tbonez

I have been driving around my local area looking for bike lines. The DOT has cut 1 inch wide and two inch deep gaps every 5 to 10 foot into the pavement in an effort to alert drivers to the fact that they are going off the road..These gaps go all the way through the bike line to the edge of the pavement. In addition the bike lanes are littered with glass, rock and road debris. Is this typical for bike lanes and if so why waste their time building them? The bike lanes are useless unless you are riding a mountain bike and dont mind having your brains rattled out...

Carbon Unit

A group needs to contact who ever is responsible for maintaining the bike lanes. They will react to pressure and eventually fix them. The cities where I ride have great bike lanes but I have riden in cities that have bike lanes full of broken glass, cracks and pot holes. I won't ride them.

tbonez

Good advice...Im wondering who to contact, maybe DOT?

Hot Potato

Shoulders and bike lanes seem to be trash dumps in my area . While I haven't seen it yet, I am sure there is a "throw empty bottles here" sign for them. The right tire track of the lane stays clean at least.

Bacciagalupe

I'm going to guess that you are not describing a "bike lane," you're describing a "shoulder."

A bike lane will typically be marked, either with a painted symbol on the ground of a bicycle or signs.

Google Maps also will display recommended bicycle routes and lanes. On the right side, there's a drop-down for map types (e.g. "terrain" "traffic") and one option is "Bicycling." It's not comprehensive but it is a start.

tbonez

No its a bike lane with painted symbols...I dont know what they were thinking by gaping the asphault up.

urbanknight

They weren't. It's a government agency.

As for who to contact, it would help to find out if it's a city maintained road, county maintained road, or state maintained highway. Otherwise, just write to all entities you think might be responsible for it. Make sure to mentioned the potential for injury, as that is a good reason to put a rush on this fix.

Carbon Unit

I suspect that it would either be the county or the city. I would start with the county and call the general information number and the receptionist can probably direct you to the right people.

coasting 

GRedner

If you don't get any traction there, try local media. I'm sure your local "action news" or weekly paper would be happy to blare about "DOT BIKE LANE POLICY ENDANGERS ALL - DETAILS AT 11" and get some attention.

gregf83 

Just curious, where do you live?

tpelle

I've been riding around Moreno Valley, CA (just east of Riverside). There are lots of bike lanes, but they do seem to be littered with small chips of broken glass. I think this is just the nature of things, as motor vehicle traffic tends to scrub the MV lanes and all of the debris ends up on the shoulder or in the bike lane.

So far, no flats (knock on wood).

bikerjp

Is that a nice bike path or a road with no shoulder at all? Looks to be a truck coming from the other direction.

Mr Pink57

That looks like a tractor.

We have a nice Greenway here specifically the Midtown Greenway, granted I live nowhere near it but it's very similar to that road posted. Anyways, here in MN we do a pretty good job on keeping the shoulders clean and my city and most of the surrounding suburban cities have bike lanes and signs for the paths. Granted I still ride on the street since most motorist always pull too far out to stop, and too many hotties with headphones jogging (+1 to rear view mirrors ).

You might want to see who your local bike group is or check your local forum about this to see what is being done, ours (MORC) does a pretty good job of being involved and posts plenty of volunteer events all year.