Plan to introduce speed limit for cyclists on Golden Gate Bridge hits opposition

As a local to the GG Bridge (cycle over it every few weeks), I thought I'd explain the madness.

The GGB has two separate pathways for foot and bike traffic (i.e. the East and West sides).

The East side is the side that is always open, and always full of gawking tourists.

The West side is the side they open for cyclists to *already* solve this problem, i.e. it's open weekday afternoons-evening and weekends:

http://www.goldengatebridge.org/bikesbridge/bikes.php

If you're doing 10mph on the West side, you're going way to slowly.

I guess part of the issue is also that some cycling tourists end up on the Westside, which is painful for those of us doing a headland loop.

Like I said - the tourist issue is part of the problem - much as I observed on the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. I doubt any of the six lanes devoted to car traffic could be closed. It is a major artery for cars and trucks. I expect similar rules will be introduced on the Brooklyn Bridge given that it faces a similar problem of gawping tourists observing the scenery and not looking where they are going, as well as large numbers of inexperienced riders on rental bikes. I do wonder if the rental bike companies will face liability issues as I expect so many of their customers will be involved in accidents. I have to say that on the Brooklyn Bridge the regular commuters could easily be identified as they clearly had better levels of control, but several were also riding at a fast pace unsuited to the narrow cycle way and large numbers of unaware tourists. At the Golden Gate I think the problems will be much the same - sorry to say it but I doubt there's any alternative to the fact that riders will have to slow down - the speed limits may be silly but there isn't much choice.

...or they could close one of the six lanes dedicated to car traffic. Certainly on the weekends, there are enough serious cyclists heading over to do laps of the hilly loop around the Marin Headlands (it's like the Tour de France at times up there - Americans having so little time off work they like to cram as much leisure activity as possible into the weekends) to warrant a fast cycling lane.

10 mph?!; is the local authority fucking insane? I struggle to keep my speed beneath 30 kph. (Recumbent syndrome.) Going at 5 mph on an upright bicycle is a recipe for falling off; far far too slow.

10mph? When I'm riding around the city and taking my time, I'm going 12-13 mph. 10 mph on a bike is almost unbearably slow. Are they trying to discourage all cyclists from using the bridge at all? It's a fairly major transportation artery. I'd be upset if there was a section of my commute that forced me to go 1/3 slower.

My biggest issue with this is the speedometer issue. This law would basically require each cyclist to buy and install a speedometer on their bike, which imposes an economic hardship on following the law. Many who ride their bikes do so because they can't afford a car, and this new law would affect them a lot.

Hmm, not been across the Golden Gate in many years but I was in the US just last week and I did cross the Brooklyn Bridge in NYC. One thing that struck me as I walked with my family along the shared use path was the low riding ability of many of the cyclists pedalling their rental bikes over the bridge. There were a few close calls between pedestrians and cyclists, not all of which were the fault of those on two wheels either as pedestrians kept stepping out over the painted white line and into the cycle way without bothering to look. A similar situation was apparent in Washington DC's National Mall park area between the various monuments. My wife and I are both regular London commuters and our kids are pretty skilled on two wheels too and I have to say, those using the rental bikes in both US cities were struggling with basic braking and steering skills and many of the adullts and kids seemed to be riding for the first time in years. Given that the Golden gate is such a oturist draw, I do wonder how many of the cyclists using it are inexperienced on two wheels (and in a similar way how many of the pedestrians are tourists who are unused to walking on shared use paths alongside cyclists), which may be the real cause of the accidents. There are some good cyclists in the US, as I found when mountain biking with my wife's cousin in a Philedelphia park, but in the tourist areas a lot of the cyclists will be inexperienced wobblers while the pedestrians whille be similiarly unused to being in the proximity of those on two wheels.

The solution could be to have 2 enforceable by-laws

1) Moving pedestrian traffic has priority over all wheeled traffic, so that failure to yield (ie slow down and alter course/speed) can be ticketed and cited as the offence when a cyclist collides with a moving pedestrian - a further clause might include downhill and faster wheel traffic yielding to uphill and slower wheeled traffic.

2) Stationary pedestrians and cyclists should not unduly obstruct moving traffic on foot or awheel and should move to the side.

The old UK legislation also had a fine way to deal with this issue with wheeled transport not fitted with a speedometer (horse drawn vehicles and cycles) HA 1835 s.71 An offence to ride or drive furiously.

As a starting point simply test out a pedestrian priority regime, placing the responsibility on cyclists to ride appropriately for the conditions.