[*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck

[Lee Peters]

Hear the sarcasm loud and clear......

So let's make all the roads like the Massachusetts Turnpike.  Crank up the 
speed limit to 60 mph and make a biker feel so uncomfortable that the bike 
ends up on a bike rack on the back of a Ford Explorer.

Your scheme is decreasing the number of bikers, by not addressing the 
perceived danger of being nailed by an overtaking car.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Marq Maru" <daiglodesign at hotmail.com>
To: "Boston Critical Mass" <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:39 PM
Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck


> Almost all bike-lanes are set up between parking and traffic.  We're not 
> terribly worried about the traffic.  That, we can deal with.  The problem 
> is that the entire bike lane is in the "dooring-area", "door-zone", 
> "kill-zone".  Even if you take cars out of the equation, who's more 
> dangerous to bikes than pedestrians?  Just about every pedestrain puts one 
> foot in the road before they look.  Bike lanes are a death trap, period.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Jason Orach" <jorach at gmail.com>
> To: <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:03 PM
> Subject: [*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck
>
>
> "Yes the stripe of paint is powerful.  It perhaps does what you asked the 
> BTD
> to do for us.  It creates a boundary that defines a space, the space is
> reserved for, say, HPV's.  The line appears before the motorist well 
> BEFORE
> the bicyclist does.  It sets up an image for the driver that the space to
> the right is a no-no for the cars."
>
> Except it can't create that image as long as there's on street parking
> to the right of the bike lane. As long as one side of the road looks
> like this:
> |       road          |     bike lane   |   parking |
>
> having a bike lane won't send any message other than "cut through this
> lane to park". Bike lanes suck because they put you dead center in the
> door zone, and because you have your own lane cars fly past you. If
> someone flings their door open you probably can't dodge because there
> are cars screaming by you on your left.
>
> Having our own lane also makes car drivers think that we can only ride
> there. Forcing ourselves off the road is the same as giving up our
> right to ride on the road. Every driver who doesn't know any better
> thinks that we can only ride on the road in bike lanes, and otherwise
> we should get on the sidewalk.
>
>
> --
> "I have always been a  quarter of an hour before my time, and it has
> made a man  of me." - Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson
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