Texas - North Texas Bike Lanes Going ‘Green’ For Safety

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.




hrt4me
07-23-12, 03:50 PM
North Texas Bike Lanes Going ‘Green’ For Safety (http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/07/23/north-texas-bike-lanes-going-green-for-safety/)
July 23, 2012 11:05 AM

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The City of Fort Worth is hoping a little paint will make bicyclists safer in their city. The city is painting bike lanes green. The green-color will highlight areas where vehicle lanes and bike lanes cross.

City leaders say the green-colored lanes are meant to alert drivers to yield to those on bikes.

The bike lane at 12th Street and Commerce will be the first in North Texas to have the green pavement markings.

“It’s gonna be sort of a test there, so that we’re gonna really study to see if it makes a difference in safety,” City of Fort Worth spokesman Bill Begley explained.

The green lanes mean that when approaching the colored bike lanes motorists should check their blind spots for bicycles and yield to them, and also allow the cyclist to pass before making a turn.

“We want to make sure that cyclists are safe and that we have drivers who are aware of the fact that they’re on the road,” Begley said. “That will improve safety for everybody.”

City officials say the ‘green’ lanes are also a focus on the environment and they hope the additional safety steps will encourage residents to use alternative forms of transportation.

The green-colored bike lanes have been instituted and very successful in a number of cities across the country, including Austin.


walnutz
07-24-12, 07:50 AM
Cool, but my first thought is that drivers might switch off when there are no green lanes around.

DTSCDS
07-24-12, 09:59 AM
Of course the general tone in the comment section was that anything to improve bike accessibility was a stupid idea.
My biggest question is how is that plastic-y stuff going to do when it's wet? Won't traction be an issue?


Don in Austin
07-24-12, 07:58 PM
North Texas Bike Lanes Going ‘Green’ For Safety (http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2012/07/23/north-texas-bike-lanes-going-green-for-safety/)
July 23, 2012 11:05 AM

FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) – The City of Fort Worth is hoping a little paint will make bicyclists safer in their city. The city is painting bike lanes green. The green-color will highlight areas where vehicle lanes and bike lanes cross.

City leaders say the green-colored lanes are meant to alert drivers to yield to those on bikes.

The bike lane at 12th Street and Commerce will be the first in North Texas to have the green pavement markings.

“It’s gonna be sort of a test there, so that we’re gonna really study to see if it makes a difference in safety,” City of Fort Worth spokesman Bill Begley explained.

The green lanes mean that when approaching the colored bike lanes motorists should check their blind spots for bicycles and yield to them, and also allow the cyclist to pass before making a turn.

“We want to make sure that cyclists are safe and that we have drivers who are aware of the fact that they’re on the road,” Begley said. “That will improve safety for everybody.”

City officials say the ‘green’ lanes are also a focus on the environment and they hope the additional safety steps will encourage residents to use alternative forms of transportation.

The green-colored bike lanes have been instituted and very successful in a number of cities across the country, including Austin. If green bike lanes have made anything different in Austin, its news to me!

Don in Austin

A10K
07-24-12, 10:22 PM
Yeah, we have a few sprinkled around Austin. I doubt most drivers see them; there's a pair that I cross every day on my way home from work that marks on- and off- ramps to an interstate frontage road, drivers going at high speeds around curves are unlikely to spot a short green rectangle on the ground ahead of them before they're right on it. Its just not big enough. Its no more visible than the cyclists preparing to cross it. I'd rather have signs upright facing the drivers than markings on the ground.

Never had any issues with traction, though.

LetzRide
08-25-12, 08:13 AM
In Houston, we have the magic white stripe that is supposed to protect us from cagers. That is the boundary line for street crews to stop maintenance and for residents to keep their garbage containers behind. It does seem to suggest that certain streets are legal for bikes and some are not and that a bicycle cannot stray outside the 2 ft or so allocated.