About Bike Lanes...

[Cassandra_Cain]

Eden nicely stated many of my own feelings on bike lanes....

I'm a bit cautious about them for a variety of reasons...the inevitable junk/crap/rubbish that is all over them ranging from glass, girt, to parked cars....the fact that cars will rarely if ever bother to look if anyone is in the bike lane before turning, which is how one hit me.....and of course, intersections and disappearing bike lanes are a problem.

I prefer to be on a bike trail far from traffic OR riding with and in traffic, not in between ala a bike lane.

[Kitsune06]

I have a question; more pretaining to a lack of bike lane then the presence of one;
If the bike lane 'runs out' say in front of a small bridge or some such, and the 'Bicyclists on Roadway' sign is there, I know technically Oregonian cyclists are fully allowed to take to the lane (some suggest even taking the entire lane for safety reasons, so cars don't pass where they wouldn't have room to safely do so, etc)
BUT
how is one expected to do that when on a bike where your max speed can top out around 16-18 mph without honestly getting run over/beaten/abused/etc? I'm asking now because if I get either of my prospective jobs now, I'll be commuting over such a bridge 2x/day, and I don't want to get killed on my way to work, and I don't necessarily trust most local drivers, either.

[xeney]

I think you just have to go for it if you don't have an alternate route. I believe that statistically you are less likely to be run over from behind than you are to be sideswiped or doored, but I know that doesn't make you feel any better when a truck is bearing down on you. I will say that I am a pretty timid cyclist, but taking a lane in heavy traffic is less terrifying than I thought it would be, mostly because heavy traffic tends to mean slowdowns, anyway. In terms of driver aggression, I have found that if I take the lane but ride as hard as I can and get back to the right when the bike lane returns, drivers are not horrible to me. They are actually worse if I am lane sharing when there isn't quite enough room -- I think that makes them as nervous as it makes me. If it is clear that I am doing my best to keep traffic moving, maybe drivers are more inclined to be patient while I navigate the area without a bike lane. As I said, I'm pretty slow and timid, but I have only been yelled at a couple of times and neither was in a situation where I was taking the lane.

I always turn on my rear light (on blink) even in the day time if I am going to have to merge with cars. Oh, and signal. That shocks the hell out of them.

[lph]

Aaagh! Never ride against traffic! Just say no!! (sorry, get a bit hyper about that )

Some bike lanes are pretty spooky, since a lot of drivers see them as a handy, large space for them to pull over into, or veer into before making a turn. But it helps if you just assume that all drivers ahead of you are about to make a turn at the next intersection, and ride correspondingly. You can also never be too visible, bright clothes, lights, whatever. And if I feel I get more attention if I ride "purposefully" - I turn my head and check behind me a lot, try to catch the drivers eye, place myself a bit closer to the line of cars than the sidewalk, and use obvious LARGE hand signals well in advance.

A friend saw me and joked that I looked like a bike cop - fine with me

[Crankin]

When I rode in Quebec this summer, there was one part of the Route Verde, that was on the road (a lot of it was) that had one bike lane on the opposite side of the street from the direction we were travelling. It definitely WAS 2 way for cyclists. The lane was marked off by dividers at some points, but everything I know about safe riding made this feel very weird, especially as we climbed up a hill going in the opposite direction of the traffic. A few other cyclists passed us going the other way and that was spooky, too. Most of the Route Verde was on larger roads with a very wide bike lane on both sides. Cars were very aware of bikes here.
So, I suspect the use of these lanes is quite different in different countries.

Robyn

[gnarwhal]

In my town there is a contraflow bike lane which is only for bikes going towards the oncoming traffic, it's on a one way road going down hill as the cars go uphill. it's got blind corners and parking on it and it's scary as anything.

Unless you can see all round and you're in a specifically marked contraflow lane NEVER ride against the traffic always always ride with it.

[Geonz]

One of the things I learned pretty quickly in this fair town was NOT to assume that traffic planners made bike lanes with bicycle safety in mind. We've got some very new lanes down the middle of the road in a new development that have more design errors than Carter has pills. Gosh, nobody uses the lane, which is a good thing... anybody foolish enough to use 'em would probably not have the wherewithall to sue the folks responsible for putting htem there if something happened...

And of course there are our campus bike paths, famous in picture and story.

Most cyclists around here avoid the routes that have bike paths because drivers do express their indignance when we don't use them - and I can't blame them, really. You can't tell on a driveby unless you're a traffic engineer.

You can write your town council people.

[CorsairMac]

I have a question; more pretaining to a lack of bike lane then the presence of one;
If the bike lane 'runs out' say in front of a small bridge or some such, and the 'Bicyclists on Roadway' sign is there, I know technically Oregonian cyclists are fully allowed to take to the lane (some suggest even taking the entire lane for safety reasons, so cars don't pass where they wouldn't have room to safely do so, etc)
BUT
how is one expected to do that when on a bike where your max speed can top out around 16-18 mph without honestly getting run over/beaten/abused/etc? I'm asking now because if I get either of my prospective jobs now, I'll be commuting over such a bridge 2x/day, and I don't want to get killed on my way to work, and I don't necessarily trust most local drivers, either.

Most drivers will allow you the time to get over/around whatever and get back into your bike lane. The bike lane I ride to work every morning has been littered with sand traps and debris from the rain we've been getting and I have to ride in the car lane. In the past 4 wks +/- I've only been "buzzed" twice, both times by pickup trucks. All the rest of the cars just let me ride there and pass me when it is safe or just stay behind me until I can move back over. I can't speak for any area but mine but I can say - I've had more experiences with Nice drivers than with lousy ones.........it's just the lousy ones you hear about!

Hmmm - maybe we should start a thread about the Nice Driver Experiences we've had!