Originally Posted by Bekologist
ahhahaha.. there's a vc 'advocate', or should I say 'acolyte'
Well, you may certainly say what you want, but... I will take you more seriously when you refrain from what I think of as childish name-calling. Of course, you may not care whether I take you seriously or not, but you might want to consider whether others have similar prejudices.
Originally Posted by Bekologist
who receives criticism by more pragmatic cyclists on group rides when he adamantly refuses to use a bike lane.
Thanks for sharing the basis for your earlier assertion. You haven't described the bike lane(s) your acquaintance won't use, but here's how I, and most other (self-described
) vehicular cyclists I know treat bike lanes:
If the BL is appropriately placed (out of the door zone, left of right-turning traffic, etc.), of adequate width to allow me to position myself to prevent dangerously close passing, and has a safe, uncluttered surface I'll use it. In other words, if it looks like a WOL or a rideable shoulder, except for the BL markings, I have no problem riding in it, although I certainly don't think the paint and stencils help cyclists in any way, even in the "best" bike lanes.
On the other hand, if it's full of glass and crud, 18 inches wide adjacent to a NOL and/or parked cars, striped through a RTOL, or displays any of the myriad other idiotic and dangerous characteristics that typify bike lanes created to get cyclists "out of the way" of motorists (the real reason our autocentric society is willing to create most "bicycle facilities"), you won't find me anywhere near it.