urbanknight

Not the best example, but it's what I found on Google (maybe I'll try to get a better pic next time I go there). Once you cross that intersection, there's two driveways for a shopping center and then another one for a bank. Then you cross a major street (Nordhoff) and there is another shopping center with 2 driveways, then an intersection, then a driveway to 2 restaurants, another driveway to another restaurant, a driveway to a shopping center, and another intersection. This falls just short of a half mile, and it continues in this fashion for a while. There is green paint at most of the driveways and intersections, but I have already witnessed 1 cyclist fly over a hood and 4 other close calls in the few years it's been there. When I slow way down to check for riders coming, I get honked at by the vehicles behind me (their problem, but still). If the bike lane was somewhere visible or cyclists just had to take the right lane like they used to, I would only have to slow down that much when there actually is a cyclist.

A less busy street that parallels this one had one lane in each direction turned into a (door zone) bike lane, and drivers hate it because it has caused more traffic flow problems while have a relatively small number of cyclists taking it. Both of these streets were safer and had less traffic hinderances when they had no bike lane and the handful of cyclists just took the right lane.

I agree with you there, but also feel that training drivers better would make magic green paint and "protected" bike lanes unnecessary in most situations because they would be watching for cyclists anyway.