Originally Posted by bruce19

I think the US needs them but I won't like them until we learn to use them. There are a lot of people who are unsafe. I also like the idea that bicycles are a part of traffic. I am comfortable in traffic.

Originally Posted by poonkorama

I like the regular painted bike lanes just because it provides a visible line of demarcation. Whether cars respect these is a different issue, but I generally prefer these to nothing at all.

I'm not crazy about the new separated lanes we’ve been getting in Oakland (CA), which go between the parked cars and the sidewalk. In theory, they seem great, but as someone already pointed out, if the lane gets blocked, it can be very difficult to circumvent. The first time I rode one of these (Telegraph Ave), the lane was blocked by a group of several people hanging out next to their car who were reluctant to move (their dirty looks confirmed this). Half block later, another car managed to park *in* the lane, completely blocking it. The only way around was to stop and hop on the sidewalk, as the parked cars were too tightly spaced to allow a swerve onto the street. Again, not a bad theoretical concept, but I think some of the unintended consequences weren’t throughly visualized.

Completely separate bikeways (separated by concrete curbs) are awesome IMO (Stockholm does this well). But incorporating this type of system requires more significant changes to local infrastructure.