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God yes. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. There are bike lanes here and there, and for the most part I stay the hell out of them. Here are common reasons a bik

God yes. I live in Boston, Massachusetts. There are bike lanes here and there, and for the most part I stay the hell out of them. Here are common reasons a bike lane is more dangerous than riding in the road: - Too narrow - Too close to parked cars (being doored is the *most* common collision I hear about) - Full of debris that you have to dodge into traffic to avoid, which is super dangerous - Full of people picking up passengers (same) - They suddenly end at an intersection, or just randomly, so you have to merge with traffic *in* an intersection If you don't have clear line of sight or it's not a bike lane you're super familiar with? Don't chance it. Take the lane, as is legally permitted. (The law in MA says to ride as far to the right as is safe, and many bike lanes are not.) As the article stated, they also make drivers think cyclists don't have rights to the full lane, so assholes will try to give me shit about being in the left lane when I'm trying to turn left. I don't need that.

phyzome 9y ago
One nice thing I've seen is on Brighton Ave in Allston. The road has one or two lanes of traffic each direction, and there is a "bike lane" going down the center of the rightmost lane. It's marked by dotted lines and has a bike symbol on it: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3523473,-71.1263011,82m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3523473,-71.1263011,82m/data... It's more or less a way of saying "yes dammit bikes can be here". But it works. Drivers are more respectful, and the road doesn't need to be any wider.
jaxbot 9y ago
It sounds like the problem isn't the existence of a bike lane, but the construction of a really half-assed bike lane. Here in NYC, we have some of those, and I avoid them like the plague. If someone doors me, I'm going flying into traffic. Ridiculous. But we also have lanes that put parking between the bike lane and the motor lanes, and have a few feet of buffer between to eliminate the door zone. They're pretty fantastic to ride in, except when NYPD parks in them for whatever reason.
- phyzome 9y ago
  Yeah, I'd at least partly agree with this -- half-assed bike lanes are worse than nothing, and well-made ones are great. But there's not always room for well-made ones.

phyzome 9y ago

One nice thing I've seen is on Brighton Ave in Allston. The road has one or two lanes of traffic each direction, and there is a "bike lane" going down the center of the rightmost lane. It's marked by dotted lines and has a bike symbol on it: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3523473,-71.1263011,82m/data=!3m1!1e3 https://www.google.com/maps/@42.3523473,-71.1263011,82m/data... It's more or less a way of saying "yes dammit bikes can be here". But it works. Drivers are more respectful, and the road doesn't need to be any wider.

jaxbot 9y ago

It sounds like the problem isn't the existence of a bike lane, but the construction of a really half-assed bike lane. Here in NYC, we have some of those, and I avoid them like the plague. If someone doors me, I'm going flying into traffic. Ridiculous. But we also have lanes that put parking between the bike lane and the motor lanes, and have a few feet of buffer between to eliminate the door zone. They're pretty fantastic to ride in, except when NYPD parks in them for whatever reason.

phyzome 9y ago
Yeah, I'd at least partly agree with this -- half-assed bike lanes are worse than nothing, and well-made ones are great. But there's not always room for well-made ones.