Bike Highways: The Transportation of Tomorrow!
May 16, 2013 11:44 PM   Subscribe

116 years ago, bicycle superhighways were the future of California transit. The notion that anyone could profit from charging tolls on such a system seems insane now, but a wealthy businessman and an ex-governor conceived of elevated wooden platforms for bikers that would connect LA to the surrounding suburbs, and they even cleared and built the first section.

"The wood is painted dark green. At night, the cycle-way looks like a gleaming serpent, for it is brightly lit with incandescent lights on both sides.'
posted by blankdawn (34 comments total) 37 users marked this as a favorite
 
Hey all, I've read the site for years and this is my first post, hopefully formatting is alright.

I came across this article while researching GM's famous purchase and destruction of electric trains in cities like LA.

It reminds me how many alternate futures were contained in the past. Imagine a bike highway designed specifically with sharable e-bikes in mind.

It's almost painful to imagine how much healthier, more efficient and less reliant on oil our nation could have been.
posted by blankdawn at 11:51 PM on May 16, 2013 [6 favorites]


Put this in the column of "Cool Thing I Didn't Know About."

Here in my city, some bike lanes were installed with a bit of fanfare in a wealthier residential part of town. Then, about a month later, they were unceremoniously removed. I'm told an influential resident went around gathering signatures under the theme of "Roads are for cars!"

Well, no. If you read your history, the first proponents of a network of paved roads were, in fact, cyclists. It's fascinating that there were other infrastructure projects centered around the bike, too.
posted by OHSnap at 12:13 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


It reminds me how many alternate futures were contained in the past.

My simulations suggest that had GM not famously purchased and destroyed the electric trains there would have been a century of Fixed Gear Wars resulting in the destruction of the planet in the last thermonuclear exchange between warring factions. Of course I could have a few variables wrong.
posted by three blind mice at 1:25 AM on May 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


When we biked through Marin County, the bike paths we biked over had unique numbers. Much like a highway system.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:03 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


They're just finishing up the bike highway from DC to Pittsburgh, ceremonies next month.
posted by octothorpe at 3:41 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


elevated wooden platforms

Ridiculous! How are you supposed to park your car on an elevated platform? They didn't think that through at all.
posted by EndsOfInvention at 3:44 AM on May 17, 2013 [5 favorites]


It's a shame California discarded the bike as transportation method. It's extremly cheap to build bike paths compared to highways for cars.

Copenhagen (Denmark) has started implementing bike highways in addition to dedicated bike paths: timelapse movie of first highway, NYTimes article, Wikipedia, Cycling in Copenhagen .

The inner city of Copenhagen has coordinated traffic signals to make green waves for bikes where all the crossings are timed for bike speeds. The number of bikes in this movie is fully realistic.
posted by flif at 3:45 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


BTW. 50% of all Copenhageners commute to work or study by bike: Bicycle culture in Denmark.
posted by flif at 3:47 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


This reminds me of that phase I went through in fifth grade* when I became completely fascinated by the highway system and imagined my own series of numbered bike highways that roughly corresponded to streets in my town. I had town routes (state highways) regional routes (U.S. highways) and inter-community routes (interstates) and I spent many a bored afternoon in class doodling crude isometric sketches of elevated paths and interchanges with highway signs (later I just become fascinated by the design of highway signs and would only sketch them for my imaginary bikeways)

* Not to be confused with that other phase I went through when suddenly everything was a subway line requiring schematic maps with station listings.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 4:16 AM on May 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is why we need a prequel to Roger Rabbit.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 4:20 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


This is Bike To Work day here but my bike isn't ready for the season and my pump died so I'll stick to walking to work today.
posted by octothorpe at 4:44 AM on May 17, 2013


Speaking of biking to work or walking to work. Something I realized years back was that, when I lived too far from my job, I could toss my bicycle in my car and as long as I could find a good all-day parking place, I could ride half-ways.
I still do the same, and with my son, I walk him half-ways to school in the morning.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 6:26 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


An undertold story of our transportation history is just how enormous the role was that cyclists -- specifically the League of American Wheelmen -- played in improving everyone's street infrastructure during what was to be called the "Good Roads Movement".

Also (and this is a [very topical] self-link, just to be above-board): Blum's "Map of California Roads for Cyclers" [1896] is just about one of the most fascinating maps I've ever come across.
posted by jjjjjjjijjjjjjj at 6:52 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Ha. The C&O towpath from DC to Pittsburgh is a great resource, but a highway it is not. Gravel at parts and totally indirect as it winds along the waterways, adding at least a hundred miles.
posted by Skwirl at 6:55 AM on May 17, 2013


This is awesome. I wonder if there are plans to connect Cleveland-Akron or Buffalo and Erie to this system!
posted by vkxmai at 7:02 AM on May 17, 2013


On a related tangent, I just came across this Wikipedia page on US numbered bicycle routes.

