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Old 06-11-19, 06:38 PM
  #42  
Maelochs
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I don't care about anyone's opinions .... but My opinion (which is of course the most important) is that I do Not want a line of parked cars on my left, a curb and pedestrians on the right ... pedestrians can move, doors can open, and cars in the road cannot see me. if I need to join the travel lane (say to make a left turn) I have to sneak out from behind or between parked cars ... and I cannot make any sort of signal announcing my intentions in advance, since my front wheel will be in the road before my arm.

Luckily if a parked car backed up before pulling out (say, because it wanted to make a u-turn) I would see the brake lights---but seeing a passenger behind a headrest preparing to disembark, my odds aren't so great. On top of that, the edge of the bike lane ids going to be studded with storm drains, access hatches, bad patches laid over holes made for utility access, and whatever road debris (gravel, broken glass, trash, whatever) always ends up in the gutter .... so when a car door does swing open unexpectedly or not, while the design allows sufficient space to theoretically pass safely, reality might or might not give me that option.

And yes, as others have said, the answer is to simply go slowly through dangerous terrain. However, the point of bike infrastructure is Not to make bike so slowly, but quite the opposite--to allow them as unfettered operation as much as possible. That is the main reason why the floating parking lane is a bad design. Give me six feet of clean pavement ---or even four feet----next to the traffic lane (while the debris builds up in the gutter where the cars are parked) and I can maneuver just fine at whatever speed I can manage that day. Even with a four-foot lane I can overtake slower cyclists (which could exist, theoretically) and be overtaken by faster. Six feet would be like a superhighway.

Plus, if the bike lane is immediately adjacent to the traffic lane, i can switch lanes when it is safe, not when I am forced to.

In terms of which design makes more sense .... I have yet to hear any benefits of the floating traffic lane. And as far as car-bike collisions are concerned ... most of them in urban environment happen at intersections, which, as noted, would be worse with the floating lanes because drivers would not be able to see cyclists in advance.
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