Commuting - how are your cycle lanes?

where i live / commute the cycle lanes are nuts, half the time they just sop and you're left to fend for yourself in traffic and then suddenly it will just start again.. :notamused:

In Jacksonville, NC there is one bicycle lane...It's about 3/4s of a mile and doesn't connect to anywhere from anywhere else.

Indianapolis is trying to be bicycle friendly, but sometimes....I use about 3 miles of bicycle lane each way. Headed west (to work) it is very rough, Michigan Street (at IUPUI) is so bumpy it knocks my mirror out of whack every morning, too many bumps and too much traffic to avoid them all. On the way home, eastbound on New York Street, at first there are these cone shaped depressions in the pavement aobut 6 inches deep and about a foot in diameter. They are smooth and you can ride right over them but it is a very fast part and they are kinda unnerving, just gotta pay attention, but the lanes go thru downtown and whoever painted them painted them exactly how I used to ride and change lanes etc. But they are bicycle lanes, a few years ago people would get abusive because I was riding on the street. Now the drivers are much more tolerant I think everywhere because the bicycle lanes cause increased awareness. So overall I am thankful of the lanes Indy has put in so far.

I think I've observed seven categories of cyclist accomodation here ;
1. Bike route separate from walking/equestrian trails. No accompanying auto route.
2. Bike allowance through pedestrian area. Often in urban cores, sometimes with lane designation for bikes.
3. Separate pathway with sidewalk, curbs or garden separating bikeway from road.
4. Line designated lane, often with red coloured asphalt or bricks contrasting with rest of road surface.
5. Mix zones on major bike routes, side streets, and high streets, where speeds are low and bikes and cars alternate ownership of whole lane.
6. Faster roadways where cars expect to overtake, and cyclists accommodate them when possible.
7. Roadways/highways where bikes are prohibited. No accompanying bike path or service road.

Contrasting with what I've seen in other countries, riders on types 5 and 6 often receive lane or pathway allowance as they approach intersections/roundabouts. On occasion, I see accommodations morph from type 1 directly to type 6, but this is rare. More common are smaller number jumps. Type 7s are rarely a major problem as one gets from A to B, as there is generally a slightly less direct bike route.

I like your classifications. Here in Heidelberg we have a similar system, but not so much 6. HD is a pretty wealthy city, so the bike lanes from my experience are well maintained and quite smooth. The cycle lanes differ throughout Germany though, and in smaller towns/villages there are usually no bike lanes, but the bikes and cars usually get along pretty well.

Nashville has done a decent job of adding bike lanes in some areas. I am lucky that the side of town I live on has a mix of bike lanes and greenways(paved paths) to ride from my house to work 18+ miles and only 4 miles are on roads. Some of the bike lanes don't connect to others but I figure it is a good start. Our biggest issue here and it is the same for cars, is the river snakes through the city so there are many bridges and they haven't all become bike friendly, or you have a ride way out of your way to just get directly across where you want to go.

My bike lane on my commute route is full of broken glass, left over garbage and even a manhole covering half of the bike lane. It's ok to ride it after the day they sweep the road but not the day before.

Yea we have them,and there laid out ok,but there friggin minefields. Who ever cleans up after a vehicle accident uses these lanes to sweep all,the ,glass,brokes lens,metal and plastic parts right into the bike lane. I get so pissed. I have to concentrate on the lane 100% of the time or get a flat. It sucks. The street sweeping in this city was the first thing to go with the budget cuts. I see him about once a month. There are so many vehicle wreaks here it's not even funny. The bike lane up the main road I take leaving home and returning is nicily paved and wide,as is the street,but you would be a fool to ride in any portion of it except the extreem right hand. These idiot cagers cannot complete a simple turn without drifting into most of the bike lane.

Here, the only bike lanes are contraflow lanes. They're okay, but there seems to be a lot of confusion with drivers and new cyclists about the difference between a bike lane and a contraflow lane. While I was going in the direction of traffic a couple of weeks ago, a driver slowed down to call me an ******* and tell me to get in the "bike lane." There's also tons of salmon in the lane since the direction arrows have worn off. I've since exacted a promise from the city to repaint direction arrows and add sharrows on that road - they're supposed to get to that within the next week.

