That thing is a bloody abortion. When it went in, I gave it a go. (I usually use University when I am heading north in that area of town.) I had to take evasive action THREE TIMES from southbound cars. Bear in mind I was northbound, which means all three cars had to cross the southbound bike lane in order to reach me. It seems that motorists will cross over a bit of paint if there is another motorist in front of them who is hindering their speedy escape, even when there is oncoming traffic. Who knew?

Then there is the little problem that occurs when this wonder reaches 18th Ave. Prior to this $750,000 waste of money, there was a southbound bike lane on the right side of the road, then a southbound multi-use lane, then a northbound contra-flow bike lane. If a southbound cyclist wanted to turn east on 18th, they just merged into the multi-use lane and made a normal left turn. East-turning motorists had to yield to oncoming bikes, but that is a fairly normal, benign thing to do. Motorists turning west had to yield to southbound bikes in the bike lane, but that is also a normal maneuver. Now, with both bike lanes on the left of any motorist who wants to make a left (east) turn, there is a confusing situation. Even though state law is clear that motorists who are turning across a bike lane must yield, a bike lane on the left side is strange enough that there was limited confidence that they actually would yield. So, a marginally visible "bike signal" has been installed so that cyclists get to wait through an extra cycle of the lights. (In fairness, the signal seems to be set up to detect bikes as they approach and not force them to wait unless there are motorists present. Based on past experience with the folks who maintain the traffic signals, I expect this to change for the worse.)

There are still all those lovely parking lot and one-block long street entrances and exits. The motorists entering/exiting those still don't look for cyclists, only now they have a twofer: they can use both the northbound contraflow cyclists and the southbound cyclists as buffers as they blindly pull out/in.

Did I mention that the bike lanes are super narrow? They are so small that if cycling ever caught on here they would completely fail to hold any number of cyclists. Of course, the way our city traffic planners/engineers work, it is a safe bet that cycling will never catch on here.

Like the bike bridges to/from nowhere, the flooding, mud-filled bike path tunnels and the non-connected bike paths, this is yet another example of Eugene's continuing failure to understand how to make bikes work. Or, maybe, it is yet another success at doing a little wasteful project while making the car/bike attractiveness ratio continue to tilt in the direction of cars. No wonder the UO has a car parking space shortage and only a handful of bikes on campus.