BICYCLE LANES 🤦‍♂️

[Master Raiden]

🚩1) Most bicycle lanes do a poor job of offering protection against drunk drivers and speeders.

🚩2) Bicyclists don't always use the bicycle lanes. They find the roads more appealing.

🚩3) Bicycle lanes limits parking areas, especially if you're looking for parking spots downtown.

🚩4) Someone is going to get sued because eventually a drunk driver is going to swerve and collide with a bicyclist.

🚩5) Drivers don't always pay attention to the road, thus potentially increasing the risk of bicyclists getting killed from biking in the streets.

1. Drunk drivers and cars losing control can end up on sidewalks as well. Unless you have some bollards, it will continue to be somewhat dangerous.

2. If there is a bicycle lane, they should use it. You would probably get pulled over if you drove your car in a bicycle lane, so there should be similar deterrents for cyclists who do the wrong thing and endanger themselves.

3. Normally there are parking spaces next to the curb, and the bicycle lane runs to the left of the parking spaces

4. Drunk drivers have gone onto sidewalks before and hit pedestrians before. Some have even crashed into shops. Bollards would stop that from happening, but you would have to put them everywhere which is not exactly a small task

5. They should be paying attention. Pedestrians who cross the road or walk on the sidewalk right next to the road are also at risk.

I actually like bicycle lanes. It gives them their own lane to ride in so they don't have to share lanes with cars.
I think the main problem is that they are not separated from the road enough. If there was a physical divider between the bicycle lane and the road, it would be safer.

Or maybe the bicycle lane could be moved onto the sidewalk and there would be a separate pedestrian area and bicycle area.