In New York, protected bike lanes jaw-dropping

[phantom power]

I have seen the potential future of biking in Chicago.

And friends, our heart-pounding, car door-fearing, bus-dodging urban rides may never be the same.

...

I was standing in the parking lane, only it wasn't a parking lane. It was painted green and it looked to be a two-wheeled version of a pedestrian mall.

People were riding bikes and they were in a city. But they were not riding in any way I have seen in this city.

They were strolling, in a cycling sort of way. They were riding unhurriedly and sociably, some of them chatting with friends riding next to them.

But wasn't this the parking lane? Where were all the parked cars?

My jaw dropped a little lower.

They were in the next lane over, forming a protective barricade between the bike lane and moving traffic.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/columnists/ct-talk-brotman-bikelane-0613-20110613,0,152790,full.column

[Blue Owl]

1. K&R

:kick:

[SpiralHawk]

2. Rollin, rollin, rollin...

Keep them bikies rollin...

[MineralMan]

3. Many cities are testing that very thing, and it makes great sense.

The biggest problem with it is that many streets are simply not wide enough to create a parking lane and a bicycle lane inside of it. Even where they are, the loss of a traffic lane can be a problem, especially at some times of the day.

What I'd like to see would be large parking facilities around the perimeter of city centers, with a constant stream of public transit circulating throughout the area, and bicycle and walking pathways throughout. Keep the cars out of the center of the city and facilitate other transportation methods. The only real problem comes from the need for delivery vehicles to reach buildings. That's a tough nut to crack, I'm afraid.

[RT Atlanta]

4. This approach has been used in Europe to great success

(with the parked cars forming a protective barrier). So glad to see it coming stateside.

DUers - PLEASE, if you have a voice in your local transportation initiatives, please speak up for more bicycle lanes like the ones referenced above and expanded paved pedestrian and bike lanes to interconnect existing city-wide parks. This is part of the "transportation infrastructure" that rarely gets mentioned, but which has a positive and lasting impact on the community (see the well-developed paved trails in/around Seattle as an example).

[Gregorian]

5. Palo Alto did this decades ago. I was lucky to grow up there.

It sure beats driving.

The part about being between the cars and the curb doesn't sound good. But the whole arrangement sounds like it's one step toward the more saner configuration the Europeans use. A dedicated bike road.

[RandySF]

6. That may also protect pedestrians from bikers

Sometimes I feel that bikers in San Francisco are more hazardous than drivers. Drivers can be counted on to follow traffic laws 99% of the time. Bikers, on the other hand, seem to follow laws 30%. What's making things more dicey is the proliferation of "fixies".

[robcon]

7. The NY bike lanes are mostly unused.

Not a big deal, IMO.

[ejpoeta]

9. are they new? because if they are new it may take a bit for people to start using them.

[pnwmom]

8. Here's more on the NY bike lanes, with a photo.

http://www.nytimes-se.com/2009/07/04/new-york-bike-path-system-expanded-dramatically/

[DirkGently]

10. I'd love to see safe, segregated-from-traffic bikeways everywhere.

I don't think "share the road" works. Maybe it should, but ton-and-half motorized vehicles moving at 30-80mph a couple of feet from cyclists is extremely unsafe, even with a regular bike lane.

Every time I see bike lanes here in Central Florida, I see cars wandering along with two wheels over the line. Just as a matter of course, like the bike lane's part of the road. Combine that with cell phones & in-car texting, plus normal human stupidity, and it makes cycling on any halfway busy street a deadly proposition.

On the other hand, we have a haphazard, perpetually waiting-to-be completed network of wide, smooth, off-the-road bike paths that are beautiful and inviting. It's flat here, and never snows. I think a great many people would happily choose bikes for shopping and commuting if you could actually get where you need to go without courting instant death-by-SUV.

[tblue37]

11. Simply put, bikes should not have to compete with ars and trucks.

As a teen, my son used his bike as his major form of transportation, because he was committed to it, and also because we didn't have a car.

FOUR times he was hit by a car while on his bike--and one time he was actually riding on the sidewalk when it happened!

~A car drove through a red light and hit him.
~A car turning right on a red light looked left only before turning and hit him.
~An old man zoomed out of a parking lot to quickly without looking and hit him. (This is the one that occurred when he was on the sidewalk. He was at the part of the sidewalk that crossed over the entrance to the parking lot. Of course, a pedestrian or a child could easily have been hit the same way.)
~A car stopped for about a nanosecond at a stop sign and then proceeded, even though the way was NOT clear, since my son ws there on his bike and had the right of way.

Fortunately, in two of those incidents the driver was going slowly because he had just made a stop (red light; stop sign). In the other two, the driver was going faster. The sidewalk incident destroyed his bike, and My son went up over the hood of the car. He was hurt, but not as seriously as it could have been. In the red light incident, another bike was destroyed, and his leather jacket was wrecked, but his injuries, though painful, were relatively minor. The car hit him from an angle that didn't break any bones or cause internal bleeding, though he was bruised, bloody, and pretty badly scraped up, and he walked with a limp for a while.

I gave up riding a bike myself back in the 1980s because I had too many close calls. My son finally gave it up, too, after the red light incident. I loved bike riding--but I didn't want to die. He finally came to the same conclusion.

[DirkGently]

12. Yep. Had a car turn right across my path on campus one day. Went under the car. Driver yelled at ME.