Should motorbikes and cars share lanes? How to deal with left turns (the dangerous ones) in junctions? Should motorbikes and bikes have to do two-step left turn?

two-step left turn illustration

There's an idea that we should categorize vehicles as human-poweres or not. Is this a good idea? How about paddle-assist-only ebikes?

When there's not enough space for lanes, which type of vehicle get compromised?

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[–] 2 points 6 minutes ago

I'm a fan of the 3-tier system:

  1. Pedestrians
  2. Human powered and human sized vehicles - bikes, scooters ... including battery-assisted ones
  3. Cars and other motor vehicles (including powerful e-bikes)

In the best case there is space for at least 1 lane of each. If not, then some compromise must be made. Pedestrians should never be completely removed, so the conflict is between groups 2. and 3.

What to do should depend on the purpose of the road. Roads meant for long-distance travel prioritize cars, there is no real help there. Although I'd argue there should be a combined pedestrian+bike path alongside even inter-city roads.

On city streets see if there are any parallel corridors that go roughly in the same direction. Then you can divide the traffic onto different streets. One street for 1+3, and the other for 1+2. Or course this only works if you have nearby parallel streets.

The final option is combined low-speed zones where everyone shares the same space. It works great for neighborhood access, it's very inconvenient if you want to go a longer distance in car.
But if you're in a situation where the road is so tight you can't even put 2 proper lanes on it, that road should probably not be used as a thoroughfare.

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  • [–] 3 points 39 minutes ago

    What if we put islands in the middle of the intersection and turned it into a roundabout. Lanes would be narrow so cars would have to slow down, and it eliminates the left turn problem and keeps bicycles from having to stop.

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  • [–] 2 points 16 minutes ago*

    Two levels of roads. Cars on the bottom and everything else on top. Probably better to do the opposite if you’re in a rainy place, but cheaper to maintain elevated roads for bikes and peds than cars and trucks.

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  • [–] 1 point 26 minutes ago

    Personally I'm pro "move the motor vehicles out of the center." Make cars loop around instead of cutting through. That way you avoid situations where people are on bikes are interacting with cars.

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