I don't think I like physically separated bike lanes.
#1
Senior Member
Thread Starter
I don't think I like physically separated bike lanes.
They sound like a great idea, and I'm sure they give a lot of cyclists confidence to ride in the street.
I just got back from a ride, there was a new bike lane on a road I haven't been on in a couple years. Separated from auto traffic by plastic rods every few feet. Coming down a hill, there was a shopping cart laying diagonally across the lane.
I just got back from a ride, there was a new bike lane on a road I haven't been on in a couple years. Separated from auto traffic by plastic rods every few feet. Coming down a hill, there was a shopping cart laying diagonally across the lane.
#3
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Melbourne, Oz
Posts: 9,562
Bikes: https://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=152015&p=1404231
Liked 732 Times
in
519 Posts
Yeah, nah. Bugger that. I'm not sure I'm even down with bike lanes - look at the fun they have with them in NYC.
#4
Senior Member
Bike lanes on a downhill are stupid.
Likes For colnago62:
#5
Senior Member
I have ridden on them in the Netherlands and they are excellent.
You need to watch out for slower moving commuters but still much better than the alternative of riding on the street with cars in any quantity.
You need to watch out for slower moving commuters but still much better than the alternative of riding on the street with cars in any quantity.
Likes For Dean V:
#6
Senior Member
Thread Starter
#7
Senior Member
That is an especially stupid place. Never had a problem on that street ever. I think the city uses bike lanes as an excuse to narrow and eliminate lanes to slow motorized vehicle traffic down.
#8
Full Member
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Paris, France
Posts: 399
Bikes: TCX & CAAD3 SAECO
Liked 118 Times
in
66 Posts
I think it can depend, but most often I avoid them. Here in Paris they have separated bus/taxi/bike lanes on some of the larger boulevards. Those are nice as they give you some room to move around in.
I see the narrower bike only protected lanes better suited for commuters. But yeah. I avoid them.
I see the narrower bike only protected lanes better suited for commuters. But yeah. I avoid them.
Likes For Hmmm:
#9
velo-dilettante
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: insane diego, california
Posts: 8,519
Bikes: 85 pinarello treviso steel, 88 nishiki olympic steel. 95 look kg 131 carbon, 11 trek madone 5.2 carbon
Liked 3,360 Times
in
1,789 Posts
i personally find them to be a false sense of security unless they're of a decent length (5 miles +). generally prefer traffic calming measures such
as traffic circles, bot dots, narrower streets, speed humps, backing-into parking and proper signage. anything that forces automatic transmission
auto drivers to (re)evaluate the situation and increase awareness...
as traffic circles, bot dots, narrower streets, speed humps, backing-into parking and proper signage. anything that forces automatic transmission
auto drivers to (re)evaluate the situation and increase awareness...
Likes For diphthong:
#10
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Wherever I am
Posts: 8,850
Bikes: Merlin Cyrene, Nashbar steel CX
Liked 1,611 Times
in
1,059 Posts
They sound like a great idea, and I'm sure they give a lot of cyclists confidence to ride in the street.
I just got back from a ride, there was a new bike lane on a road I haven't been on in a couple years. Separated from auto traffic by plastic rods every few feet. Coming down a hill, there was a shopping cart laying diagonally across the lane.
I just got back from a ride, there was a new bike lane on a road I haven't been on in a couple years. Separated from auto traffic by plastic rods every few feet. Coming down a hill, there was a shopping cart laying diagonally across the lane.
Likes For Sy Reene:
#11
Senior Member
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: PHL
Posts: 9,948
Bikes: Litespeed Catalyst, IRO Rob Roy, All City Big Block
Liked 400 Times
in
196 Posts
I don't think any causality was implied and the point was that large, lane-blocking debris like a shopping cart is difficult/impossible to safely avoid in a protected bike lane where barriers prohibit cyclists from leaving it to enter a different lane.
#12
Senior Member
Eh, I like them. Its easier to walk around a shopping cart than out from underneath a car.
Likes For Abe_Froman:
#13
Advocatus Diaboli
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Wherever I am
Posts: 8,850
Bikes: Merlin Cyrene, Nashbar steel CX
Liked 1,611 Times
in
1,059 Posts
Oh ok.. but then I suppose it helps spur cyclists to stop and clear the bike lane whereas with an easier means to circumvent everyone just leaves the crap where it was.
Likes For Sy Reene:
#14
Senior Member
I agree. They are all the rage here. But its not just a bike lane between a curb and some sort of traffic island or bollards. They are moving parking lanes out from the curb and then wedging the bike lane between parked cars and curb so the parked cars in effect create a barrier between traffic and cyclists. Some people feel safer this way, but I feel my field of view is compromised, I am invisible to traffic, pedestrians are always stepping into the lane, and there is no where to go if something like a shopping cart or other debris is in the way. Much prefer keeping parking against the curb and just creating a bike lane with painted hashed buffer to create additional separation between bike lane and traffic as in the pic. Room to ride with options to escape trouble or debris if needed.
#15
Farmer tan
It depends on the situation and the rider.
