SpeedRanger

In and around my city the Gov't has built and expanded much needed road side bikes lanes and paths, which is great. However, over the past few years these 1-2 meter wide lanes have degraded rapidly due to limited city maintenance.

Brokens glass, litter, loose gravel, stones, road salt and broken car parts make many of these lanes unusable to the point most riders cross over into the cleaner car lane....which angers motorist no doubt.

No sense spending millions in taxes to develope bikes lanes, only to neglect the maintenance which forces riders off the road or into the car lane.

Our harsh winters here don't help, but other cities I have toured seem to do a better job maintaning dedicated lanes.

Is your city / town keeping up with the maintenance?

PdalPowr

Not particularly but they have painted new pedestrian and bike ways for crossing at lights.
My roads are in terrible shape even for cars. Until bikers get more political clout and
use it things are likely to stay the same.

The good news is it is maybe a little over two weeks to biking weather.

SkyDog75

I live in a small village -- yes, a village -- of about 1800 people, so there aren't any bike lanes to keep up. Most of the main roads have decently wide shoulders, though, and they're maintained well. Or as well as I could hope for in the northeast.

But I recently moved from another city in the area. Never mind keeping up with bike lanes; they don't keep up roads in general. Due to lack of funds, the city is years behind on repaving projects and when they actually do get around to resurfacing roads, they often do just the traffic lanes to save money, leaving an unsafe ridge for bicycles that are keeping right, and a cratered moonscape to the right of the ridge.

stevoo

I guess it could be considered maintenance when my city and surrounding cities re-stripe them making them smaller due to making the medians bigger. They make the medians bigger in an effort to beautify and as a result the bike lanes suffer.
Grrrr

InOmaha

Ha. The city can barely keep up with maintaining the streets here. They put a sign up next to a pothole on the way to work to keep cars from plunging to the center of the earth. The rest of the street looks like it was carpet bombed.


You're safer riding in the grass ditch on the side of the road then the shoulder or the street.

fietsbob

Small town , not a city, there are paint stripes laid down..

pdlamb

My initial response to the thread title was: Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!



Sure you're not south of the Mason-Dixon line in the USA?

1nterceptor

New York City does a semi decent job. Most paths are wide enough that a standard street sweeper can pass:

But after a snow storm; bike/pedestrian paths are one of the last places to see a snowplow:

tyrion

My city (San Diego) is adding and updating bike lanes. They're now painting the bike lanes green which I like - it makes things more clear.

There are still the hazards of bike lanes crossing over onramps and crossing over right turn lanes, but that's unavoidable without major road reengineering. And glass, yes, there's glass - the streets are cleaned once a month. That's why I use tough tires like Schwalbe Marathons.

Doctor Morbius

Yes they do. Our former Governor was a cycling buff and did some things to get cycling lanes approved in Indianapolis.

Korina

No. No money.

700

With Paint? Good luck when that gets wet. (Oh yeah, So. Cal. - Never rains and all that.)

Arthur Peabody

Albuquerque does an okay job.

Riveting

I live in a town in southern Denver, and they were street sweeping the sand off the bike lanes in mid-February, knowing very well that more sand would be applied and need to be swept off again. I gave the sweeper a well deserved wave as I rode past.

surak

I started to bike commute, going through the suburbs where the roads are in great shape but even the newer bike lanes accumulate crap. We have rain half the year, which helps flush some of it away. Remains to be seen what will happen as the dry season starts.

tyrion

The green paint doesn't seem slick like white line paint.

Hoopdriver

Bike lanes seem to collect road and vegetation debris and without the car traffic to mill it down it will always be an issue. My city has a call in number (also a web and mobile app) that usually results in a fairly quick resolution. No, they are not proactive but I think that no city is. Relying on the reports by cyclists and responding quickly is the best you should expect. I report a lot using their mobile app, primarily because I can geo-tag and add a picture.

Cross Creek

In my city's defense, it's really hard to keep the bike lanes clean with all those cars parked in them!

bogydave

Some state ones, AK
get some maintenance,
Get swept once every couple years.

A couple new ones are good .
Most have roots under pavement cracking them, small trees growing in the cracks, bumps , edges cracking .
Federal money built them ,
No state money budgeted for maintaining them

New federal infrastructure plan
will fix it

Ninety5rpm

Bike lanes seem like a good idea at first, until you realize the problems like lack of maintenance, debris collection, precarious road positioning they influence, and in general the ghetto treatment they and their users get...

Most roads without bike lanes have lanes too narrow for safe side-by-side car/bike sharing, so bicyclists are normally allowed to use the full 10-13 foot traffic lane (sometimes modified with sharrows or Bikes May Use Full Lane signs); much better than the typical 3-4 foot bike lane. And usually much better maintained, and swept clean 24/7 by motor traffic. I very rarely get flats.

Where would YOU rather ride?

bogydave

Bike lanes is a misnomer
Most are Called that but , are officially multi use paths.
In Alaska they’re called
non-motorized pathways .
Many folks blame cyclist for them
very little use & thought by most to be a waste of tax money

I feel safer riding the roads.
The paved paths cross many driveways & side roads ...
....motorists Never look
Down the paths for oncoming bikes.

After several near misses,
I found it safer to ride on the roads.
State laws support that
& feel I am more visible.

Ninety5rpm

I totally agree about roads being safer than bike paths, especially if you want to go a reasonable speed for a bike.

It's true that the term bike lane is often misused, but I wouldn't call it a misnomer.

A bike lane is a piece of the roadway designated primarily or exclusively for bicycle use with striping, pavement symbols, and signs.

A bike path (or multi use path) is separate from the roadway.

bogydave

Yea, you’re right
Bike lanes in places here in SoCal
Are labeled as such & part of the roadway. (Nice wide road shoulders )The few I ride are good (except when they disappear into a right turn only lane)

The mup’s in Alaska are separate from the roads (except at crossings)

Daniel4

Yes, Toronto does a good job maintaining them. Several of the older protected bike lanes in the downtown core are still in good condition. On YouTube, there are videos showing snow clearing these lanes.

The Mayor is encouraging everybody to call the city to fix pot holes whenever they see them. So I hope he includes bike lanes but bicycles rarely cause enough wear to create potholes.

Gresp15C

My city maintains bike lanes, and MUP's. When they sweep the roads, the sweepers include bike lanes, and they also run the sweepers up and down the MUP's. After snowstorms, the MUP's are often clear before the roads are. I'm greatly in favor of well designed bike infrastructure. Everybody has their own comfort zone for how much they want to mix it up with car traffic, and so the bike lanes and paths give people a viable option.

I tend to choose MUP's and less-traveled streets when possible, even though I'm perfectly capable of dealing with traffic when needed. In addition to their use as transportation corridors, I consider the MUP's to be like a park that happens to have a nice bike path. We provide parks for a variety of purposes: Hiking, swimming, social gatherings, etc. Just like people would rather have a picnic in a park, rather than on the shoulder of a highway, I'd rather ride my bike on an MUP than on a highway.