Originally Posted by pj7
And do you see anything wrong with giving drivers of faster vehicles an advantage such as this? Seriously, why must the advantage always be for the cyclist? Just because we are in the minority? We have enough advantages over motorized traffic, such as being able to avoid traffic jams. But there would be at least one advantage I see for cyclists with such a lane. The existance of the lane alone would be a reminder to motorists that cyclists could be present. If there weren't enough cyclists using the road in the first place, then the bike lane would have not been put there. So the fact that it is there is a reminder to them to be cautious.
Well, I don't know the street you used for an example, but I have to disagree with you on this point. The existence of the bike lane alone is a function in and of itself, it is a constant reminder to motorists that cyclists use this road enough that the city installed a bike lane. I know around here a bike lane would allow me (barring lane splitting) to pass 100 to 300 feet of traffic at plenty of stop lights on my way to work every day. It would also cut back on the "get off the road" and "get on the sidewalk" hollars from cars. It would also allow me a more comfortable lane to travel in because, let's face it, sharing a lane with 60mph traffic that is in a hurry to get home to watch American Idol is not fun, so I use the shoulder, which is cluttered and not smooth. A bike lane would be cared for as part of the road in this example and not just a place to pile up snow. This is just one example.
Or, you could read what I just wrote about the lane being a constant reminder and a more comfortable place to travel. Just because you don't like them, doesn't mean everyone else doesn't as well. Maybe you should think about what other people might want before you start preaching against it. It seems clear to me that more people want bike lanes/paths than not. And this is pretty much how our country is run... it is a democracy you know. Bike lanes will not take away our rights to use the road either, people who think that are being asenine.
All this business that motorists have to be reminded that a cyclist might be somewhere ahead is just nonsense, so often repeated that people believe it. I know of no study that demonstrates that a motorist will more likely observe a cyclist on a street with bike lanes than on a street without bike lanes. While this has been claimed for decades, nobody has made a study of this situation. Oh, yes, there have been studies in which motorists have claimed that the presence of a bike-lane stripe will make them more likely to see a cyclist when one is present, but none of these "interviews" has actually tested the claim.
Furthermore, I have cycled the roads since 1937, and, so far as I know, I have never had a problem with not being seen by a motorist from behind; never so much as a braking squeal from recognition too late. Furthermore, I have motored on the roads from 1946, and I don't have a problem seeing a cyclist ahead at normal city speeds, whether or not there is a bike-lane stripe. Of course, I am probably less likely than average to suffer from this complaint, if it exists at all.
The claim that only a bike lane enables filtering forward at stop lights is nonsense. We had filtered forward long before there were bike lanes; all that is needed is sufficient width of the outside through lane.
The idea that bike lanes are justified because the majority wants them is irrelevant. Highway and traffic design should be determined by what operates best, not by public opinion. Bike lanes contradict the rules of the road, making both motoring and cycling more difficult to understand and therefore more dangerous. Bike lanes remove from cyclists some of the rights granted by the rules of the road, most important among them the right to equal consideration by other drivers. The desire for bike lanes is, in fact, the prime example of the cyclist-inferiority attitude; it enables motorists to justify shoving cyclists aside, and it enables cyclists to feel that being shoved aside protects them.