Bike Lanes are OK…
Bike lanes are at least well-intentioned, though in practice there are some majore issues with them — I share a few here.
- All lanes are bike lanes, and dedicated lanes in limited places imply to uninformed motorists and cyclist that bikes belong in bike lanes.
- Once a bike lane is installed, at least in St. Louis City, it seems the street crews determine sweeping and maintenance is no longer needed there.
- A patchwork of bike lanes means riders are required to weave in and out of dedicated lanes and regular traffic . It is safer to simply hold down your rightful position steadily on the road, remaining fully visible to traffic and keeping enough room to react to any dangers.
One blatant example of the failure of good intentions I see every day.
On a daily basis I drive a vehicle and/or ride a bike past a disaster of a dedicated bike lane multiple times. On Union Blvd, there used to be two lanes in each direction; a turning lane down the middle, and parking spots on both sides.
They could have kept all the lanes, and alternated between using some of the parking spots (which are never all occupied) and some turn lane (which are not needed for the majority of the street). Instead, the city just took out a lane on each side, and made a massive dedicated bike lane in both directions.
The result is a mess of bottle-necked traffic and debris-laden non-maintained bike lane. It’s actually more difficult to cross the street on a bike, and navigate in and out of the bike lane, than it ever was to simply ride in the right lane. On this busy street, cars get backed up for hundreds of feet, and inevitably people get angry and impatient and smash their cars down the bike lane anyway.
What can we do to help make the legal and practical convention of cycling integrated with traffic safer, more visible and widely accepted?
