"If 10% of drivers switch to bikes, congestion will reduce by 40%" claims study

[Bob]

ACEM (the Motorcycle Industry in Europe) has released details of a study that states if 10% of car drivers would give up their car for a motorcycle or a scooter, traffic congestion would be reduced by 40%.

The study, conducted Transport & Mobility Leuven and the University of Leuven on one of Belgium’s most congested routes as it was felt typical of Europe’s densest urban areas. Suggested that is 25% of all commuting trips were made on a motorcycle, then ‘congestion would be a bad memory’.

Jacques Compagne, ACEM Secretary General: “The European Mobility Week was a good opportunity to look at solutions for our congestion problems. FEBIAC’s study demonstrates that Powered Two Wheelers are an extraordinary resource for easing jams, making traffic more fluid and generally improving the quality of life in our cities. Policy makers can learn a good deal from this paper.”

[blackdog]

And you are getting the 80mph speed limit if I heard correctly?

[Bob]

And you are getting the 80mph speed limit if I heard correctly?

I've not heard anything, will have to look it up.

Speed limits are currently a sore point with me, as I was pulled over for speeding recently. Utter madness; two 1-mile (so 1.6km) utterly straight stretches, with "traffic calming" roundabouts (that don't have slip roads and one doesn't allow you to go round it!) in between. With a 40mph/65kph speed limit? Really doesn't make sense. They're much safer to take at speed than a lot of other roads I ride that have higher speed limits.

In fact, you have to ride them slower than my favourite set of B-roads, that have the national speed limit applies, so I can ride twisty roads at 60mph/95kph but two 1-mile, so straight the Romans would be crying with joy, roads at 20mph/30kph slower?

Really doesn't make sense.

[blackdog]

I've not heard anything, will have to look it up.

Speed limits are currently a sore point with me, as I was pulled over for speeding recently. Utter madness; two 1-mile (so 1.6km) utterly straight stretches, with "traffic calming" roundabouts (that don't have slip roads and one doesn't allow you to go round it!) in between. With a 40mph/65kph speed limit? Really doesn't make sense. They're much safer to take at speed than a lot of other roads I ride that have higher speed limits.

In fact, you have to ride them slower than my favourite set of B-roads, that have the national speed limit applies, so I can ride twisty roads at 60mph/95kph but two 1-mile, so straight the Romans would be crying with joy, roads at 20mph/30kph slower?

Really doesn't make sense.

I'll see if I can find the article for you.

Here you are.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...-to-80mph.html

[wysper]

ACEM (the Motorcycle Industry in Europe) has released details of a study that states if 10% of car drivers would give up their car for a motorcycle or a scooter, traffic congestion would be reduced by 40%.

I am not sure I buy this kind of argument. As a rider, I try and claim "my piece of the road". So how is that reducing congestion? Surely it can't be the filtering to the front of the queue only. Scooter maybe, but only if they are able to ride on the side of the road like a bicycle and we all know how bloody dangerous that is.

[BMWST?]

I am not sure I buy this kind of argument. As a rider, I try and claim "my piece of the road". So how is that reducing congestion? Surely it can't be the filtering to the front of the queue only. Scooter maybe, but only if they are able to ride on the side of the road like a bicycle and we all know how bloody dangerous that is.

if you ride in a staggered formation it is a very compact way to travel,filtering helps but if 1 in ten vehicles were motorbikes the filtering queue would be HUGE

[Scuba_Steve]

I am not sure I buy this kind of argument. As a rider, I try and claim "my piece of the road". So how is that reducing congestion? Surely it can't be the filtering to the front of the queue only. Scooter maybe, but only if they are able to ride on the side of the road like a bicycle and we all know how bloody dangerous that is.

2 bikes non-staggered can fit in the length of 1 avg car 3 if staggered, some saving right there. Then what causes congestion??? Slow people, bikes can get past them with ease. Then as your've pointed out theres the "bike lane" more savings there. 3 ways bikes can lessen congestion.

But your right theoretical & practical (like alot of them time) could turn out to have totally different results

[Urano]

better idea: what if they'd stay at home?...

[Bob]

I'll see if I can find the article for you.

Here you are.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...-to-80mph.html

Thanks for that. I've done a little sniffing and now have this:
"A consultation is being launched by the Department for Transport (DfT) on increasing the motorway speed limit in England and Wales to 80mph. Transport Secretary Philip Hammond said the current limit - introduced in 1965 as a temporary limited to reduce fuel consumption during the Suez Crisis - was “out of date due to huge advances in safety and motoring technology", adding "And the current limit has lost its legitimacy. We all know that many, many motorists who are otherwise law-abiding citizens routinely ignore the 70 miles per hour limit."

The DfT has stated there has been a drop of ‘more than 75%’ in the number of people killed on British roads since the 70mph limit was introduced, which has led to calling for the consultation to look at whether the current limit is “still appropriate”.

The consultation begins this year with a view to raising the limit in 2013.

• European motorway limits, according to Europe.org:

Germany - 130km/h (81mph recommended maximum)
France/Italy- 130km/h (81mph)
Spain/Portugal - 120km/h (75mph)
Sweden/Denmark - 110km/h (68mph)"

So haven't got it yet - and the safety nannies will have their say. But I would like a review of all speed limits in this country. The way they are applied seems to be abritrary. A consistent approach is needed. Hope this will be the start.

[davereid]

if you ride in a staggered formation it is a very compact way to travel,filtering helps but if 1 in ten vehicles were motorbikes the filtering queue would be HUGE

The bikeoi is an example.
Shepherded in by police vehicles, and making a deliberate show of being there, the trip in was torture.

But, at the end of the bikeoi, somehow, the bikers just melted away into the traffic.

5000 cars leaving the same venue at the same time would be city shutdown time.