A friend once told me that she felt a lot safer riding in Boston than in Portland (and she was not insane), roughly 7 years ago. There are (and were) several orders more bicyclists in Portland than in Boston, so that at least anecdotally shows that motorist culture and bike-riders' influence on it may be indifferent to the number of bikes on the road considered in a vacuum. The safety of Boston biking conditions probably has a lot to do with the lowered expectations that bicyclists have of drivers' behavior on the road in this city.<br>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Apr 29, 2011 at 9:56 AM, Eric A Stratton <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eric.alexander.stratton@gmail.com">eric.alexander.stratton@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div style="word-wrap: break-word;">Greg,<div><br></div><div>While I certainly wouldn't object to more cycling infrastructure, I think that the bike share program can help us get there. The more cyclists on the road, the more accustomed motorists will become to seeing them. Ideally the bike sharing program will help us (cyclists) be EVERYWHERE. In doing so the demand for infrastructure will grow. With all of these bikes on the road, another result I'd look forward to is that traffic will hopefully have to slow down, increasing the safety for everyone (cyclists, pedestrians, other motorists). Again, while I welcome bike infrastructure, I think the bike share program will help us make the argument for it.</div>
<div><br></div><font color="#888888"><div>-E</div></font><div><div></div><div class="h5"><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On Apr 29, 2011, at 9:11 AM, Greg Jenkins wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite"><div>
Hey Tom,</div>
<div>I think it would be a wonderful program. My only concern is that, as Boston stands now, it's not a very bike friendly city. Unless more bike lanes are put in I'm not sure a whole lot of people would feel safe enough riding them around to use the shared bikes. I'd hate to see the progam implimented and then fail over something as simple as a lack of safe riding space. </div>
<div> </div>
<div>Greg<br><br></div>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 12:42 PM, <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:thom3@aol.com" target="_blank">thom3@aol.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="padding-left: 1ex; margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204);"><font color="black" face="arial" size="2"><font color="black" face="arial" size="2">
<div><br></div>
<div><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hi I am writing an article on the bike s<font face="arial">hare program and was interested in hearing wha</font></font>t some of you thought about the program.<br><br>Please contact me directly as I am sure those on this list will prefer not to get out back and forth,<br>
<br>Thanks<br><br>Tom<br></div>
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