i dont think its necessary to legislate who can ride bikes where. if we had good off-road bikeways that allowed inexperienced riders to go from one part of town to another, they would avoid riding in the street because it’s scary. faster riders who can keep up with traffic would still ride in the street because its safer than riding with inexperienced cyclists.

I think Roadblock you are getting caught up on a word. I think DG should have used the word vehicle. I am from North Carolina and currently live in Taipei. In NC I always understood that bikes were treated as vehicles, and as such have the same rights and responsibilities. Of course we are slower moving traffic so we are not allowed on some roads, but going through the city I am usually moving as fast as the flow of traffic.

This may be a snobby thing to say, and I admit I am sort of a bike snob, but maybe people who don’t know how to ride a bike or ride in traffic should not be riding in traffic. You don’t get to drive a car without first taking some sort of class. I am not advocating bike licenses or anything but basic skills should be expected.

Anyone who has been to Northern Europe including our own Mayor, instantly realizes the wisdom that their traffic engineers and law makers possessed decades ago… While cars have a place on our roads, that place should be shrunken to accommodate smarter commuting solutions. Bicycles are a huge part of the future of this country.

Bike lanes are the dregs of the road, and ALWAYS put cyclists at a sight line and crossing conflcit disadvantage. What can you say about a facility that comes with a mandatory use law that has exceptions? That the faciltiy is so inherently risky that cyclists are alowed to leave it becasue of the hazards. If a bike lane were truly safe, a cyclist should be able to stay in it and never leave becasue of hazards. This simple fact seems to escape the bike lane segregation apologists, who I see as the cycling equivalent of “Uncle Toms”.

Bravo to Enci for having the courage to point out that bike lanes are not for the benefit of cyclists. Instead bike lanes are a huge favor to motorists, by forcing cyclists to the crappy edge of the road that motorists avoid becasue of all the road edge and sight line hazards.

Behavior is the 500 lb Gorilla sitting in the middle of this discusion. Cyclists are Drivers! This is the law, but many don’t want to act like drivers, and many motorists don’t want us to be drivers because it is inconvenient to have us “in the way”. Of course these same motorists don’t seem to have any problem when thousands of other motorists are “in the way”. This is crux of the problem. The asphalt is there, we have one of the best grid networks and climates in the world; it’s the people who need to chaige their attitude and their behavior.

You can’t solve a cultural behavior problem with paint; edcuation and enforcement are sorely needed. In cities that have had historically high mode share, the traffic fearful and the motorists have conspired to legaly force cycists to the road edge or onto sidepaths. We don’t want to be “road kaffirs”; instead we prefer to be the drivers the law says we are. We don’t mind if the traffic averse create OPTIONAL facilities, since this will not be done at the expense of our travel lane use rights. Even the Germans, the originators of cyclist segregation, are experiencing a push (petition) to repeal the mandatory sidepath (cycletrack) law.

Cyclists are Drivers! Anything that takes this way is bad for cycling.

Arguing against bike lanes is like arguing against sidewalks and crosswalks. Sidewalks put people close to the road and cars. Crosswalks encourage people to walk across travel lanes. Scary! Pedestrians should drive instead to avoid these dangers.

Pedestrians face similar issues as cyclists, such as speed, rolling stops, failure to yield, obstructions in the walkway, etc. The response isn’t, nor should it be, let’s get ride of sidewalks and crosswalks. The approach is, how do we make them safer and more effective. The same approach should be used for bike facilities.

Cyclists deserve dedicated space within a right-of-way. Not all bike lanes are perfect, there is no absolute safety, but bike lanes and other bike facilities make clear to other users that cyclists have a right to be on the road and a right to ‘own’ their space of the road. We deserve dedicated space on the road, and bike lanes are one option.

I ride in bike lanes everyday. If there is an obstruction, I merge in to the adjacent travel lane after checking behind me and signaling. If a bike lane is narrow, I ride on the far edge of the lane or go slower so that I can safely stop if a door opens. I also ride in wide bike lanes and avoid streets with high travel speeds, even if they are a few blocks out of my way. These are all things drivers do and experience, and I do them as a cyclist to stay safe. All of this would be more difficult without bike lanes because other users would assume that I didn’t belong. Bicycles belong when there are bike lanes.

The pattern is – commission a study to find out what it takes to really do it right in terms of space, parking restrictions etc. – wave the study around – then allocate 60% of that space, call it a “compromise” and walk away.

I’ve been ‘doored’ in a bike lane once and believe me that only needs to happen once for you to lose your enthusiasm for new paint stripes.