Korina

It seems bike lane sweepers are both in prototype and in use. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/articl...ke/?artslide=4

I desperately want one (or three) for my city.

Troul 

if a DPW wants to ride a bicycle pulling that behind, that's cool....

...I pay taxes for that.

Iride01 

They pull a big blower behind a mule here. Been doing that for a dozen or more years. The mule is the gas powered kind, not the hay and oats powered mule. To me pulling a sweeper behind a bike probably will mean that less gets done that day. But I'm willing to be wrong and hope it works well.

The blower they use here is also gas powered. It blows most all the rocks and stuff from the trail that you'd not want to run over. They turn the blower off when they see someone coming. But I've surprised them a few times and surprisingly it isn't much bother for the bike and all. And most of the air is blowing down along the pavement.

Steel Monkey

Desperately needed in my area. Seems the only flats I get are from motorists' debris.

FBinNY 

The problem that makes designing sweepers difficult is the lack of width standards. Otherwise it would be simple to build a mechanical sweeper along the lines of standard street sweepers. Of course one could build a narrow one, say 3' wide and make two passes to sweep each bike lane, but that doubles the labor cost.

A possible solution would be a 3' wide battery powered mechanical sweeper to be pulled along by an E-bike. Without needing propulsion, or the need to carry a driver, the design is much simpler and the cost should be reasonable.

Korina

How useful is it when your bike lane is in the gutter?

Iride01 

I suppose that depends on what exactly your gutter looks like. There is nothing I'd call a gutter on the MUP here. There are a few places where there are curbs from the intersecting roads.

It's just a high volume of air being moved. Sort of like a really big leaf blower you'd use in your yard. Not any faster air movement, maybe less. Just a lot of CFM to push all the loose stuff away. So not really a issue for curbs or the depression that I imagine your gutter to be.

Of course someone still has to come along and pick up the trash, but lately, the people that use to leave water bottles, candy bar and gel wrappers or other trash seem to have gone elsewhere or quit walking or cycling.

tomato coupe

I'd say a sweeper attachment for a small tractor or skid-steer would be more effective and vastly more efficient.

indyfabz

My first thought was “Who cleans up after the mule?”

The issue I see in a place like Philly is finding places to empty the debris catchers. And to be honest, the bike lanes, at least downtown, are not that bad. Still, I’m retired and would consider taking a job like that as a side hustle.

dedhed

SAme here.Especially fall leaves, acorns

JW Fas

I won't hold my breath for these in KCMO. The city can barely keeps its roads from falling apart.

pdlamb

A standard street sweeper can handle most of the bike lanes around here (also known as unseparated right lanes). The separated MUPs don't get anywhere near the debris as those re-named curb lanes.

CliffordK

I found a used push type shop sweeper a while ago that I thought could be made into a bike sweeper, but unfortunately it doesn't do a super job at picking up glass and debris. So, it definitely would need a small motor, either gas or electric.

I thought about making one that I could use to clean my favorite road shoulders.

Troul 

i think community service points for high schoolers could be better put to use than the McSweeper

kap 7

we have a river walk mup here that is not connected to a street and they seem to have legit cleaners because they have to clean up all the canadian goose droppings

Korina

OMB the goose droppings. We have Canada geese too, and they can cover a trail like nobody's business.

kap 7

yeah it can get nasty ... to the point that the city hired a company to cull as many geese as they could in that area and that wasn't a big hit with many residents either. Also they can get super aggressive i've been attacked by one tried to fly right at my head till i basically arm barred it in the chest

Korina

Ours are non-migrating, and imported years ago. They're doing so well that the county issues hunting licenses for them. They mostly stick to our many dairy pastures, but now and then a flock will drop into the marsh and cause havoc.

PS We don't get quote notifications anymore, so if you want someone to see your response, you have to like the post. Stupid, but there it is.

MinnMan

Agreed, though I think mostly people here are talking about cleaning up bike trails, not bike lanes on city streets or shoulders on highways.

There are lots of situations where there is a seemingly perfectly good shoulder, but I'm riding in the car lane anyway because there's so much debris on the shoulder. Highways and high traffic boulevards aren't necessarily swept by municipal sweepers, but debris in the car lanes gets mobilized by car tires and comes to rest on the shoulder where the cars aren't.