Bike Lanes to Nowhere
 

I was in Medford, OR over the weekend and encountered some of the worst examples of recently implemented bike specific infrastructure that I have seen outside of Eugene. Some of it inspired me to start this thread for people to post the worst examples of bike lanes to nowhere and other poor implementations. Here's the starter, McAndrews Rd and Crater Lake Ave in Medford, OR:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=medfo...regon&t=h&z=20

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=354005

That's a 7-11 on the northeast corner. The bike lane extends from the driveway just east of the intersection to the intersection, eastbound. (It starts at the right edge of the image.) There is also a bike lane from the intersection northbound that runs to the driveway into the 7-11 and another from the intersection extending east for about fifty feet, the longest bike lane of the bunch.

Anyone who actually uses any of these bike lanettes is in for a rough ride. Westbound, the bike lane serves to shunt cyclists out of the way at the intersection; there is no continuation of it on the other side, so a cyclist would have to fight his/her way back into the lane proper. The same problem exists for the other two lanettes.

Show your failure implementations.

(Note: I'm not opposed to bike lanes in general, only the ones that make life worse for cyclists.)

Arguably, those are "Bike Lanes to 7-11"

I'm posting this as a space holder. There used to be a way of following a thread without posting to it, but I don't see how to do it now.

There's an intersection in DC I'll write about when I get home from work.

They are only bike lanes to the 7-11 after one exits the 7-11. Exit south into the westbound forty feet of bike lane, turn north in the remaining forty feet and turn east back into the 7-11 parking lot. Round and round we go...

Classically, the westbound bike lane has a "bike lane ends" sign at its terminus, which is quite close to its origin.

I couldn't get a good picture of a bike lane that abruptly ends in my locale.

After riding through this intersection several times, I read this article, watched the video, and decided that I'll just detour around it from now on. The District tried to do the right thing, but it just doesn't work. In my ignorance I stood a good chance of becoming a hood ornament.

http://iamtraffic.org/evaluation/the-six-way/

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That's a great set of images for lousy bike infrastructure. I'm gonna bookmark that.

Come on CB, give credit where it's due. Tell us where those wonderful bike lanes are located so we can all send the traffic engineers our warm regards.:love::innocent:

This reminded me of JoeyBike's fatbike commute video.

@CB HI At least they agreed about riding on the sidewalk...

Is that federally protected grass or something in the litle garden spot?

WTF is with the cars parked perpendicularly?

That is a one block street next to the new University of Hawaii Medical Research Center. There are NO cyclist that use that street. Only research staff and delivery trucks use it, plus a couple of cops that like to park under that large shade tree in the top left.

You can subscribe to threads in order to follow them.

+1

Here is an example in So CA.

This, http://app.strava.com/segments/5559593 is a segment in one of the most popular bike routes in the country. Check the number of Strava users. This is the main corrodor on rides from Los Angeles to San Diego. Portions of it, like this segment, run right along the Pacific Coast.

There is an initiative called Rails to Trails. A big part of that is spending money to develop MUP's along railroad rights of way. This segment http://app.strava.com/segments/1825994 is part of that. Notice that it paralells the segment in the first link, over about the same distance. Now notice the number of strava users and compare that to the number using the segment in the first link, which is Class II bike lane. This was a good one for taking my six year old grandaughter for a safe ride. She just turned thirteen and got her first "big girl" beach cruiser and is good to go without it.

Considering there are other safe ride for kids, I think the whole Rails to Trails thing is pretty much a waste of money that could be spent on infrastructure that more people would actually use.

Quoting Cbad here to flag her to this post to get her input, since she's a local.

I agree with you that the segment you link to is useless and a waste of money. Little one km paths create more problems than they solve, as a general rule. However, I wouldn't use that poor example to condemn all rail to trail projects as worthless. Frankly, I'd love to see the rail lines of Oregon add bike paths alongside them (rails with trails). This is largely because of our problematic bubba drivers drunkenly meandering along the two lane highways that define our state road system; it would be nice to roll those five to fifty mile stretches without any road issues that the SP rail line has.

I agree. In my local area, Oceanside/Carlsbad CA, urbanization makes for some really fragmented Rail to Trail projects with no-win transitions. One segment that would make sense for a Rail to Trail project near here is from Oceanside Harbor to Las Pulgas Rd in Camp Pendleton. Currently there are only two options. One is to ride the shoulder of Interstate 5, or go through the Camp Pendleton Marine Base via Stuart Mesa Rd. I take Stuart Mesa. The freeway is popular only with those who refuse to wear helmets, which are manditory on base.

