Paint is not infrastructure. Give us something that actually protects us, and we’ll use it.
Stop signs, traffic lights, yield signs…
What bike lane?
bike lane? did you mean painted gutter?
I get cyclists using the road. Here where i live there is no infrastructure for bycles. I have been there and it’s hideous to cooperate with cars on the road. the only problem i have with cyclists are the ones that think thar bikes don’t have to abide to circulation laws. For example, in a country that drives on the right. I had a cyclist behind me, i turn on the indicator to turn right and as i turn the cyclist overtakes me from the right and then acts pissed because i almost put them under. Let’s not speak about the ones that take one way roads from the wrong sides to take a shortcut.
The only place on my commute where I interact with left turning vehicles (we keep left, so it’s the same as your right turning ones) we have a bike lane which strongly implies bikes going straight ahead have right of way
When it’s a car turning, I make sure I’m not going to be in the intersection until they are already turning
When it’s a public bus, they wait for me before moving. I think our bus drivers get some instruction on how to act around bikes
Oh the I’ll just be 5 mins carpark
I hate having to go around cars in the goddamn bike lane.
I hate going around city infrastructure (like temporary signs) in they bike lane
The only thing I want to go around in a bike lane is a slower moving bike
It’s nothing to do with individual choice and everything to do with design.
in finland we have bike lanes everywhere, still these spandex people be cycling on the roads.
That just means the bike lanes aren’t good enough. No cyclist rides on the road to annoy drivers. No cyclist enjoys sharing the road with cars. They use the road cause the bike lanes are full of obstacles, dangers, pot holes, choke points, additional forced stops and detours you’ll never see from inside a car.
nope, they are well designed and maintained. I know because I rode them for two years on my ebike. I think they use roads because they want to go faster, so they block traffic on 60 km/h zone by going 40, which is way too fast for bike lanes.
So the bike lanes aren’t good for the speed they ride at.
But the roads, which were built from everyone’s tax money, for everyone to use, are.the bike paths are perfectly good for even 30 km/h in my experience, I don’t go driving in the airport because I feel like I need to go 320 km/h…(but I absolutely would if that was possible)
On an American road it makes sense. You want to claim more space for your own safety. Which should be fine, in most places in the us bicycles are legally no different from a truck when it comes to traffic rules.
Exactly. I’m a cyclist, and the bike lane is often unsafe because there are parked cars right next to it and it’s nigh impossible to tell if someone is going to open a door right in front of you. I don’t want to be in the main traffic lane, but I’ll do it if it’s safer for me, and plugging up a lane is much better than swerving into traffic to avoid colliding with a door.
I’ve recently been seeing news of some American neighborhoods actually getting bike lanes though. As in: a second “mini road” next to the main road.
Let’s hope further progress can be made!
If you look up Carmel Indiana, and the surrounding towns, there are many examples of raised paved multi use trails. They’re actually really nice, but the cities don’t install most of them, the cities are mostly responsible for maintenance. They’re actually installed by housing developers because the cities require it in their zoning. Unfortunately, this can result in a Swiss cheese-like network full of holes and gaps. It’s been getting better over the last couple years as some of those cities (Westfield) took on the responsibility of connecting the neighborhoods, and updated their zoning to require the new neighborhood trails to connect to existing ones.
A road network does need to be consistent. It’s not an exact analog, but it’s kind of a “weakest link” situation. It’s needlessly dangerous and frustrating for everyone to have to deal with bad infrastructure, even if it’s just one weird street that everyone still has to cross.
I have one on my way to work. I just get off my bicycle and walk because the alternative is going trough a tonne of traffic in an intersection of two highways.
We have a dedicated walking path right next to my house, and part of it runs right next to the road. It’s super nice, though the only physical barrier is either a bit of gravel, but it’s way better than what we used to have.
The gravel is plenty, it’s an intuitive border between where the cars are supposed and not supposed to go. Even sleepy drivers will stay off of the walking path that way.
There’s much better options, but it’s good to have something :::
Yeah, it’s way better than the bike lane with cars parked in it or a sidewalk. I’ll take what I can get.
And yet the traffic rules don’t stop cyclists from riding the wrong way down my one-way street a dozen times a day. I’ve nearly hit them with my car door or walked in front of them with my dog because I’m checking the other direction, where cars would be coming from. No cop is going to pull over a bicycle so they just ignore the rules.
Rules often allow cyclists to go either way on one way streets
In my state bicycles that are riding on the road must obey all traffic laws as if they were a motorcycle. I see cyclists break those laws every day and there will never be consequences.
Well, at least you know where to check now
I shouldn’t have to anticipate that someone might be breaking the law. It’s hard enough to cross the street or open my door when I’m only dealing with law-abiding traffic. Maybe those people should anticipate that they’re going to get knocked off their bike by a car door when they willingly and knowingly break traffic laws.
In Germany, we have the wonderful Radwegebenutzungspflicht (obligation to use cycle paths). Unfortunately most drivers don’t realize this only applies to about 10% of Germany’s cycle paths, which are marked by a blue sign. They think the obligation applies to all cycle paths, and so they keep giving cyclists shit.
In germany, you have traffic lights that give cars green before bicycles finish passing the road.
And also, there’s no darn orange to warn cyclists to stop. You come in at speed and the light just instantly go from green to red.
And on top of that, some bicycle paths just end in a highway with no indication or warning.
German cycling infrastructure is bad
Absolutely agree. Bike infrastructure in Germany, especially in German cities is dismal. I’ve been to Talinn, Estonia and saw how things could and should be done, and in comparison, Germany sucks. Well, and if you’re using a bike for your daily commute, you’ll also be familiar with the mindset of car drivers. You’ll be overtaken far too close and yelled at every day.
You want to see them get really mad? Suggest that if they want to share the road they should also pay registration.
(Not something I believe, we just had an avid cyclist at work who was enormous fun to shit stir.
More expensive the bike, less chance it’s driven in a bike lane and higher the seat.
