why can't i bike over the ambassador bridge?

[Lowell]

"Two, there is no bike lane. And given the freight orientation of the bridge, there will never be one."

There is no need for bike lane. There is a very wide and unused walkway that did and would work safely, comfortably and without interference.

"Three, when traffic gets going, it is a lot faster than your bike. "

Speed limit is something like 30 MPH and when crawling, as it often can be, a bike is faster than the traffic.

If you had an opportunity to bike the bridge, I think you would come away with a different point of view.

[Huggybear]

That pedestrian walkway is the major means for maintenance people to reach things [[the other side has what, a foot?). It's also too narrow for two-way bike traffic. The Brooklyn Bridge has a lot wider bike section than that - and even then the bicyclists have a really hard time keeping on the bike part. And if you're going to open that sidewalk to bikes, don't you think pedestrians should be able to use it too?

A bike that is following the road rules is no faster than slow traffic. At best, it's the same - because bicyclists cannot legally ride around slower-moving vehicles. And on the safety end, you can't set rules based on the "crawl" that you observe sometimes - because the fatalities will occur when things are faster or where inexperienced riders are on the road.

Maybe things will change when the DRIC opens and bleeds off some truck traffic, but the idea of bikes in the traffic lanes of the bridge just seems dangerous.

"Two, there is no bike lane. And given the freight orientation of the bridge, there will never be one."

There is no need for bike lane. There is a very wide and unused walkway that did and would work safely, comfortably and without interference.

"Three, when traffic gets going, it is a lot faster than your bike. "

Speed limit is something like 30 MPH and when crawling, as it often can be, a bike is faster than the traffic.

If you had an opportunity to bike the bridge, I think you would come away with a different point of view.

[EastsideAl]

That pedestrian walkway is the major means for maintenance people to reach things [[the other side has what, a foot?). It's also too narrow for two-way bike traffic. The Brooklyn Bridge has a lot wider bike section than that - and even then the bicyclists have a really hard time keeping on the bike part. And if you're going to open that sidewalk to bikes, don't you think pedestrians should be able to use it too?

There was never anything even remotely like the pedestrian and bike traffic over the Brooklyn Bridge on the Ambassador Bridge. The times I crossed by bike or on foot I hardly ever saw another living soul on the sidewalk. There was no problem at all having bikes and pedestrians sharing the sidewalk. And, like I said, you were supposed to walk your bike on the downhill side anyway.