They're not actually "protected" in the sense of what protected means in the traffic engineering profession. Protected is supposed to be used for things like t

They're not actually "protected" in the sense of what protected means in the traffic engineering profession. Protected is supposed to be used for things like traffic signal phases (like a green arrow indicating a protected left turn phase). Ironically, when one of those "protected" bike lanes crosses an intersection, there often isn't a protected intersection phase for the cyclist via a traffic signal.