Old 09-26-22, 12:16 AM
  #118  
Miele Man
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2014
Location: Ontario, Canada
Posts: 4,655

Bikes: iele Latina, Miele Suprema, Miele Uno LS, Miele Miele Beta, MMTB, Bianchi Model Unknown, Fiori Venezia, Fiori Napoli, VeloSport Adamas AX

Mentioned: 16 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1324 Post(s)
Liked 927 Times in 640 Posts
Originally Posted by 63rickert
Really absurd assertions such as when a bike lane is immediately adjacent to curb and sidewalk a cyclist must pay attention to what is on the sidewalk. Absurd assertions such as when trapped in a narrow slot between curb and a parked truck there is zero visibility of the adjacent road. A commenter above actually asserts he in fact can see traffic from bike lane. What? Yes I can think of a lane where 21mph would be briefly possible, the lane on Sheridan past Northwestern University. But not in any hours when there are pedestrians. Not when anyone else is using the lane. And before there were lanes it was possible to ride the road at 25 or 30 or whatever you could do.

There is a big contingent here that is going to assert lanes are good regardless of how bad and ill conceived the vast majority are. The best on-street lanes still turn cyclists into rats in a maze. The freedom of cycling is gone. You think some marginal illusory safety is enough justification to give up freedom. I think the safety is completely illusory. The lanes are flat dangerous. I never see old people riding the lanes. They were on same streets before. Every street that gets a lane sees a big drop in cycling traffic. The traffic moves to the next side street and you absolutely see the diverted bikes on the side streets. How many destinations could anyone have if only willing to ride where there is a lane?

I have 64 years of riding in traffic. Two accidents with injury caused by motor vehicles. One of those was with a Post Office truck traveling the wrong direction on a oneway bike lane. The other was a blind drunk driver exiting an enter only alley at speed. Both accidents connected to extreme police negligence. The drunk was wife of local police lieutenant, they knew she drove drunk habitually. Two stitches in my chin, forty stitches in my leg. That's total extent of traffic injuries in a lifetime. It is simply not possible to ride a bike when paralyzed by fear. Bike lanes do not cure fear. It just means I have to suffer someone elses fear.
One of the big dangers(?) of lots of bicycle lanes, especially completely segregated ones, is that if a new bicyclist ONLY rides in them, then they never learn how to deal with traffic and that means that they can't or won't ride where there is no bike lane. Also, it means that they don't learn how to recognize traffic hazards let alone deal with them.

Here in Ontario Canada I don't see any well designed bike-lanes except maybe the very odd one and those aren't long enough to be meaningful.

Cheers
Miele Man is offline