-side and have a third person pass them. It’s at least 8 feet wide (I haven’t measured). 

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