4 ms·

I'm a huge fan of protected bike lanes. Chicago has a few of them, and they are far less stressful to ride on compared to just basic striping on the road. By f

I'm a huge fan of protected bike lanes. Chicago has a few of them, and they are far less stressful to ride on compared to just basic striping on the road. By far the biggest issue I have with striped bike lanes is trying guess when an Uber driver is going to do something crazy when picking up or dropping off a passenger.

komali2 8y ago
I've been politely asking the Lyft and Uber drivers to next time not stop in the bike lane, and reactions have been positive. I kind of wish they were required to have "check for cyclists before you open door!" signs like I've seen in some taxis.
CydeWeys 8y ago
My biggest problem with unprotected bike lanes here in Manhattan is that they are so frequently illegally blocked, not just by Taxis/FHVs but also by people parking in them. And a lot of the unprotected bike lanes are basically just the door zone of a line of parked cars, so you need to ride to the far outside of it to avoid getting doored. There's entire block-long stretches that I'll stay out of the unprotected bike lane entirely for, because it's so frequently blocked or so close to parked cars that it's more dangerous to be in there. The protected bike lanes, on the other hand, are much better. I wish we'd get this law here.
- fyfy18 8y ago
  It's the same in London too. Outside the city center nearly all of the 'Cycle Superhighways' are just bus/taxi lanes. And someone driving a 15m long vehicle who has spent the last 10 hours dealing with stupid drivers isn't going to pay as much attention to cyclists as they should.
- tashoecraft 8y ago
  It's so bad. I bike daily to work, and take a very extended route that tries to go purely on protected bike lanes, but there are still so many vehicles on them. Cops need to start ticketing heavily for this, but the problem is they are routinely the ones blocking the lanes. NY is getting much better for biking, but there needs to be a shift in actually protecting bikers, since obstructing vehicles causes traffic and inconvenience whereas obstructing cyclists leads to injury and death.
- btrettel 8y ago
  Excellent point, the relative lack of blocking is one thing that makes protected bike lanes better. To be honest, though, I'm not entirely a fan as protected lanes make left turns much more difficult to the point where to make a left turn I usually make a right turn and then a U-turn in a protected bike lane.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    That just means that the protected bike lanes aren't implemented well enough. Amsterdam has plenty of different solutions for this problem; each direction of turning bike traffic accommodated to the same extent as turning car traffic is here.
    - btrettel 8y ago
      I don't disagree with that at all. The problem is that the correct sort of protected bike lanes never seem to appear in the US.
- asdff 8y ago
  The fine for parking your car in a bike lane should really be a tow. Predatory towing companies in my town can grab a car in 10 minutes; it's spooky. They even have scouts. I feel like towing companies should be chomping at the bit to get action on this parking ignorance with bike lanes, which seems to be universal in any city with them.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    Definitely. There's so much money to be made here in ticketing and towing people that are parking illegally. You would easily pay the salaries of the people doing it and then also send a lot more revenue back to the general treasury. It always astounds me that they don't have more enforcement agents out there. On my 10 minute bike ride I routinely see at least one ticketable infraction per minute. Hell, give me a ticket book (and a percentage cut for my trouble) and I'll gladly go earn ticket revenue for the city myself.
ScottFree 8y ago
In SF, striped bike lanes are frequently painted next to parallel parking. The likelihood of getting a door prize makes riding in those lanes far more dangerous than riding in the car lane. Apropos of nothing, but the dutch reach should really be taught in every driver's ed class.

komali2 8y ago

I've been politely asking the Lyft and Uber drivers to next time not stop in the bike lane, and reactions have been positive. I kind of wish they were required to have "check for cyclists before you open door!" signs like I've seen in some taxis.

CydeWeys 8y ago

My biggest problem with unprotected bike lanes here in Manhattan is that they are so frequently illegally blocked, not just by Taxis/FHVs but also by people parking in them. And a lot of the unprotected bike lanes are basically just the door zone of a line of parked cars, so you need to ride to the far outside of it to avoid getting doored. There's entire block-long stretches that I'll stay out of the unprotected bike lane entirely for, because it's so frequently blocked or so close to parked cars that it's more dangerous to be in there. The protected bike lanes, on the other hand, are much better. I wish we'd get this law here.

fyfy18 8y ago
It's the same in London too. Outside the city center nearly all of the 'Cycle Superhighways' are just bus/taxi lanes. And someone driving a 15m long vehicle who has spent the last 10 hours dealing with stupid drivers isn't going to pay as much attention to cyclists as they should.
tashoecraft 8y ago
It's so bad. I bike daily to work, and take a very extended route that tries to go purely on protected bike lanes, but there are still so many vehicles on them. Cops need to start ticketing heavily for this, but the problem is they are routinely the ones blocking the lanes. NY is getting much better for biking, but there needs to be a shift in actually protecting bikers, since obstructing vehicles causes traffic and inconvenience whereas obstructing cyclists leads to injury and death.
btrettel 8y ago
Excellent point, the relative lack of blocking is one thing that makes protected bike lanes better. To be honest, though, I'm not entirely a fan as protected lanes make left turns much more difficult to the point where to make a left turn I usually make a right turn and then a U-turn in a protected bike lane.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  That just means that the protected bike lanes aren't implemented well enough. Amsterdam has plenty of different solutions for this problem; each direction of turning bike traffic accommodated to the same extent as turning car traffic is here.
  - btrettel 8y ago
    I don't disagree with that at all. The problem is that the correct sort of protected bike lanes never seem to appear in the US.
asdff 8y ago
The fine for parking your car in a bike lane should really be a tow. Predatory towing companies in my town can grab a car in 10 minutes; it's spooky. They even have scouts. I feel like towing companies should be chomping at the bit to get action on this parking ignorance with bike lanes, which seems to be universal in any city with them.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  Definitely. There's so much money to be made here in ticketing and towing people that are parking illegally. You would easily pay the salaries of the people doing it and then also send a lot more revenue back to the general treasury. It always astounds me that they don't have more enforcement agents out there. On my 10 minute bike ride I routinely see at least one ticketable infraction per minute. Hell, give me a ticket book (and a percentage cut for my trouble) and I'll gladly go earn ticket revenue for the city myself.

ScottFree 8y ago

In SF, striped bike lanes are frequently painted next to parallel parking. The likelihood of getting a door prize makes riding in those lanes far more dangerous than riding in the car lane. Apropos of nothing, but the dutch reach should really be taught in every driver's ed class.