[*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck

[Marq Maru]

nope

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Lee Peters" <lfpeters at gis.net>
To: "Boston Critical Mass" <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 10:18 AM
Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck


> Hear the sarcasm loud and clear......
>
> So let's make all the roads like the Massachusetts Turnpike.  Crank up the 
> speed limit to 60 mph and make a biker feel so uncomfortable that the bike 
> ends up on a bike rack on the back of a Ford Explorer.
>
> Your scheme is decreasing the number of bikers, by not addressing the 
> perceived danger of being nailed by an overtaking car.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Marq Maru" <daiglodesign at hotmail.com>
> To: "Boston Critical Mass" <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:39 PM
> Subject: Re: [*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck
>
>
>> Almost all bike-lanes are set up between parking and traffic.  We're not 
>> terribly worried about the traffic.  That, we can deal with.  The problem 
>> is that the entire bike lane is in the "dooring-area", "door-zone", 
>> "kill-zone".  Even if you take cars out of the equation, who's more 
>> dangerous to bikes than pedestrians?  Just about every pedestrain puts 
>> one foot in the road before they look.  Bike lanes are a death trap, 
>> period.
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Jason Orach" <jorach at gmail.com>
>> To: <list at bostoncriticalmass.org>
>> Sent: Friday, October 28, 2005 7:03 PM
>> Subject: [*BCM*] Why Bike Lanes Suck
>>
>>
>> "Yes the stripe of paint is powerful.  It perhaps does what you asked the 
>> BTD
>> to do for us.  It creates a boundary that defines a space, the space is
>> reserved for, say, HPV's.  The line appears before the motorist well 
>> BEFORE
>> the bicyclist does.  It sets up an image for the driver that the space to
>> the right is a no-no for the cars."
>>
>> Except it can't create that image as long as there's on street parking
>> to the right of the bike lane. As long as one side of the road looks
>> like this:
>> |       road          |     bike lane   |   parking |
>>
>> having a bike lane won't send any message other than "cut through this
>> lane to park". Bike lanes suck because they put you dead center in the
>> door zone, and because you have your own lane cars fly past you. If
>> someone flings their door open you probably can't dodge because there
>> are cars screaming by you on your left.
>>
>> Having our own lane also makes car drivers think that we can only ride
>> there. Forcing ourselves off the road is the same as giving up our
>> right to ride on the road. Every driver who doesn't know any better
>> thinks that we can only ride on the road in bike lanes, and otherwise
>> we should get on the sidewalk.
>>
>>
>> --
>> "I have always been a  quarter of an hour before my time, and it has
>> made a man  of me." - Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson
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>
>
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