There's also lots of MUTs, and they are mostly wonderful pavement, though - since I live near the city centre - they are frequently crowded with pedestrians who have difficulty with the stay-right concept.

And I don't count the bus-bike-taxi lanes as bike lanes because I'd rather ride in the middle of a busy road than in the middle of a busy bus lane...

Rumor is we'll be getting our first with-traffic bike lane this year, so we'll see how that goes. I'm a little wary, as they seem to be a serious right-hook risk. We have a very comprehensive plan for bike infrastructure, which would be fantastic if it was ever built. Unfortunately, the city combined it with their plan for sidewalks and called the "active transportation plan," then funded it at 1/3 the required level. Seriously, we're building a single highway overpass as the entire 10-year plan would cost for both bikes and peds, but apparently there's no money for us.

When people aren't busy double parking in them around here, they are actually usually pretty good, if a tad on the narrow side (i.e., have to almost ride outside the bike lane to avoid the door zone).

I only have about 200 yrds in the "door zone", but it is a very heavy traffic area, I just go slow enough it wont hurt too bad when someone opens their door right in front of me.

No bike lanes in my immediate area. The LA River was repaved a few weeks ago yet has no lines. I will call the county today to see what is going on around here.

No bike lanes on my ride, and I'm happy about it. I have wide shoulders for the most part. All the bike lanes around here are in the door zone, and drivers get upset if you're not in them. I'm fine with traffic in those areas because they're the 25 MPH zones that I can almost keep up with traffic anyway.

Nonexistent. There's one road that I go on perhaps 3 or 4 times a year that has a bike lane. Mostly I'm riding on 50+ MPH roads with either an 18" or zero shoulder, one lane each direction.

There are entire counties around this area that don't have a single foot of bike lane.

Within towns with 30MPH or less speed limits, honestly I'd rather not have a bike lane.

Someday I'll have to do a breakdown on how much of each type of path I follow for my commute. I use a combination of suburban neighborhood streets, MUP, freeway access road, bike lanes and country two-lanes. The bike-laned route I follow is fine. A little debris, usually natural, and nothing my Marathons can't handle. There are a couple houses that overflow their driveways and have cars parked in the street; I just get in the traffic lane and go around. The road is not very busy so this isn't a big deal.

None in my general area. Not a big fan anyway- www.sameroadssamerules.org

Someone else took this pic yesterday, but this is along my commute. Note the mirror on the car. ;)

http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/5165/photo8jf.jpg

Karma is real.

In Geneva, Switzerland, there are bike lanes everywhere and they're even interconnected. The problem is street traffic is usually quite bad, so motorcycles and scooters use them to get through traffic. I know, I know, share the road and all that, but I really hate sharing bike lanes with motorists.

Our bike lanes in Seattle tend to be in "the door zone," where you can go from on your way home at a nice clip, to on your way to the emergency room in an ambulance, in half a second. They also tend to have more road debris in them. I tend not to use them.

What is a bike lane? A road shoulder? You're talking crazy talk here!

Quite good. However I find each time after a rain shower or storm or snow, cycling lanes get clogged with debris.

Quite nice actually. Denver's pretty good about keeping the bike lanes sweeped. They make 'em wide around here and well designed with right turns lane to the right of bike lanes, and where they're not, drivers know well enough to either merge into the bike lane or to look for bikes. I do love Denver's infrastructure.

The suburbs... not so much. I have a two foot wide bike lane on my ride home... I'll pass.

I've noticed too many places in Indy where the bike lane is the "dooring" lane.

They suck and are poorly designed and not maintained so not usable in many places.

They added 200 ft of bike lane both directions that END at the intersection. Ending at intersections is a pretty common theme in GA despite it clearly stating in the drivers manuals that changing lanes IN an intersection is illegal.

There is so much gravel pebbles on the bridges left from winter they are not ride able. I am seeing the same brake pads in one intersection as I saw the first time I commuted by bike 2 years ago.

