Quote:
Originally Posted by Pujafdaf
How do people feel about cycle lane design?
In the UK, as far as I know it is illegal to cycle on the pavements, in that you cause a danger to pedestrians. Therefore I think that cycle lanes placed on pavements with a painted line dividing the foot/wheel sections are a ludicrous idea, because pedestrians NEVER stick to their side and never will do.
I also think that just painted cycle lanes are useless on roads. It puts you alongside the traffic and means you fall victim to cars which turn across you without looking in their mirrors or signalling or sometimes just moving over to make more room for a large vehicle coming the other way, knocking you off unless you manage to leap up the kerb successfully and quickly enough. I think that all roads are better off without the painted lane at all, you so the cars are in front and behind, or with an intermittent row of kerbstones/ballards to make the lane more of a feature. How do others feel?
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If I understand what you are saying.
You are saying that we as cyclists are better off without bike/cycle lanes and instead sharing the lane with other vehicle traffic, right?
If so, I tend to agree with you, as bike/cycle lanes tend to give cyclists a false sense of security. As here in Florida alone we have had several cyclists who were riding in the bike/cycle lanes get struck and killed by motorists. In at least one case the motorist had a BAC (blood alcohol content) well over the legal limit.
He had to be physically tied down to a body board in order to have his blood drawn. Also when he was informed by the police (bobbies) that he had struck and killed a cyclist his response was "No, I didn't the police always lie about these things."
Multi Use Paths, can be a mixed bag. I agree with you that sadly in a lot of cases pedestrians will not/do not stay on their side of the path. I have also encountered numerous dog walkers who have either allowed their dog(s) to run free (in violation of the leash law) or have their dog(s) on leashes that exceed 6' (1.83m).
Likewise I have also witnessed a number of cyclists who have also not stayed on their side of the path, as well as traveling in excess of the posted speed limit for the path.
Just MHO, but if a municipality is to install a bike/cycle lane. The best way to do so is:
a) to include a bike/cycle lane in the plans to build/widen a particular street not to include them as an afterthought
b) to measure from the right most (or left for the UK) 3'/1m and stripe that as a "no man's land," than measure over 3'/1m and paint that as a bike/cycle lane, than measure over 3'/1m and again stripe that as a "no man's land" for the safe passing buffer than leave 8' (2.44m) for motor vehicle traffic
Trying to "shoehorn" a bike lane into a preexisting road because it "fits" or to "appease" the cycling community is the wrong thing to do. And all it ends up doing is to create bad blood between both groups.
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