cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/6483361

I see that quite a few major roads in Ontario are getting paved shoulders, plenty wide enough for cyclists, despite not being marked as bike lanes/routes.

An example of this is HWY7/12 in Port Perry - all new shoulders.

There is a tag: cycleway=shoulder, which gives me reason to think that we should be doing this.

What say you guys?

UPDATE: Bike Ottawa has some guidance on the matter. I’ll be using the cycleway=soulder tag for roads that have SMOOTH and WIDE shoulders that would work well for cyclists.

  • Mbourgon everywhereEnglish
    8•1 year ago

    Yeah, “theoretically rideable” vs “I would ride this” is huge. On a real road there’s a certain amount of maintenance and cleaning. Shoulders? Not so much.

    • @[email protected]OPEnglish
      3•1 year ago

      On a real road there’s a certain amount of maintenance and cleaning. Shoulders? Not so much.

      I’d argue that depends on where you live! LOL Bike lanes around here are usually a, “oh, we’ll just dump snow here.” type lane!

      I rode on several of these shoulders, and it looks like they were made to be wide and smooth on purpose (i.e. for cyclists). I think our government is following the data, which says that paved shoulders save (cyclist) lives.