Commuting - bike lanes

I 'm over from the touring form. The city of Omaha Ne. just anounced they are spending $600.000 to instal, or mark (A) that is one bike lane, on one side of several of our streets. A year or so ago they did this trick on one of the little used streets. I have asked some of Omahas finest (patrol officers) what this means. Is this a one way street for bikes ? do you us the lane going one way and the other side when you go the other way? or God forbid ride aginst trafic and use the one lane in both directions? my only response to this question has been that that was a good Question. I understand that riding against trafic is the # 1 killer fo bike riders, true of false? I have riden cost to cost and from the golf to Manitoba and not yet seen any thing like this, please inlighten Me. Or If you think that the brain trust of our city is out to lunch please E-mail them. That money could go a long way to inform people, ( bikes and cars) how they are suposto play togather, and the city councle would be a good place to start. Thank you from the corn patch !

So there is a stripe on just one side of the road that is marked as a bike lane?
But not on the other side of the road?

I know what I'd do, I would completely ignore it.

I think that riding the other way would be a little safer as you can see the cages coming at you.

I often have to ride on the other side of the road with bikes, tricycles, electronic bikes and cars coming at me. Here it is done so often that people know how to deal with it. I just had to learn the rules and visual cues the other drivers give me.

z

If I'm understanding your question correctly, it's a normal two-way street, with a bike lane striped on one side of the street and no bike lane on the other?

If you're going in the direction with a bike lane:
Use the bike lane, or don't use it, depending on circumstances (door zones, road conditions, your intended destination, etc.) If the state or the city has a law saying you have to use a bike lane when one exists, change the law.

If you're going in the direction without a bike lane:
Ride just like you would on any other road.

http://www.lightlanebike.com/

I think that riding the other way would be a little safer as you can see the cages coming at you.


z

Do they do math in China? I guess they do, they probably claim to have invented math (like everything else)


travel same way as a car-- you 20mph car 30 mph = 10mph closing speed,i.e. not too bad

travel opposite way as car---- you 20mph car 30 mph = 50 mph closing speed=death

Doesn't do you any good to see them coming at you, plus puts you in all sorts of bad situations at intersections and turns.

Well, at least they are only wasting 600 dollars, rather than making it a big waste of 600,000 dollars.

Sorey about the tipeo Six Hundred Thousand I was recently in Kansas City MO. where a shop gave away the book Street Smarts From Rodale Press I'll try to find out how many copys the city could by for $600,000

There are some roads around here where something similar was done. They re-stripped the road and combined the shoulder from both sides to one side and then set that up as a bike lane. I ride in it going in that direction and in the road going the other direction.

It is not the ideal situation, but I think it is a genuine attempt to make things more bike friendly without having to make the roads wider or adding dedicated lanes, either of which would be unaffordable.

People riding the wrong way in bike lanes is starting to annoy me in NY.

We discussed a bike lane only on one side of a two way street at our last bike/ped meeting and came to the conclusion that it is OK if we are talking about a climbing lane otherwise it encourages wrong way use.

There are a lot of different studies out there that uses different methodologies to reach conclusions so it is hard to say how significant wrong way riding is but here is one study that shows wrong way cyclists being over represented in crashes: http://www.baltimorespokes.org/article.php?story=20090412051502142

It's very common here but it's done on one way streets, - which makes a little more sense. You still see people cycling the wrong way on them though.

On the one-way streets, are the bike lanes on the right side heading the wrong way? With a yellow line to demarcate them? They have a few in Toronto and they are called "contraflow" lanes to legally allow cyclists to travel in both directions (ie the wrong way in the bike lane, and the right way in the unmarked lane) on a one-way street.

On the one-way streets, are the bike lanes on the right side heading the wrong way? With a yellow line to demarcate them? They have a few in Toronto and they are called "contraflow" lanes to legally allow cyclists to travel in both directions (ie the wrong way in the bike lane, and the right way in the unmarked lane) on a one-way street.

I haven't seen anything like that. There is a bizarre two-way bike lane that runs down the middle of a major one-way street in town. On the East side is 2 or 3 lanes of Northbound car traffic. On the west side is a Southbound bus lane. In the middle is a two-way bike lane (divided by a dotted yellow line).

Turning right while going South sucks because you've got to look over your shoulder and slide into the bus lane to make sure you don't get creamed by a bus. Turning right going North sucks for the same reason except now you've got two lanes of car traffic to cross.

Going straight is fun though, -until the lane ends.