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We're just starting to get separated bike lines in New Zealand, where the bike lane is on the other side of the parked cars, so the parked cars essentially make

We're just starting to get separated bike lines in New Zealand, where the bike lane is on the other side of the parked cars, so the parked cars essentially make a barrier. It's not perfect, you can still get doored by the parked cars, but at least you aren't going to get run over at the same time.

bsimpson 10y ago
We have those in the Park here. Passengers seem to be less trained to watch for bicycles than drivers, so I wonder if it's actually safer overall. But that's not the problem I'm pointing out above. So long as cars park in garages under houses and need to cross the sidewalk and cycletrack to get to the street, it will need to be physically possible for a car to cross the cycletrack. So long as that's true (without frequent police intervention) San Francisco drivers will pull into the cycletrack and idle there, trapping cyclists in the path or forcing them into traffic that has even less room for them than it did before the protected path.
- toomanybeersies 10y ago
  I think it's a bit different here because most of the places where we have separated cycle lanes tend to have driveways with enough space to park a car without sitting in the cycle lane. I think that it is safer overall in that when you do get doored, it's a lot safer. Sort of like how red light cameras reduce fatal accidents, but increase fender benders.
- oska 10y ago
  How about a bollard in the cycle path just past every driveway? Expensive, but would prevent access to the cycletrack by vehicles.
- Symbiote 10y ago
  > Passengers seem to be less trained to watch for bicycles than drivers, so I wonder if it's actually safer overall. It's the driver's responsibility to remind the passenger — or for children, use the child lock function. As an obvious foreigner in Denmark, I've been reminded by taxi drivers in Copenhagen to check for bicycles before opening the door. A colleague told me his children are taught to open the car door with their opposite hand, which means you look through the window naturally.

bsimpson 10y ago

We have those in the Park here. Passengers seem to be less trained to watch for bicycles than drivers, so I wonder if it's actually safer overall. But that's not the problem I'm pointing out above. So long as cars park in garages under houses and need to cross the sidewalk and cycletrack to get to the street, it will need to be physically possible for a car to cross the cycletrack. So long as that's true (without frequent police intervention) San Francisco drivers will pull into the cycletrack and idle there, trapping cyclists in the path or forcing them into traffic that has even less room for them than it did before the protected path.

toomanybeersies 10y ago
I think it's a bit different here because most of the places where we have separated cycle lanes tend to have driveways with enough space to park a car without sitting in the cycle lane. I think that it is safer overall in that when you do get doored, it's a lot safer. Sort of like how red light cameras reduce fatal accidents, but increase fender benders.
oska 10y ago
How about a bollard in the cycle path just past every driveway? Expensive, but would prevent access to the cycletrack by vehicles.
Symbiote 10y ago
> Passengers seem to be less trained to watch for bicycles than drivers, so I wonder if it's actually safer overall. It's the driver's responsibility to remind the passenger — or for children, use the child lock function. As an obvious foreigner in Denmark, I've been reminded by taxi drivers in Copenhagen to check for bicycles before opening the door. A colleague told me his children are taught to open the car door with their opposite hand, which means you look through the window naturally.