rumrunn6

we have some new bike lanes in our town. they're good, but it stinks when they just disappear

pdlamb

It's what I expect of bike lanes -- which is one of the reasons I don't care for them. We've got one lane on a bike route that ends like your bottom picture, except the sign says "Bike route ends" as it becomes a turn lane. Across the intersection there's no bike lane, but there is a bike route 69 sign. Go figure.

Daniel4

Municipal elections are being held in Ontario this month.

The two biggest topics are 1) affordable housing and 2) road safety.

Radio shows and news articles highlight how lots of people are calling for complete bike lane networks around the suburbs and not just the downtown area.

Traffic stats for Toronto have shown that 2022 is on its way of reaching the pre-pandemic levels for fatalities and injuries. Many streets and roads have lowered the speed limit but some drivers just don't care as repeated offenders stock up speeding tickets. Bike lanes slow down traffic but our current Mayor have been known to remove bike lanes when drivers complain about being slowed down. He's the one to introduce VisionZero in 2016 but continues to give drivers priority over pedestrians and cyclists when drivers give pushback.

rumrunn6

or where they have a sign but no actual bike lane. noticed this from my car this morning

b88

Oh the entire road is the bike lane.

holytrousers

A lane becomes a bike lane as soon as there is a cyclist in it !

livedarklions

Where is that? I've ridden that trail several times and I don't think it ever is a lane on the road, but it crosses in a couple places. Is the sign for the sidewalk-looking pavement?

rumrunn6

this is Acton, MA
where Maple St meets Route 27
I took the photo from Route 27, heading North
note the South Acton Train Station is nearby

https://goo.gl/maps/MHkn8HBoJLBp7J6C7



I see from google street view Route 27 has a bike sharrow



can't find a video of making the trip out of Maple & onto 27. but I wrote about riding on 27 in this thread w/ some pics of the bike lane on 27 that isn't always there

https://www.bikeforums.net/northeast...man-trail.html

closest thing I'v got is a clip exiting the bike trail as it ends at the train station, at about 2:18

curbtender

Looks like new seal. Just not painted yet?

rsbob 

My favorite “bike lanes” are the ones where bikes are painted in the middle of a traffic lane - as if that will make drivers more accepting and patient. Talk about a city cheating-out. Better than nothing, almost.

The Chemist

Shanghai drivers are very inconsiderate when it comes to bikes, so I am very glad that the large majority of roads in this city have proper protected bike lanes (protected via fencing, concrete barriers, or in many cases a complete median). Makes riding a lot more enjoyable than it would otherwise be. The only time I occupy traffic lanes is when I'm on a road without a bike lane, which is very rare and almost exclusively a low traffic road in the far suburbs.

rumrunn6

good eye! looks like they painted the cross walk but looks like it's wearing off already

livedarklions

I might ride this Saturday, thanks!

Attilio

It really depends on the bike lane but for the most part despite being an avid cyclist I am totally against them. They are solutions in search of a problem though of by do-gooder types that end up ruining the great American roads for basically every party involved, cars, bicycles, pedestrians, local businesses and their patrons. The only benefit they have is getting federal funds for a given town and making the local useful idiots feel better about themselves in their misguided attempts to "change the world". It's obvious none of these dum dums know anything about cycling.

I avoid them like the plague. If that angers motorists that is a good thing because they vote and anything I can do to sabotage cycling rights, if that is definesd as ruining more of our roads for this stupidity, it's only a good thing. The fact that these bike lane monstrosities are so unpopular, met with such negative reaction, and constantly empty at the cost of huge oceans of red lights in one or two lanes along what used to be a pretty free flowing 4 lane road tells you everything about what a stupid idea they are.

livedarklions

I've actually found that helpful in Boston--it seems to condition the drivers to expecting bikes in the lane on relatively busy and narrow streets. Boston is kind of a special case, though, seeing as how many of the main roads are really paved cow paths and routed accordingly.

livedarklions

Again, you are obviously unaware of a lot of places where the lanes are extremely popular among cyclists. You have your weird political agenda, but I won't grant you that anything you say in that post is even close to being universally true.

If the concern is really not narrowing the roads, get rid of center city on-street parking.

BlazingPedals

In Michigan, bike lanes are not mandatory, and I tend to avoid using them. I'll even ride in the traffic lane right alongside a bike lane. I'm not dead-set against them, but all too often they are unrideable due to debris, sewer grates, rough pavement, and even gutter seams. Going out into the traffic lane to avoid something is more dangerous than just staying in the traffic lane because it violates the #1 rule, which is to be predictable. Plus, they complicate normal obstacles like bus stops; and every intersection becomes a free-for-all. Bike lanes benefit two groups: Motorists, who get most of the bikes out of THEIR traffic lane, and beginner-level cyclists, who believe they now have a safe place to operate and believe that the little white line prevents cars from flattening them.

