CliffordK

Part of the reason for bike lanes is that cars and bikes move at different speeds.

So, moving the bikes to the side of the road, traffic in general moves smoother (plus, mixing 10 MPH bikes and 40 MPH cars is a problem. )

Around here, the street side bike paths only have a few bikes. And, when necessary, one can safely pass slower moving cyclists in a block or so.

But, as the number of bikes in the bike lanes increase, the same demands of slow/fast interactions would come up as one sees on roads. 2-way?

Shopping carts in bike lanes?

People may choose to use the bike lanes when sidewalks are more appropriate, but too many pedestrians.

So, yes... if the demands on the bike lanes outweigh the infrastructure... time to improve the infrastructure.

Around here there is a lot of discussion about "Road Diet". Some of it is taking a pure 4-lane road, and reducing it to being: 2 bike lanes, 1 driving lane in each direction, 1 center turn lane.

What the cities find is that traffic in each direction moves just as well, perhaps better by keeping cars from parking in the middle of the lanes trying to turn, or avoiding swerving around bikes.