You might also like
For each 10 males over 65 years previous in Canada, there are practically 12 girls over 65 years previous. For each 10 males over 85 years previous, there are roughly 20 girls over 85 years previous. That is true of most nations, roughly. Mixed with the truth that older individuals are likely to get shorter as they age, this implies (amongst different issues) that senior residents, and particularly older senior residents, are on common a lot shorter than youthful adults are. The typical top of an grownup in Canada is 5″7 (5″10 for males and 5″4 for ladies); the typical top of a Canadian over 85 years previous might be 5″2 or 5″3.
Seniors, and kids, additionally are usually way more susceptible to visitors than adults usually are. This consists of not simply auto visitors, but in addition a vulnerability to bikes in busy bike lanes, e-bikes, e-biking meals couriers, e-scooter-wielding youngsters and vacationers, and many others. and many others.
Seniors additionally are usually much less reckless on the highway than youthful individuals, notably youthful males. Males for instance are more likely to bike whereas drunk, and bike recklessly usually. Males are additionally heavier than girls, so the affect they’ve after they do crash right into a fellow bicycle owner or pedestrian tends to be higher than could be for a lady, youngster, or senior citizen.
Seniors and disabled cyclists additionally have a tendency to make use of recumbent or semi-recumbent tricycles extra typically than adults usually do. (Although due to SUVs and vehicles and highway visitors usually, these recumbents are sadly not used very a lot on metropolis streets). These recumbent bikes are clearly a lot shorter in top than standard grownup bikes are too.
I believe you may maybe see the place I’m going with this. If we’re going to flip our cities into way more bike-friendly locations than they’ve been to this point, and particularly if we’re going to construct higher-speed bike and e-bike expressways, then we additionally want methods of permitting essentially the most susceptible populations to bike with out dealing with too many risks and discomforts, like they presently do in our car-dominated cities.
The best method to do that is to create multi-lane bike paths, through which the outer lanes will are likely to have decrease speeds than the internal lanes. A further function that would possibly be helpful, nevertheless, is archway-bridge underpasses, through which the outer lanes of the underpass have decrease ceilings than the internal lanes:
If the outer lane had a ceiling that was, say, solely 7 toes tall, that could be quick sufficient to nudge taller riders into utilizing the extra spacious internal lanes of the bike path, and so unlock the outer lane to be used by kids, seniors, and recumbent bike or wheelchair customers.
If the outer lane ceiling was solely 5 toes tall, that will surely do the trick, though it may also increase the danger of a taller rider by accident utilizing that lane and bumping their head…
Bikeways with archway underpasses and children-friendly low-ceiling outer lanes could be notably helpful within the creating world, the place there are nonetheless a lot of kids, a lot of bicycles and motorbikes, and, sadly, a lot of highway accidents, highway visitors, and air and noise air pollution. However it may also be more and more helpful within the wealthy world, the place populations are growing older, bike and e-bike ridership is rising, and automotive dependence (and in North America, weight problems) is extraordinarily excessive.
