Crap American Cycle lanes

Philip Davis
Philip Davis Posts: 965
edited August 2008 in Campaign
Nice to see American mainstream media seems to be following the Warrington Cycling Campaigns crap cycle lane website. Today from www.slate.com:

http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1475273846
I hate to advocate drugs, violence or insanity to anyone, but they\'ve always worked for me.\' Hunter S. Thompson

Comments

  • nobrakes
    nobrakes Posts: 53
    Great observation, but I find this kind of thing (bike lanes ending abruptly) very common throughout the world.
    Personally, I dislike bike lanes, and prefer cyclist integration into regular traffic, with heavy penalties for those who ignore cyclists right to the roads. But of course, this is a dream, and particularly in the u.s., any 4,000 lb. suv driver really giving a cyclist any considieration is wishful thinking. Cops are no better, as enforcing a cyclists rights to the road is of far less importance than getting to the dunkin' donuts.
    Where I live, they've just come up with a novel approach to cyclists' safetey by painting a square at certain intersections bright green, and forcing cyclists to wait for green lights in the green square. Time will tell if this scheme works. I prefer to keep moving, and not be a stationary target to said suv's.

    Link removed as it didn't work
  • eternal_headwind
    eternal_headwind Posts: 222
    In the UK this 275ft lane would be the channel tunnel of cycling engineering feats....
  • Jeremy Parker
    Jeremy Parker Posts: 230
    Philip Davis wrote:
    Nice to see American mainstream media seems to be following the Warrington Cycling Campaigns crap cycle lane website. Today from www.slate.com:

    http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1475273846

    The odd thing is that he doesn't complain about it being a door-zone lane

    Jeremy Parker
  • chuckcork
    chuckcork Posts: 1,471
    Jeremy Clarkson (would you believe) did it better. Made real show of putting on all the gear, getting on the bike, cycling a few feet, and then saying that the problem is that they don't join up.

    I believe Galway Cycling Campaign lists quite a few dangerous "cycle facilities", more or less seems like they're designed to be that way (dangerous) to make car driving road designers and pollies happy that they are providing a "facility", even if it actually increases the level of danger to cyclists and reduces the level of cycle use, both you would think contrary to government policy.

    http://galwaycycling.org/node/72
    'Twas Mulga Bill, from Eaglehawk, that caught the cycling craze....
  • Richard_D
    Richard_D Posts: 320
    THe problem as always is that many road planners think that a pot of paint and a few signs is all they need to do make a cycle lane.
    On a relatively busy but wide suburban road near me they decided they needed to put a cycle lane in. The problems with it are
      The stripe marking the boundary of the lane is just about the distance a cyclist would be riding out from the side of the road The road was wide enough for cars to pass a cyclist easily anyway The lane is regularly blocked by parked cars The lane stops before you get to the main road rather than feeding into a advance stopping area

    In effect they put the lane in so they could add it to the metric but not so as it would inconvenience the car drivers.
  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    275ft? That's almost 100m of lane! I have seen far stupider, lanes barely longer than a bike!

    Just about every town in rural Ireland has a cycle "facility" like below at the entrance and exit to the town. The lane either side of the "facility" is always minimal. This is quite a good one (the blue bike sign in the middle of the grass marks the end!)

    th_IMGP1709.jpg

    Honestly there are thousands of these, completely and utterly useless, replicated in every single town in the country.*

    *useless for cyclists, I realise their intent is to slow traffic.

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