>>1137134There's a few contradictions experienced cyclists have to come to terms with to enjoy bike infrastructure. First, the best way of cycling safely on the road is to go fast. If you're keeping pace with traffic, or near the pace of it, the time between when a driver coming from behind sees you, to when they pass you is far longer. They have much more time to react to you. You can also more quickly evade something. Riding fast is less likely to frustrate drivers. Bicycles are also more stable at speed because they're gyroscopic.
Bike paths/ rail trails are narrow and full of slow, unpredictable cyclists. It's not safe to ride fast on them. Taking the /upright position riding comfy and going slow/ pill is amazing, but it's completely counter intuitive to many cyclists. They often need a different bike to enjoy it as well. It's not even legal to take your helmet off in many places, which is basically comfy slow cycling 101.
We're also constantly told cyclists don't belong on the road. Bicycle infrastructure is not all encompassing, and its limited existence signals to many drivers that they're right, and bikes shouldn't be on the road at all. Bikes shouldn't tour on the road, they should be on rail trails, etc. It's a kind of ghetto. IMO bike lanes and trails are not to get cyclists off the road, they're to get drivers off the road, and cycling themselves.
