Mine doesn't seem to.

How else will a bike lane get cleaned? This is one of the major reasons I have disliked the bike lanes I've seen. What's it like in your area? Please talk about it, if you feel led.

Mine doesn't seem to.

How else will a bike lane get cleaned? This is one of the major reasons I have disliked the bike lanes I've seen. What's it like in your area? Please talk about it, if you feel led.
In Irvine, California, there are bike lanes on most of the main arterial roadways. I'm told they're swept once every two weeks (not often enough IMO).

In Houston, the few so-called bike lanes on public roads are simply a faded white light next to the gutter. Over the years, the gutter has filled with dirt, mud, glass, bits of metal, broken concrete...I've never seen the slightest evidence any of these gutters have been cleaned.

The other thing about these bike lanes is that they are usually on roads where the flow of traffic is between 40 mph and 50 mph. If you ride in the cleanest portion of the gutter, which is up next to the white divider line, the side mirrors on trucks clear your shoulder by about a foot or two, IF the driver stays centered in his lane.

Guess how often I ride on those streets?

San Francisco just got a bunch of rain and ever since the bike lanes have been horrible. Tons of big debris from trees, rocks, "street gravel," and the like. It's been like this for over a week, hard to bike in some of these lanes without mountain bike tires.

I was just on a four day bike tour of the Olympic Peninsula and out in the middle of BFE I came across a small 'shoulder sweeper' cleaning up the road shoulders, about 15 miles from any municipality...I thought that ROCKED! the highway road shoulder was largely clean and freshly brushed...

In Seattle they definetly clean the bike paths and lanes, but not with any regularity. some crew is currently keeping the leaves blown off the Burke Gilman trail, a main route N/S from the University of Washington.

Our bike lanes don't get cleaned here in Portland, at least not often. This fall they were covered in a slippery paste of ground up leaves and water.

When there was a cyclist hit by an RV on a bike laned road the city repainted the bike lane but they didn't sweep it first. We now have bright white pine needles and painted glass shards to mark the bike lane.

[QUOTE=alanbikehouston]In Houston, the few so-called bike lanes on public roads are simply a faded white light next to the gutter. Over the years, the gutter has filled with dirt, mud, glass, bits of metal, broken concrete...I've never seen the slightest evidence any of these gutters have been cleaned.
QUOTE]

Funny thing is the mayor of Houston is supposed to be a big cyclist. And yet on the inagural Tour de Houston last year, the route went down streets that had bike lanes with trash drifted as high as the curb. There's a fine mixed message for you.

When we got a new bike lane here in Lafayette, on a state road, the DOTD promised to sweep the lane 'periodically'. One year and counting, and it has yet to be swept. Since it is a state road, the city claims they cannot touch it.

Is it little wonder many riders feel that BIKE LANES = BIKE GHETTOES?

Give me WOL any day.

At one time San Diego used to do this. They even had special narrow bike lane sweepers to get into path areas.

Funding got diverted, proposition 13 came into play, politicians got a fat pension plan, and everything changed from libraries closing early to fewer police per capita to the lack of street maintenance.

Now we consider ourselves lucky if they patch the potholes every couple of years.

In the Minneapolis area all the bike lanes and bike trails get a good sweeping in the Spring. After that it's pretty hit or miss. But it is nice to see that winter sand and crap accumulation go away every April.

Also, they do a pretty good job of plowing the bike trails, but they don't salt them so they're pretty treacherous due to icy patches.

Our bike lanes don't get cleaned here in Portland, at least not often. This fall they were covered in a slippery paste of ground up leaves and water.

When there was a cyclist hit by an RV on a bike laned road the city repainted the bike lane but they didn't sweep it first. We now have bright white pine needles and painted glass shards to mark the bike lane.

Yes, west of Portland, in the Beaverton/outlying area, the worst offenders are swept, and the others don't accumulate much of anything.

Honestly I don't know. But our bike lanes are as clean as the roads for the most part, so somebody must be doing something. I never see the conditions most of the folks on this list complain about.

