Originally Posted by
Maelochs
And if the bike lane is blocked, totally impassable ... the cyclist just stands there?
I did a short bit of online searching but I didn't ever see the actual statute--I know how to search for US law, and I like to read the actual laws, not some other person's interpretation---often one person posts some understanding with an air of great authority and everyone repeats that, while the actual law says quite another thing.
Many US bike laws say bikes must use the bike lane but in another clause explain that bikes may use auto lanes if conditions warrant---but not many people read the fifth clause of the third section , and just repeat the first line of the first section.
I don't know Belgian law .... not in Flemish, not much French, nor Walloon, or whatever languages Belgian people might speak. I do know that I would look more deeply. Otherwise, if I dropped a small barricade in a bike lane, no rider could go around it. Seems unlikely .... but who knows?
I did see that apparently Belgian bike lanes are bi-directional ... so you will always meet oncoming bike traffic. Seems inefficient, but whatever.
I'm not going to second guess Belgian law but where I live, if a bike lane is blocked, I simply ride with the motor vehicles until I can get back in.
If the bike lane is protected with barricades such as curbs, bollards or planters, that the cyclist can't get out, then those same planters would have prevented motorists from getting in.
But if the bike lane were completely blocked by construction, then the construction workers would have created a detour for cyclists to ride or constrictions such that motorists and cyclists must travel in single-file.
And yes, debris in bike lanes do get cleaned.
Where there's a will, there's a way. No more defeatist attitudes in Toronto.