I don't think I like physically separated bike lanes.
 

They sound like a great idea, and I'm sure they give a lot of cyclists confidence to ride in the street.

I just got back from a ride, there was a new bike lane on a road I haven't been on in a couple years. Separated from auto traffic by plastic rods every few feet. Coming down a hill, there was a shopping cart laying diagonally across the lane. :wtf: :rolleyes:

Not a huge fan either tbh.

Yeah, nah. Bugger that. I'm not sure I'm even down with bike lanes - look at the fun they have with them in NYC.

Bike lanes on a downhill are stupid.

I have ridden on them in the Netherlands and they are excellent.
You need to watch out for slower moving commuters but still much better than the alternative of riding on the street with cars in any quantity.

You're in Sea Town, right? This was coming down Dearborn toward the ID.

That is an especially stupid place. Never had a problem on that street ever. I think the city uses bike lanes as an excuse to narrow and eliminate lanes to slow motorized vehicle traffic down.

I think it can depend, but most often I avoid them. Here in Paris they have separated bus/taxi/bike lanes on some of the larger boulevards. Those are nice as they give you some room to move around in.

I see the narrower bike only protected lanes better suited for commuters. But yeah. I avoid them.

i personally find them to be a false sense of security unless they're of a decent length (5 miles +). generally prefer traffic calming measures such
as traffic circles, bot dots, narrower streets, speed humps, backing-into parking and proper signage. anything that forces automatic transmission
auto drivers to (re)evaluate the situation and increase awareness...

Sorry, but not sure I see the causality between a separated bike lane and a shopping cart being where it wasn't supposed to be?

I don't think any causality was implied and the point was that large, lane-blocking debris like a shopping cart is difficult/impossible to safely avoid in a protected bike lane where barriers prohibit cyclists from leaving it to enter a different lane.

Eh, I like them. Its easier to walk around a shopping cart than out from underneath a car.

Oh ok.. but then I suppose it helps spur cyclists to stop and clear the bike lane whereas with an easier means to circumvent everyone just leaves the crap where it was.

I agree. They are all the rage here. But its not just a bike lane between a curb and some sort of traffic island or bollards. They are moving parking lanes out from the curb and then wedging the bike lane between parked cars and curb so the parked cars in effect create a barrier between traffic and cyclists. Some people feel safer this way, but I feel my field of view is compromised, I am invisible to traffic, pedestrians are always stepping into the lane, and there is no where to go if something like a shopping cart or other debris is in the way. Much prefer keeping parking against the curb and just creating a bike lane with painted hashed buffer to create additional separation between bike lane and traffic as in the pic. Room to ride with options to escape trouble or debris if needed.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bed37d5d5.jpeg

It depends on the situation and the rider.

High speed with potential cross traffic? Id rather move along within the traffic, but many people are too inexperienced to ride like that.

But if it encourages less experienced riders to ride more often, then the lanes can be beneficial.

I hate them, too.

They make pretty good barriers to street sweepers, though.

I don't even like unprotected bike lanes, especially when people are allowed to park in them, what's the point?

I generally ignore the road markings and just ride where it's safe, which is usually about a foot to the right of the marked bike lane. The way bike lanes often terminate suddenly and without warning has "trained" me to just use common sense and pay no attention at all to them.

The emerald city also divided lanes on Government Way/Gilman and put them on one side of the street which places a thin bike lane in the middle of coming traffic of the car lane and the the other bike lane creating a more dangerous daily ride. Its now unsafe at the intersections the drivers have to more cautious.

I ride at Sunday rider speed and had a speedy pass me on the left, a driver taking a right turn just about tagged speedy. They created a problem when no fix was needed. This street had bike lanes and parking on both sides of the way. This also changed the trafficking in that now a special light is needed for the bikes, which also takes away the right on red. Those changes expensive, dangerous, creates traffic jams, and takes away a bunch of parking. (I'm a little ok on the parking being taken away mainly because it was mainly criminal smack addicts parking leaving trash/craps all over the place)

The Dearborn changes why the hell did they do that? I guess the city wants massive traffic jams on Raineer Avenue, maybe the city wants everyone passing by to slowly appreciate the art-mountains of garbage- created the masses of those that live, "In the Jungle"

The same was also done on Roosevelt Way at Northgate.

The only problem you could have there is someone pulling in from a side street right in front of you. And now you have less room to maneuver. I've already taken Dearborn coming back from Beacon, through Judkins Park. I'll probably stay coming down 15th instead, over that bridge.

That's exactly why they're doing it. We have two kinds of drivers here, the ones who go 10 under the speed limit and the ones who go 15 over. Bad combination.

Totally separate two way are a hazard. They are often not swept. They invite skaters, walkers, runners and other sporty cyclist coming at you the opposite direction closing speed 40mph.

Separate with traffic I like. Provided a street sweeper can get in. When they have the big dot dividers that a car could drive over, but no one wants to, provides a pretty niche path.

Since we are naming places - Dana Point Coast Hwy between Beach Road and Pico is bad to San Clement is such a hazard. A runner was killed by a drunk driver a decade or so ago. So DP, put these cement barriers isolating the path.
This is very busy MUP with the headphone on swerving pedestrians and cruisers and opposing traffic. I don't know the medical statistics for this section, but I can't think things are good. I tend to ride on the coast highway side with cars.

Did you stop and move the shopping cart out of the way?

I didn't move the shopping cart, no. Bad Forrest! This was under a bridge, the only places to put it would have been the sidewalk or the traffic lane.

I like bike lanes because I'm tired of riding not he sidewalk :p

This is the Road Cycling forum. Road cyclists don't do that. They complain and leave that job to lesser folk.

I wear two hats. Sometimes the old ex-racer in training mode, sometimes as a responsible commuter who stops to clear branches and rocks. (On a hillside, treed commute used by hundreds I have noticed rocks and branches can stay for days. Silent comment on the local humanity.

Ben

Moi aussi. I find the narrower ones trap you from easily escaping the inevitable obstruction. When the lanes are to the right of parked cars, you have to watch for errant pedestrians on one side and emerging car passengers on the other. Sometimes they switch from one side of the street to the other. It's almost always easier just to ride in the street.