I want to be clear, I'm talking about the city metro areas. Not commuting from suburbia. We should have fully separated bike paths for longer distance commute bike traffic, because mixed speed traffic with cars just doesn't work when cars are going faster, and unprotected bike lanes are just a bandaid solution to that problem.
But once you're in the metro area, everyone should slow right down. The dominant traffic in the city is foot traffic.
Cars go at 50km/h through my city, meaning they need to be separated really strictly. Slow them down to 20km/h with narrower roads, and you can reclaim the area for mixed pedestrian traffic, allowing more free movement for everyone in the city. Something as simple as crossing the road shouldn't take 10 minutes for 200 people just so five cars can cross the road.
With narrower streets and slower traffic, you can reasonably cross the road anywhere you want. That also allows bikes to move reasonably along the road but slowly on the footpaths, you open the whole area up for the people using the city.
It's all a balance, not everywhere in a city should be like that. I'm just advocating to move away from the heavy car-oriented lean many places currently have for their city centers.
There is no difference between city centers and suburbia in much of Europe. Apart from that, the Netherlands has a few bike highways now to cater to faster intercity transport.
What you want to do is enable fast biking everywhere (so a bike first infra) and seperate modalities for safety and comfort. Any urban transport research will show that bikes in foot traffic is a Very Bad Idea(tm).
> because mixed speed traffic with cars just doesn't work when cars are going faster
Why doesn't it work? I frequently commute by bicycle by traveling at speeds ranging from 10 to 40 km/h (averaging around 18 to 20 km/h) amongst motorized traffic moving at 25 to 80 km/h without any issues. I do something very similar on interstate highways (motorways) where I drive 110 to 130 km/h amongst tractor-trailers moving at 60 to 100 km/h.
> unprotected bike lanes are just a bandaid solution to that problem.
Bike lanes don't solve anything and they cause problems for cyclists at intersections because they direct cyclists to pass traffic on the wrong side when traffic plans to turn.
Former discussion was about sidewalks, so I wanted to be explicit that having a 40km/h speed limit for cars while sending cyclists to a shared cyclepath/sidewak at 10km/h is not a solution.
I fully agree with displacing cars. If a street has 20km/h limit for cars, I would not mind if it applied for bicycles as well (even though they are safer at the same speed).
Yes, foot traffic should be a priority. For longer distances you need something faster - mass transit, bikes, those e-scooters, maybe longboards, or even segways (there are nice 1-wheel versions), but you don't need fast paths on every street. Cars take too much space to go in significant numbers even near city centers.
But once you're in the metro area, everyone should slow right down. The dominant traffic in the city is foot traffic.
Cars go at 50km/h through my city, meaning they need to be separated really strictly. Slow them down to 20km/h with narrower roads, and you can reclaim the area for mixed pedestrian traffic, allowing more free movement for everyone in the city. Something as simple as crossing the road shouldn't take 10 minutes for 200 people just so five cars can cross the road.
With narrower streets and slower traffic, you can reasonably cross the road anywhere you want. That also allows bikes to move reasonably along the road but slowly on the footpaths, you open the whole area up for the people using the city.
It's all a balance, not everywhere in a city should be like that. I'm just advocating to move away from the heavy car-oriented lean many places currently have for their city centers.