In Houston, the few so-called bike lanes on public roads are simply a faded white light next to the gutter. Over the years, the gutter has filled with dirt, mud, glass, bits of metal, broken concrete...I've never seen the slightest evidence any of these gutters have been cleaned.

The other thing about these bike lanes is that they are usually on roads where the flow of traffic is between 40 mph and 50 mph. If you ride in the cleanest portion of the gutter, which is up next to the white divider line, the side mirrors on trucks clear your shoulder by about a foot or two, IF the driver stays centered in his lane.

Guess how often I ride on those streets?

The bike lanes in Houston are, for the most part, absolutely worthless and for precisely the reasons you mention. All the debris from the roadway gets blown into the bike lane, and I've never once seen one swept. On a lot of streets, I'd think you couldn't go more than a couple blocks without a flat.

Honestly I don't know. But our bike lanes are as clean as the roads for the most part, so somebody must be doing something. I never see the conditions most of the folks on this list complain about.
But you also don't have the debris creating environment (sand for ice, lots of falling leaves, non-city cared for trees) that other parts of the US/world have. Also the winters are not hard on asphault so potholes, etc. are rarer. Similar situation here in Phx. But what we do have are things like large palm fronds, baseball sized rocks (used in medians/shoulders that fall out of containment sometimes) and random stuff that falls from vehicles. Nails are common here in some parts of the metro area due to lots of home construction.

Al

In our town, Ocean City NJ, if you would like a particular street swept more often than their regualr schedule all you have to do is call the public works dept. and they get out in a couple of days. Works great.

They do a great job here is Weston, the bike lanes are immaculate. After Wilma went through things were a big mess for awhile. They have it all cleaned out now, the only problem is on one stretech were they used heavy equipment to clean up the debris they left 1"-2" deep gauges in the lane for about 0.5mi. Hope they get them filled soon

A lot of the dedicated bike lanes in my neck of San Francisco are pretty clean, but then I'm in the South of Market area and there isn't a whole lot of foliage in the first place. :rolleyes:

What isn't so hot are those roads where there aren't sequestered bike lanes - I've seen the same glass splatter patterns for weeks. The city doesn't maintain its decaying roads very aggressively, and it doesn't clean them, either. I take the lane or get as far into it as possible as much as I can, because all the glass refuse is scattered alongside parked cars.

Los Angeles,

the bit of bike lane that I travel gets a pretty frequent cleaning. But no amount of cleaning can keep up with the broken glass from busted out car windows and daily intersection fender benders. I would say that glass is my biggest flat tire cause.

What are bike lanes?

I don't have bike lanes. But I take a lane of road to myself :D and it's pretty clean

Los Angeles,

the bit of bike lane that I travel gets a pretty frequent cleaning. But no amount of cleaning can keep up with the broken glass from busted out car windows and daily intersection fender benders. I would say that glass is my biggest flat tire cause.

Not to hijack the thread, but I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that glass from cars was pretty harmless. I use ultra gator skins and ride over the stuff all day. Auto safety glass seems too blocklike and rotund to slice into a more resilient tire... am I mistaken? :(

I'm not sure if my city even sweeps the streets...

What are bike lanes?
I don't see too many on my commute either. When I do encounter them, it seems like debris from the road is swept INTO them. After drunken fools and transients add remnants from their favorite beverage containers, I usually prefer the road.

Cary, NC claims to sweep collector streets once every three months; bike lane cleaning is done as part of the street sweeping. The arterials are all state-maintained, and they never get swept.

Some of the bike lanes quickly fill up with leaves, pine needles, pinecones, etc. depending on the location. Others fill with sand in the winter and are not swept until spring. Gravel and broken glass are found year-round; the busiest streets see the most of this.

In Irvine, California, there are bike lanes on most of the main arterial roadways. I'm told they're swept once every two weeks (not often enough IMO).
I have to add that Irvine is a fairly wealthy city, so they have the money for regular sweeping.

Ah, I did find the reference to indicate that all of the roads are swept bi-weekly:
http://www.ci.irvine.ca.us/depts/pw/streetmaintain/

San Francisco just got a bunch of rain and ever since the bike lanes have been horrible. Tons of big debris from trees, rocks, "street gravel," and the like. It's been like this for over a week, hard to bike in some of these lanes without mountain bike tires.

