chico1st

Hi there,
there is a proposed bike lane for my area but it is right beside on-street parking. The road would be on-street parking, bike lane, driving lane centre line.

Do you guys feel comfortable with a setup like that? I wouldn't even want to ride in the bike lane for fear of being doored. It seems stupid, forcing us into a dangerous area.

Da Tinker

They are killers, leaving cyclists right in the door zone. The AASHTO manual has designs, but the car widths used are way too small. The manual shows cars, with one door open, measuring 7.5'.

Yeah, right. My now defunct Geo Metro sedan, one of the smallest cars on the road, measured 7'10" with one door open.

scattered73

A popular street is set-up like that here where they gave plenty of room for cars parking, bike lane and car lane, no problems. I could see where if they skimped of size of the separate lanes that it could be dangerous. When I get close to a bunch of parked cars I ride near the line between bike lane and car lane.

exile

They have a bike line like that going past a middle school where I live. Needless to say just about every vehicle is an SUV with some so large they actually are part way into the bike lane.

No, I don't feel safe riding in the bike lane, so I usually ride to the left of the (street side) bike lane marker. Just make sure you are out of the door zone.

I'm lucky enough that the speed limit through that portion says 15mph. So cars going 30mph is about average.

gerv 

Depends a lot on the width of the bike lane. If the lane is 6 feet or more, you can usually hang to the left of the lane and avoid most door situations. Still if a car is larger and perhaps out a bit in the lane, you need to spot this well in advance. Pull even more to the left in the bike lane, move out into a car lane or slow down to a crawl.

Lanes that are much less than 6 feet tend to be quite a bit more dangerous. You almost need to ride out of the lane all the time...

jettore

Many of our bike lanes in Philadelphia are setup this way. It makes for an interesting ride. Gotta watch for traffic on the left, keep an eye out for movement in the parked cars for doors flying open, watch for cars pulling out of spots and also watch for cars slamming on their brakes to jump in an open spot. Really have to be alert in these areas, but I fell it's still better then no bike lane at all. I've watched plenty of people get doored and it's usually someone younger racing along seemingly paying no attention to the situation without a helmet. Don't like to stereotype but it seems to fit what I've seen. The daily commuter types don't seem to have any problems with the lanes.

CB HI

You should never ride closer than 5 feet from bar end to parked car. Oppose this dangerous bike lane as strongly as possible, it should never be painted.

CB HI

And this is part of the reason these extremely dangerous bike lanes get painted (feelings over sound science).

jputnam

If the road is so hazardous that a bike lane is safer than simply riding out of the door zone, a buffered bike lane can help avoid the common problem of bike lanes encouraging cyclists to ride dangerously far to the right.

A buffered bike lane typically puts a diagonally-striped "no ride" zone to the left of parked cars. The buffer zones are usually too narrow to actually clear the door zone, but they at least make it clear bikes belong several feet left of parked cars. Very few jurisdictions are willing to give that much space to bikes; most bike lanes ignore the actual width of cars and doors.

Unless the lanes are very wide, or the road has very high speed traffic, you'd probably be better off with sharrows fourteen feet into the roadway, showing a safe lane positioning for cyclists to the left of the door zone.

unterhausen

if they actually put a bike lane outside of the door zone and painted diagonal stripes over the door zone, that would be a good thing. Motorists stay way outside the door zone, but they get all road-ragey when they see a cyclist doing the same thing. It boggles the mind.

JusticeZero

Not comfortable with that setup. Suggest sharrows outside of the door zone instead, since it sounds like they want a paint-only solution at this point.

merkong

One of the most beautiful roads in St. Paul, MN (Summit Avenue) is set up this way. It's a huge chunk of my 10 mile commute. In the AM it's not as much of an issue but on the way home, with evening traffic and running in front of the law school it makes the door issue more prominent. Being a new commuter I may be hypersensitive to the dangers that lurk but I look through every single rear window just waiting for someone to try to door me. While it's not the best situation for a bike lane, I'd rather ride there than in an unmarked area between the parked cars and traffic.

sulr

What he said. Every bike lane in philly is designed like this. It's not so bad once you get used to it, and I have rarely had issues with car drivers opening their doors into the lane. I'd prefer having a lane than having no lane at all, so I am alright with this design. It makes sense to me, because I hate being close to oncoming traffic.

Edit: I guess my most preferred methods of creating bike lanes would be elevated lanes or lanes closed in on both sides by concrete, but for now I just need to stare into every side mirror.