There is a rail line from LA to San Diego, that I actually ride daily to work, that follows really close to the freeway. This old truss bridge, http://goo.gl/maps/uxu58 , is currently being replaced with a concrete bridge adjacent. Converting it to a bike bridge is something I would like to see, rather than tearing it down. (I can get pretty nostalgic. I grew up with it)

Here's one of my favorite rail to trail bridge conversions. It's over the Mad River near Arcata:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Arcat...&cbp=12,0,,0,0

After dealing with the yuck from the Newbury Pkwy to Patrick's Point when cycling down from OR, it is always nice to reach this part of the ride and have a respite from the annoying traffic.

....but the one pedestrian bridge that I saw in Eugene is far more visually aesthetic, especially at night.

any attempt at bicycle lanes and bicycle awareness is better than none. when there are bike lanes of any sort at least this shows motorists that bicycles might be there and that it is legal for them to be there,,its much better nothing, I dont care how bad they are or poorly designed. When they are poorly designed it is usually do to the cost of starting all over again to include bicycles. Ill take them anyway.

I'm rather dubious with that statement, since bad or poor designed bike lanes can come at the expense of a cyclist's safety, and tend to contain or marginalize a number of cyclists' riding ability. I doubt that a number of motorists would tolerate very long, the same type of infrastructure designs that some cyclists are expected to contend with.

I respectfully disagree. Many members of the non-cycling community believe that bikelanes are the ONLY place where bikes are allowed on the road. These quarter-mile stretches of "bikelanes" that pop up around me in NJ, most often just taking over most or all of what used to be a shoulder, send the wrong message. Many motorists have voiced their conviction that bikes belong only in the bikelane (which of course would be unworkable, as far as transportation goes.) According to internet sources, LE officials in many areas feel the same way... as in "you can't ride on this street, as there's no bikelane present; here's your citation." Thankfully, I haven't experienced that yet in my area.

I think that, so long as bikelanes are only sporadically available, often unsafe and frequently ill-planned, they send a confusing message to cyclists, LE, and motorists alike. I want to appreciate bikelanes, and I probably will if they ever become ubiquitous, well-planned, and safe. But, in the meantime, I'm getting tired of explaining to angry motorists or smirking co-workers that bikes are allowed on most roadways, with interstates and some multi-lane freeways being exceptions.

One solution is Sharrows. These are pretty controversial. I like them. Some motorists, and even some cyclists hate them. I think that this is largely due to a missunderstanding if what they really are. What they are not, is a new fangled set of rules for bikes to take the lane. What they are is just clear signage of the existing law, and put in in situations where the VC says bikes may, and even should, take the lane. This satelite immage is out of date, but the area shown now has Sharrows. http://goo.gl/maps/lhBml This is the same LA/San Diego corridor I made an example of earlier in this thread, about 5-6 mi south. I have been taking the lane here for years before the Sharrow markings were put in. Now I rarely get brush passed when doing it. The immage was taken during an off peak time. On weekends during the summer there are cars lining the shoulder for about two miles, and the only way out of the door zone is to take the lane.

When applied to streets and roads with lower traffic speeds, and to AASHTO standards, I like sharrows as well, since I can move about the lane as needed to avoid certain hazards, plus more of the roadway is swept clean of debris, unlike in the case of many dedicated bike lanes. I agree on the difference sharrow markings can make, since one section of roadway that I commute on, in which the markings were applied, motorists were more patient in their driving habits. When the same section of roadway was repaved, and the sharrow markings were slow in being reapplied, the motorist driving behavior was considerably more agitated by my presence in the roadway, resulting in much closer passes, with some motorists applying full throttle in the passing maneuver process.

Once the sharrow markings were reapplied, motorist driving habits reverted to being that of showing more patience.

We have four bike/ped bridges in town. The DeFazio bridge, over the Willamette River, is a comely suspension bridge that serves no real purpose (there is an adjacent bridge, the Ferry St. Bridge, that has bike/ped paths on both sides).

However, I suspect the one you saw is the only one that does not span the river, the Delta Hwy Bridge. It has pretty red lights, but its beauty ends there. The east end is in a neighborhood with nothing to go to and where no one who rides, which by itself doesn't condemn the bridge to uselessness. It's problem is the other end. Rather than span both the highway and its adjacent high speed frontage road, the morons who designed it chose to land it just short of this high speed roadway. Thus, any users of the bridge must stop at the bottom and wait for traffic to clear before they can proceed to the riverfront bike paths. They were 90% of the way there, but chose to screw it up. This sort of bad planning does bunch up my knickers. This poorly done bridge likely will cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $100 per crossing over the first decade of its existence due to the low level of use.

If the crossing that you speak of is the one that has one lane in each direction and a very large concrete island place in the middle of the road, many of our local cyclists and peds would give their eye teeth to have something so similar, especially when our city has several 3 lane one way arterials, with a posted speed limit closely matching that particular road, cutting through the heart of our residential areas... the game of Frogger should come to mind.

Looking at the map, the bridge in question cuts a considerable distance of travel to cross the highway to get to the trails on the other side. I'm still envious on what your locale does spend in time, energy, and money on ped and cycling infrastructure.