They don't fix the chuckholes or cracks in the pavement either. Once the lanes get striped, that's the end of "maintenance".

I take the lane or get as far into it as possible as much as I can, because all the glass refuse is scattered alongside parked cars.

Ahhh, the SOMA Crack Fairy strikes again. Piles of broken safety glass everywhere. Car burglaries are an epidemic in San Francisco, and the cops do nothing about it. On the block where I live, at least one car a week gets broken into.

But you also don't have the debris creating environment (sand for ice, lots of falling leaves, non-city cared for trees) that other parts of the US/world have. Also the winters are not hard on asphault so potholes, etc. are rarer. Similar situation here in Phx. But what we do have are things like large palm fronds, baseball sized rocks (used in medians/shoulders that fall out of containment sometimes) and random stuff that falls from vehicles. Nails are common here in some parts of the metro area due to lots of home construction.

Al
We mostly have a problem with eucalyptus and palm fronds.

But I was comparing the conditions in Santa Barbara to what I have seen in Oxnard a few minutes to the south, which more closely matches what people complain about here, even though they don't have harsh winters, either.

Somebody must be sweeping up the fronds and euc debris but I've never seen it.

My experience in Portland is that some of the heavily-treed neighborhoods get swept in the fall at the same time they sweep the street as a whole. They tend to get swept again in the spring, but if we got a good snow or ice storm in December we'll have to live with the leftover sand and gravel until then.

I was in Nashville last week, driving, commented to family as we drove along a street adjacent to the bike lane that it appeared that the debris - glass, plastic, etc., in the street had been swept into the bike lane. Some stretches were covered in glass shards. Where construction was taking place - houses, businesses, etc., the mud and junk from the site filled the bike lane, again, appearing to have been swept in from the street and from the sidewalk cut in this case.

Oh well.

Bill

Not to hijack the thread, but I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that glass from cars was pretty harmless. I use ultra gator skins and ride over the stuff all day. Auto safety glass seems too blocklike and rotund to slice into a more resilient tire... am I mistaken? :(

Maybe other folks don't have a problem with this, but I do. Even when block like the glass can still work it's way into the tire.

I was in Nashville last week, driving, commented to family as we drove along a street adjacent to the bike lane that it appeared that the debris - glass, plastic, etc., in the street had been swept into the bike lane. Some stretches were covered in glass shards. Where construction was taking place - houses, businesses, etc., the mud and junk from the site filled the bike lane, again, appearing to have been swept in from the street and from the sidewalk cut in this case.

Oh well.

Bill

About 90% of street debris, at any given time, will be concentrated in the 40 inches of pavement next to the curb. This happens because traffic movement pushes the trash down the crown of the road. This will explain why the cleanest part of the bike lane is the outer part, next to the white line.

As to Portland, OR.... The approximate street cleaning schedule is something close to this:

The central business district (app. 40 miles) is swept nightly, 5 nights a week.

Most main arterials (MLK, Division, Stark, Fremont Lombard etc.), every week or two.

Neighborhood collector streets (SE 20th, 28th, 72nd etc), once a month, maybe a little longer.

Residential streets about 4 times a year.

Designated bike paths, like the one on Marine Drive are swept about four times a year but are not part of the regular street cleaning program.... some, like Terwilliger, are part of the Parks Bureau and some are maintained by the Maintenance Bureau.

If you have a specific complaint about a dangerous condition that can be addressed by sweeping, you can call one of THESE (http://www.portlandonline.com/transportation/index.cfm?&a=83280&c=35716) numbers and tell the nice lady where the problem is. After business hours, substitute 1700 for the last four digits of the phone numbers in the link.
Just remember to use the two magic words, Dangerous and Bicycle.

Dogbait

OP, you should call the EPA.

Honolulu City and the State of Hawaii only swept the streets once about every 4 years. Most of my flats have been from broken beer bottles and the rest from small wire off of excessively worn steel belted tires. I got flats about 1.5 times a month, even riding VC and doing my best to stay out of the glass.