I went to a commissioners meeting and introduced myself as a bicycle commuter and then asked what it would take to get the lanes removed since they are not being swept and designed poorly and endanger my life more so then if I was left to ride in the lane. The guy was shocked.

No such thing as a bike lane here. I doubt we have one in the whole state.

We do, however, have an excellent MUP system that follows the river and circles the city. Traffic on it is light enough that you're not constantly encountering pedestrians/roller bladers/etc. I usually utilize the MUP for at least a portion of wherever I need to go.

Here, the only bike lanes are contraflow lanes. They're okay, but there seems to be a lot of confusion with drivers and new cyclists about the difference between a bike lane and a contraflow lane.

Just what is the difference?

My city's bike lane network has improved dramatically in the past few years (although, i can agree with those who don't like them). They are swept just enough to not piss me off. However, while the system is getting better, there are frequent gaps, which wouldn't be a problem since i prefer riding in traffic.

My biggest complaint is the signage. When a bike lane begins, a sign either says "bike route" or "yield to bicycles" (the latter is great!). However, at the end of a lane it simply says "bike lane ends". This seems to imply that i no longer have a right to continue on that road, even though another bike lane picks up a few blocks down.

I've had several motorist try to squeeze me off the road, even though i have taken the lane well before they approach me.

Bike lanes are terrifying. They spit you out into traffic regularly, direct you to cross at crosswalks and will often just end deep in "carland". The signage is terrible - I have gotten lost every single time I have explored a new bike route. Every single time.

The surfaces, nearly always paved, are not maintained at all and the roots from neighbouring trees push up the pavement into a washboard that threatens to shake loose your fillings, even rocking squishy 28s.

They're nearly always multi-use, so you have to dodge pedestrians. Somehow drivers get slightly more ******** when they get out of their cars. How can two small women take up an entire two-lane path? Why?

I'll stick to the roads, thanks.

We have a 1.25 mile bike lane on the Mississippi bottom road that leads to nowhere, a .9 mile bike lane that goes nowhere, and another 2.2 mile lane that goes out to nowhere. They're nice for when I'm out on a ride on my road bike, but nothing in town for commuting purposes. Every time an intercity bike lane is proposed, someone will complain about tax money or parking spaces at the city hall meeting, so I don't see that expanding in the future. Luckily, the drivers are usually nice and the roads are fairly wide.

Here in Orange County, CA we have about 1000+ miles of on street bike lanes. I can pedal along almost any major artery in the central and southern part of the county and have a reasonably wide bike lane to travel on, which keeps me from having to compete for road space with the abundant car traffic. These bike lanes all connect to other main artery bike lanes and provide good routes across cities and towns in all directions. IMO, thanks to the well designed bike lane network, Orange County bike riding conditions are better than most other large metro areas (of more than 3 million population) in the US. On street parking is usually prohibited along many of these main streets, so door zone sections are not too common except going through some of our busy coastal communities on Pacific Coast Highway. The streets are for the most part in good condition, and since it almost never drops below freezing, potholes on the roads are uncommon. The cities in OC are required to keep the streets clean to prevent trash and contamination from entering storm drains and creeks, which all drain to the nearby ocean beaches. So there's not much junk in the bike lanes.

Of the few bike lanes we have, most tend to be in the door zone.

I forgot to mentioned,that all of are bike lanes are in the door zone.

Just what is the difference?
I've only ever seen contraflow lanes on one way roads. They usually exist to allow cyclists to go two ways on narrow, one way residentials.

This link (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=golden,+co&sll=39.725056,-104.972751&sspn=0.009737,0.022724&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Golden,+Jefferson,+Colorado&ll=39.730822,-105.189221&spn=0.009736,0.022724&z=16&layer=c&cbll=39.73272,-105.18613&panoid=N3c-uuLbjlVcOVVt5DZv-A&cbp=12,266.85,,0,11.46) is an example of a contraflow bicycle lane. Notice how the right lane is wide enough for cars, and the left lane isn't. The narrow lane is the contra flow lane, to facilitate cyclists east bound. The wider lane is for all west bound traffic.