L134 

I feel the same here in San Diego. I was skeptical at first, but my sense from experience is that they do help.

livedarklions

I think the "going out is unpredictable" is nonsense, and I do it a lot. I always check that the traffic lane is clear BEFORE I do it, and I signal the lane shift as well on the very, very slight chance that I missed something.

Again, we are having way too many people generalizing the conditions in their locality to being universal truths. On Mass. Ave in the Boston area, the bike lane actually empowers experienced cyclists to safely go faster than the motorized traffic. I've seen several bike lanes I wouldn't use on a bet, but this notion that experienced bicyclists don't use any of them is poppycock..

Attilio

It's pretty unpopular in RI. Urban areas have put them and in rush hour the traffic got worse, but if you see 1 or 2 cyclists on them it's an event.

The real way to do this is not to ruin roads with paint to make everything more crowded. The proper way is like Denmark and the Low Countries where you have real deal bike paths in all urban areas that are completely separated from traffic. Same for foot/pedestrian. The entire system has different heights and even different asphalt color and the interaction is minimal. You don't have these crazy intersection where the bike lane comes in always at a different angle or place where as a driver, walker or cyclist you are always left to guess where the next threat or accident will be coming from. They even use bridges or tunnels to minimize interaction of all parties and when cars needs to be slowed traffic circles are used over lights.

The difference is purely economic: these countries are willing to invest the resources because they neither make cars nor oil products so driving basically means kissing monies spent on motor vehicles or running them goodbye forever leaving their economy never to come back. But this is the way to actually improve everything. Doing it the cheap way by painting extra lanes to make everything narrow, miserable, worse for almost every party involved and feeling good about it is not the answer. This is why people at least in Rhode Island hate them, and why many towns despite a few short sighted do gooders on their planning board are not doing it because people are upset by the thought after seeing how miserable these lanes make it to go to urban areas. I live in the country and this is yet another reason am keeping it that way.

Regarding political views I have none. Knowing that the central banks are almost all private (except for 3 countries) and that the currency is based in debt I know it's an exploitative, cruel system that at best is nice to you in order to invest participation. I am not like down or depressed about how awful the world is, I just accept it. Consider me the honeybadger or politics as I have been called. Or Benjamin the goat in Animal farm. I understand the only president or God in my life can be me. Not out of arrogance but because everything else is fake and cannot be relied upon. Being my values are Macchiavellian because that is how nature and the world works, I do look down upon those who think they "are good" or can "be good" or "do good". Such a thing is logically impossible. I would describe these well intentioned people as naive but the truth is I don't applaud their efforts because they are too dumb to realize the ill they do. Ignorance is more dangerous than evil.

Maelochs

There are a lot of reasons dedicated bike lanes don't get built in a lot of places and land cost is one of them. To actually connect all the different locations where cyclists need or want to go, municipalities would need to buy tons of privately-owned commercial real estate, very high-dollar real estate, and in most cases would need to demolish existing buildings to make lanes. There just isn't enough open space within cities to connect all the different locales.

Most cities in the US don't seem to have sufficient voting and cycling populati0ns to support the move. In some European cities, in some cultures, cycling has been an accepted means of transport and cars have always been more a privileged item.

But ... in Most European cities, bikes share the road with other vehicles for the same reasons they do in the US---the cost to basically tear down and rebuild most cities to accommodate bicycles in not justified by the number of bicycles which would use the special roads.

By the way ... "countries" do not make cars, companies do. And many European cities which are car-based are not net oil producers, yet still, they have lots of cars and lots of roads.

In fact, other than Denmark and the Low Countries, you'd be hard-pressed to name any nations which have designed and built their transport systems and urban areas around bikes.

Sorry, your politics is not fact-based.

rumrunn6

OK good! just be careful on route 27 & watch out for that 1 storm grate coming back south on 27 crossing over Route 2! (which I though was in that other thread, but now I can't seem to locate the photo, anyway, watch out for it)

from google street view. the slits are parallel to direction of travel. thought they got rid of those

livedarklions

I just flatted out a front tube on one of those in Tyngsboro! You really can't see they're in sideways until you're practically on top of them.

rsbob 

every once in a while I find a pot hole or a grate like that which is dangerous and carry a can of white spray paint used on asphalt. I put a series of zagged white lines before the object and either circle or paint it. Yes i deface public property in the name of safety. I also paint white lines on a dangerous curve by my house where there have been automotive collisions but apparently is not deemed worthy by the county, so i take striping into my own hands. Yes, i be bad.

rumrunn6

darnit. glad you didn't go over the bars