Advocacy & Safety - Has your opinion about bike lanes changed?

Has your opinion about bike lanes changed since you started reading this forum? How?

Please describe how long and how much you have been reading this forum, and why or why not you have been influenced by what has been written here.

Nope. I have no preference either way.
If they are there I ride in the bike lane unless it is obstructed. If they aren't, I ride in the street. On my commuting route I have a few bike lanes but they are a minority to unmarked streets.
I suppose if I rode in them more my opinion could change.

Yes, but not because of reading this forum, but because of riding.

I've learned that they have + and - , they are not a panacea. You can get trapped in them and have a crash, but they do solve certain traffic flow problems in certain speed regimes.

I have learned to not depend on them, and to go where I want, and use them if I feel it is to my advantage to, and to leave them alone at other times.

So, my opinion has matured and softened.

Unlike yours!

Yes. I used to be for them, now I'm against them. That's partly from reading the forum, but also from personal experience.

That said, I don't take the issue as seriously as most here do. Other topics interest me more.

I think that there are more pressing issues than bike lanes.

I have more clear reasons for why I like them and what they mean to me. I have no problem riding with our without them. I also know that some of them are complete garbage.

No change here. I have always used them when I thought it was a safe thing to do. Conversely, I have never hesitated to abandon the bike lane for safety reasons, as I did twice yesterday. Once for a gravel spill at a traffic light in town (35mph), and once for a dead skunk with considerable leakage out on the highway (55mph).

Dogbait

My opinion has not changed. I like bike lanes. I think they're safer. I think it's more relaxing to ride when there are bike lanes.

I too find it more enjoyable to ride in bike lanes. I may go slower, but that's just because the sheer terror of impatient drivers harassing me is not present.

I still like them and use them.
But I'm more aware of design problems and potential hazards.

I think that there are more pressing issues than bike lanes.

+1

I think that there are more pressing issues than bike lanes.
Indeed, like the widespread prevalence of the notion that cyclists have an obligation to stay out of the way of cars, not only in our culture in general, but even among cycling advocates, even among those who participate in this forum.

I've learned to value well designed, preferential lanes for bicyclists much more than I did before.

I've also learned Helmet Head has no clue how to use a bike lane.

I had no idea that someone who clearly doesn't know how to use something could go on so much about a subject they know little about!

Yes. I used to be for them, now I'm against them. That's partly from reading the forum, but also from personal experience.

That said, I don't take the issue as seriously as most here do. Other topics interest me more.

What Roody said. This is the reply I was thinking of making, almost word for word.

Most of my commuting routes had bike lanes and I used them when I was on Okinawa. There are none here. I don't miss them one bit.

What's a bike lane?

I don't think there are ANY around here.

jw

I voted "None of the above". My opinion has changed since I came to these forums... not due to the endless debate but, rather, because I moved from a city that had no bike lanes to one that did. Previously I was against bike lanes for many of the reasons pointed out here however, having had the opportunity to try some out, I have found that they can be quite helpful in some circumstances. In other circumstances, they can be counterproductive.

To summarize, I have gone from 'not liking them' to 'sometimes liking them and sometimes not'.

Jalopy

None of the above. I didn't like or dislike bike lanes previously. If they were there I used them and if they weren't I didn't. Going through the arguments on the forum has made me more aware of their benefits and drawbacks. Overall I've come to believe that bike lanes are a tool that if properly applied can be useful in some situations. Wow, that sounds like politic-speak doesn't it? "I can neither confirm nor deny that bike lanes were used Senator."

Indeed, like the widespread prevalence of the notion that cyclists have an obligation to stay out of the way of cars, not only in our culture in general, but even among cycling advocates, even among those who participate in this forum.

That sounds like a perfectly good notion to me. Safer than even a good bike lane, and MUCH safer than VC.

I like 'em and always have. I like MUP also. I don't often use 'em myself, but am pleased that those who do are over there rather than in front of or behind me.

I read this forum almost every day even if I don't post that often.

My opinion has changed quite a bit - not my opinion of bike lanes but my opinion of bike lane opponents.

I honestly don't care one way or the other about bike lanes and I never did care much. If anything, anti-bike lane arguments in this forum have made me slightly less opposed to bike lanes than I was.

The main effect of anti-BL comments in this forum has been to make me more opposed to bike lane opponents than I ever would have imagined I could be. While there are rational arguments that can be made against bike lanes, the last thing I would call some of the more extreme anti-bike lane propaganda I've seen in this forum and elsewhere is 'rational'.

I now have such a low opinion of some bike lane opponents that they have lost credibility on other issues. To a certain extent, by association, the loss of credibility extends to the VC movement itself. Such 'guilt by association', while perhaps not seeming fair, is hard to avoid since the basis of extreme anti-bike lane sentiment is VC ideology. The bike lane debate has exposed fallacies in VC political and social theory and led me to question other aspects of VC theory, some of which is evidently founded on quicksand.

I've said all along that bike lanes are a relatively minor issue that some bike lane opponents have blown out of proportion. The strange obsession with BLs speaks volumes about the perspective or lack thereof of persons whose rants dominate this forum to an extent way out of proportion to the relative importance of the bike lane issue.

I can honestly say that my opinion of bike lane opponents has changed since I started reading this forum.