Local bicyclist pushed to no avail to get the streets swept. This summer, the State of Hawaii began to sweep some of the State streets about every 3 months. I got a letter from the State telling me they would be sweeping the streets every 4 to 5 weeks. The letter implied that the sweeping was in response to cyclist complaints. I found out a couple of weeks later that the EPA had issued a fine to the State for Clean Water Act violations (mostly from equipment base yards). The settlement required cleaning up the base yards, placing absorbent materials, and sweeping the streets every 4-5 weeks to keep debris from flowing into storm drains.

I have only gotten 1 flat since the summer. City streets still do not get swept, but 95% of my commute is on State streets.

I ride the apron on a four lane by-pass regularly, and the aprons are a mess -- lots of small auto parts and glass shards. I have had two flats in the past two weeks due to small, knife like glass shards. So I called my county's road department, and talked to the top guy, a maintenance engineer. He said the county will sweep both north and south aprons within two weeks, which is about 20 miles of roadway. We will see. He sounded like a nice guy, and didn't give me any flack. The road is about five years old, and I would say it has never been swept. All they do is remove dead animals fairly promptly. It doesn't hurt to ask! Make sure you talk to the top gun -- don't talk to Alfred Anus, the sweeper operator. I did this about 6 months ago, and nothing got done.

In Irvine, California, there are bike lanes on most of the main arterial roadways. I'm told they're swept once every two weeks (not often enough IMO).
I can vouch that the bike lanes are not swept in Irvine, or if they are, the city does a piss-poor job of it. The street might be, though.

Most of my flats have been from broken beer bottles and the rest from small wire off of excessively worn steel belted tires. I got flats about 1.5 times a month, even riding VC and doing my best to stay out of the glass.

...

I have only gotten 1 flat since the summer.
I should have kept my mouth shut. I got a flat today from 2 staples (the large type used in staple guns). :(

I can vouch that the bike lanes are not swept in Irvine, or if they are, the city does a piss-poor job of it. The street might be, though.
About once every couple of months in the early morning I see a street sweeper on Jamboree ... but that's in Tustin.

About once every couple of months in the early morning I see a street sweeper on Jamboree ... but that's in Tustin.
I've seen some ugly debris on the road for months at a time, on major roads like Main St. and Irvine Center Dr. One nice metal strip that I routinely avoided wasn't moved until I stopped and tossed it onto the sidewalk, where a gardener (who visits more often than the street sweeper) would probably pick it up. Around construction sites, like near the Spectrum, they tend to clean up after themselves after a week or so of tracking large amounts of dirt and miscellaneous debris onto the road. I still end up having to avoid the interesting terrain on the street, as I usually don't take my mountain bike on my commute.

I'll throw out a conjecture that the street sweepers don't sweep the bike lane, where most of the debris collects. Or maybe they do that only in residential Irvine, and not the industrial/business zones.

I've seen some ugly debris on the road for months at a time, on major roads like Main St. and Irvine Center Dr. One nice metal strip that I routinely avoided wasn't moved until I stopped and tossed it onto the sidewalk, where a gardener (who visits more often than the street sweeper) would probably pick it up. Around construction sites, like near the Spectrum, they tend to clean up after themselves after a week or so of tracking large amounts of dirt and miscellaneous debris onto the road. I still end up having to avoid the interesting terrain on the street, as I usually don't take my mountain bike on my commute.

I'll throw out a conjecture that the street sweepers don't sweep the bike lane, where most of the debris collects. Or maybe they do that only in residential Irvine, and not the industrial/business zones.
My commute only takes me on the part of Irvine Center between Harvard and Sand Canyon, so I'm not down by the industrial area by the Irvine Spectrum.

At large intersections, such as Sand Canyon and Irvine Center, I've seen large areas of debris where the cars don't normally travel. If you were to connect the bike lane from one side of the intersection through the other, it would travel the path of the debris.

I think maybe they're not sweeping all the streets as often as they say, and the wind blast from the cars is pushing the debris into the bike lane.