Running a few errands on the way to work this morning had me on the roads more and on the MUP less. As I rode down one of the bike lanes, I was thinking of this thread and remembered a sad but true "double parked in the bike lane" situation from the last couple times I had taken this particular route.

The bike lane passes right in front of an EPA office building in Crystal City (Arlington, VA). For several days in a row earlier this year, there was an EPA shuttle bus parked right in the bike lane forcing riders into the traffic lanes. I'm fine taking a lane, so it was more an annoyance than anything else, but the irony of it being an EPA vehicle blocking the lane was pretty funny. EPA <> always environmentally friendly, I guess.

Fortunately, there are no bike lanes on the roads I use for my 6.5 mile bike commute. Some of the roads have 14' wide outside lanes and I ride on the right side of those; the others have narrow lanes and I ride in the center of the lane without any significant issues.

A few low-volume, low-speed collector streets in Cary are striped with bike lanes. These markings are generally useless (given the low traffic speeds and volumes); the lanes fill with debris and stay curbside up to the stop line of intersections (right hook position). I usually ride on the stripe and merge into the normal travel lane when approaching an intersection or going downhill. I ride in the bike lane when going uphill away from any intersections.

Of the few bike lanes we have, most tend to be in the door zone.

I think this is the big issue with bike lanes. If they are situated next to parked cars, you have to extra vigilant about people getting out of their cars. What usually happens is they open the door, you swerve left to avoid a crash and end up being nailed.

I'm trying to figure out if this technique actually works. When passing parked cars, move out to the left side of the lane, or directly into the adjacent car lane.

That's all I can figure. Some people think you may be able to figure out if a door is about to open by looking into the parked car. I think this is the worst thing you can do.

On the up side, my city finally stopped telling property owners to illegally dump their leaves into SOME of the bike lanes this past year. However, the city still refuses to put the bike lanes out of the door zone (it actually added to this problem last year) or keep the cars from using the bike lanes. (It is always fun to be squeezed between a car that is two feet into the bike lane doing 35 mph and a parked car that is parked 1 foot into the bike lane on a curve. The police said they will issue a ticket if a motorist crosses over all of the bike lane and actually hits a parked car.) Since the bike lanes are added as an afterthought, they are on the low side of crowned roads and are generally full of water most of the year. Like everyplace else, most bike lanes are "bike lanes to nowhere" that simply cease to exist at the places where they are most needed. My favorite Eugene innovation is the bike lane on the left side of a busy one-way street that simply disappears at a busy intersection and reappears on the right side. Beam me over, Scotty!

Our bike paths are slightly worse than a bad joke. There are several places where, to save money, the path runs under a roadway at the side of a creek. It is thus flooded for much of the wet season and is full of very treacherous mud for months at a time. Of course, these underpasses tend to be narrow blind curves with homeless folks trying to stay out of the rain taking up a fair portion of the surface. On the rest of the paths, the city runs trucks on them so much that the pavement is mostly broken and much of the surface has as much as 18 inches of standing water when it rains, and we get a lot of rain. None of the bike paths connect and where there is a road crossing the path has either a stop sign, yield sign, or a (flooded) underpass.

It is a chicken/egg issue, but during the wet months I often see more city trucks on the bike paths than bicyclists. Is the infrastructure allowed to be horrid because no one rides in the rain here, or does no one ride in the rain because the infrastructure sucks?

where i live / commute the cycle lanes are nuts, half the time they just sop and you're left to fend for yourself in traffic and then suddenly it will just start again.. :notamused:
We dont have much in the way of bike lanes - anywhere. Allright, lets be frank... there are none. There are a few miles of paths, here and there, but they are more like Multiuse Pathways, not dedicated bike lanes. Joggers, dog walkers and stranded cars all share the same space.

In fact, now that I think about it, there arent any labeled and striped bike lanes around here that I know of.

VERY NARROW!
Want me to post pictures?

It is ridiculous. I do not ride in them. It is a recipe for death. I see cyclists in the lanes and I ALWAYS see a car veering into the lane. Guess why? Texting or talking on the cell phone.
:(

I hate the bike lanes in SFlorida. Horrible!