High speed with potential cross traffic? Id rather move along within the traffic, but many people are too inexperienced to ride like that.
But if it encourages less experienced riders to ride more often, then the lanes can be beneficial.
High speed with potential cross traffic? Id rather move along within the traffic, but many people are too inexperienced to ride like that.
But if it encourages less experienced riders to ride more often, then the lanes can be beneficial.
Likes For Jasper Storm:
#17
I don't even like unprotected bike lanes, especially when people are allowed to park in them, what's the point?
I generally ignore the road markings and just ride where it's safe, which is usually about a foot to the right of the marked bike lane. The way bike lanes often terminate suddenly and without warning has "trained" me to just use common sense and pay no attention at all to them.
I generally ignore the road markings and just ride where it's safe, which is usually about a foot to the right of the marked bike lane. The way bike lanes often terminate suddenly and without warning has "trained" me to just use common sense and pay no attention at all to them.
#18
I ride at Sunday rider speed and had a speedy pass me on the left, a driver taking a right turn just about tagged speedy. They created a problem when no fix was needed. This street had bike lanes and parking on both sides of the way. This also changed the trafficking in that now a special light is needed for the bikes, which also takes away the right on red. Those changes expensive, dangerous, creates traffic jams, and takes away a bunch of parking. (I'm a little ok on the parking being taken away mainly because it was mainly criminal smack addicts parking leaving trash/craps all over the place)
The Dearborn changes why the hell did they do that? I guess the city wants massive traffic jams on Raineer Avenue, maybe the city wants everyone passing by to slowly appreciate the art-mountains of garbage- created the masses of those that live, "In the Jungle"
The same was also done on Roosevelt Way at Northgate.
#19
Senior Member
Thread Starter
That's exactly why they're doing it. We have two kinds of drivers here, the ones who go 10 under the speed limit and the ones who go 15 over. Bad combination.
#20
Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Southern California, USA
Posts: 10,499
Bikes: 1979 Raleigh Team 753
Liked 380 Times
in
259 Posts
Totally separate two way are a hazard. They are often not swept. They invite skaters, walkers, runners and other sporty cyclist coming at you the opposite direction closing speed 40mph.
Separate with traffic I like. Provided a street sweeper can get in. When they have the big dot dividers that a car could drive over, but no one wants to, provides a pretty niche path.
Since we are naming places - Dana Point Coast Hwy between Beach Road and Pico is bad to San Clement is such a hazard. A runner was killed by a drunk driver a decade or so ago. So DP, put these cement barriers isolating the path.
This is very busy MUP with the headphone on swerving pedestrians and cruisers and opposing traffic. I don't know the medical statistics for this section, but I can't think things are good. I tend to ride on the coast highway side with cars.
Separate with traffic I like. Provided a street sweeper can get in. When they have the big dot dividers that a car could drive over, but no one wants to, provides a pretty niche path.
Since we are naming places - Dana Point Coast Hwy between Beach Road and Pico is bad to San Clement is such a hazard. A runner was killed by a drunk driver a decade or so ago. So DP, put these cement barriers isolating the path.
This is very busy MUP with the headphone on swerving pedestrians and cruisers and opposing traffic. I don't know the medical statistics for this section, but I can't think things are good. I tend to ride on the coast highway side with cars.
#21
I'm doing it wrong.
Join Date: Jun 2009
Posts: 4,875
Bikes: Rivendell Appaloosa, Rivendell Frank Jones Sr., Trek Fuel EX9, Kona Jake the Snake CR, Niner Sir9
Liked 2,813 Times
in
1,664 Posts
Did you stop and move the shopping cart out of the way?
Likes For RJM:
#22
Senior Member
Thread Starter
I didn't move the shopping cart, no. Bad Forrest! This was under a bridge, the only places to put it would have been the sidewalk or the traffic lane.
#24
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Portland, OR
Posts: 13,321
Bikes: (2) ti TiCycles, 2007 w/ triple and 2011 fixed, 1979 Peter Mooney, ~1983 Trek 420 now fixed and ~1973 Raleigh Carlton Competition gravel grinder
Liked 4,331 Times
in
2,788 Posts
This is the Road Cycling forum. Road cyclists don't do that. They complain and leave that job to lesser folk.
I wear two hats. Sometimes the old ex-racer in training mode, sometimes as a responsible commuter who stops to clear branches and rocks. (On a hillside, treed commute used by hundreds I have noticed rocks and branches can stay for days. Silent comment on the local humanity.
Ben
I wear two hats. Sometimes the old ex-racer in training mode, sometimes as a responsible commuter who stops to clear branches and rocks. (On a hillside, treed commute used by hundreds I have noticed rocks and branches can stay for days. Silent comment on the local humanity.
Ben
Likes For 79pmooney:
#25
Perceptual Dullard
I think it can depend, but most often I avoid them. Here in Paris they have separated bus/taxi/bike lanes on some of the larger boulevards. Those are nice as they give you some room to move around in.
I see the narrower bike only protected lanes better suited for commuters. But yeah. I avoid them.
I see the narrower bike only protected lanes better suited for commuters. But yeah. I avoid them.