Originally Posted by
FBinNY
Three lane roads actually work well in many places. The design allows passing traffic room to move over safely most of the time.
No comment about putting bikes in the gutter, and odds are that I'd just ride in the traffic lane knowing there room for drivers to pass.
If cyclists choose to ride in the lane of traffic, then that defeats the entire purpose of the whole thing. And any adult cyclist should be able to ride their bike on 3 feet of smooth blacktop without having to go into the lane of traffic. The point of a bike line is for cyclists to have a more safe and separate space to ride, separate from traffic. And adults who have the ability to ride in traffic can do that anywhere and probably don't need a bike lane (that or look down their noses at them) but there are many young people and kids who do need that kind of safer space.
Three lane roads are designed to move motorized traffic, not bikes. The entire purpose of changing this stretch of road from 4 lanes to 3 was to be able to have a bike lane on each side. My point is that had they consulted with bike riders they might well have been told that the bike lanes could be wider and that the center turn lane could be narrower because this is not a busy street. When a city creates bike lanes and then it is observed that there are cyclists who choose not to use them and ride in traffic, does that encourage the city to create more bike lanes or not?