I found that while looking for an online source backing up the story I heard about New Mexico's Department of Transportation being started before state-hood, as a collaborative effort to plan bicycle trails. As I heard it, wagons and horses could make do without any formal trail system, but bicycles operated better on semi-prepared paths, so people got together and formed a regional cooperative of sorts to maintain bike trails.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:04 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


There was a proposal recently for an elevated bikeway along the I-95 corridor in the Philly area. I don't think it ever got anywhere, BUT it's nice to know that people are still trying.
posted by Mister_A at 7:08 AM on May 17, 2013


This would have been so cool.
posted by stormpooper at 7:10 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Riding along the TransAmerica Trail there are still bike route signs up along portions of the route.
posted by backwords at 7:20 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


The first thing that I thought of was being flung off a penny-farthing over the rails, and down into a 50 foot deep ravine. I mean, here it is: Los Angeles, 1886.
posted by crapmatic at 7:30 AM on May 17, 2013


This shows up on Reddit every couple weeks, so let me get my usual stuff out of the way.

This was never finished, mostly because people were already taking the train to/from Pasadena. That's right, Public Transportation killed this idea.

The freeway (or lately it was officially downgraded to a "Parkway") that was built to replace it did not come along until FOUR DECADES LATER. 40 years! Whenever this gets posted, it turns into a "automobile killed the bicycle lane" circlejerk, but it took almost half a century for one to follow the other.

Seriously, it's cool enough that a couple insane guys decided that this might be a good idea. But, the true story doesn't need all the "Roger Rabbit Paranoia" type bullshit included into it to make it cool.
posted by sideshow at 7:41 AM on May 17, 2013 [4 favorites]


sideshow is right - Roger Rabbit murdered the Boneshaker Express!
posted by Mister_A at 7:42 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


I'm sure I once read about a planned urban transport system that was a cross between an elevated bike network and a monorail. Had covered gondolas slung under a single rail with the driving wheel on top, with pedal power the motive force.

But... I've never seen it since and am beginning to think I dreamed it. Or saw it in some Practical Mechanics back issue...
posted by Devonian at 7:45 AM on May 17, 2013


This bicycle highway takes me halfway from home to work and it connects to the Minuteman Commuter Cycleway. The only thing that gives me a sad is that the brook it goes along is too shallow for kayaking, or I'd have yet another commuter option.
posted by ocschwar at 7:51 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]




Bicycle Railroad.
posted by user92371 at 8:31 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Looks like a nice ride, ocschwar!
posted by Mister_A at 8:33 AM on May 17, 2013


Great post. Have y'all seen the Hovenring? Because it is awesome.
posted by sandettie light vessel automatic at 8:44 AM on May 17, 2013 [2 favorites]


Looks like a nice ride, ocschwar!

It terminates at a Whole Foods near my home, and there are plans to extend it along the Mystic River all the way to Charlestown too. Which reminds me I should press City Hall on it.
posted by ocschwar at 8:55 AM on May 17, 2013


Jet ski canals!
posted by XMLicious at 9:20 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


blankdawn: "Hey all, I've read the site for years and this is my first post, hopefully formatting is alright.

I came across this article while researching GM's famous purchase and destruction of electric trains in cities like LA.

It reminds me how many alternate futures were contained in the past. Imagine a bike highway designed specifically with sharable e-bikes in mind.

It's almost painful to imagine how much healthier, more efficient and less reliant on oil our nation could have been.
"

Welcome to MetaFilter!
posted by Samizdata at 10:11 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


Minneapolis has many different grade-separated bike trails, going alongside rivers and streams, in old rail beds, and even in one spot going in a tunnel under the baseball stadium. You really can bike from any point in the city to any other with minimal contact with cars.

Sadly the system is woefully underused, I imagine due to plenty of good alternatives and the five month snowy season here. Only around 2% of the population bikes to work (still far more than most other US cities).

I like to imagine that if gas prices ever double or triple, we'll see thousands and thousands of people biking on those trails every day.
posted by miyabo at 11:18 AM on May 17, 2013 [1 favorite]


This excerpt from a 1901 issue of Good Roads Magazine is an interesting look at the technological changes that were thought to be on the horizon. Even as they built the bicycle highway, they were planning for its use by motorcycles -- powered by compressed air!
What a boon, therefore, is the new cycle-way to these beautiful California cities! It is thought that in five years time, industrial activity will be so quickened that the country will enjoy such prosperity as it has never known. Wheelmen increase and multiply every season. Motor cycles are fast coming in. The day is at hand when the motor-cyclist will be able to buy for a few cents enough compressed air to propel his machine for twenty miles at top speed. That in Pasadena, Queen of the Cities, and in Los Angeles, her metropolis, there will be 100,000 cyclists and 10,000 motor-cyclists in a few years, is a moderate computation. It is well that they will not have to trundle over the old, rutty adobe roads.
(I love the word trundle.)
posted by compartment at 12:30 PM on May 17, 2013 [3 favorites]


This is why we need a prequel to Roger Rabbit.


Seriously? Have you ever tried cycling through Toontown? Every time I think I've found a new shortcut through some underpass I hadn't noticed before, turns out it's a fake tunnel that some coyote painted and just LEFT THERE!

EVERY TIME!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 2:22 PM on May 17, 2013


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