Originally Posted by
Helmet Head
Now, please focus on your favorite street with a bike lane in the list and please explain why cyclists would not benefit if the bike lane stripe were removed.
Specifically:
You say your friends did not ride there before the bike lanes were added. Did anything else change besides the addition of the bike lane stripes and designations? No. Any other street reconfigurations? No. Was onstreet parking removed? No. Were other lane lines moved? I don't know, but I don't think so. Remember, I'm not saying change it back to the way it was before, I'm saying leave it the way it is now, except remove the bike lane stripe and designation - so there is just as much width as there is now, except the outside lane becomes a WOL instead of being adjacent to a bike lane. You really haven't ridden in NYC have you? It would be abused as a travel lane, a drop off your kids lane, a drop off your groceries lane, a cab stop lane... even more abused than the present lanes with a bike lane designation. Would your friends stop riding there? More than likely. Why? They feel it gives them a designated space on roads and streets where traffic of all kinds fights for each available inch of space.Do they not understand that removing that stripe has no negative impact on their safety? What evidence do you have that removing bike lanes stripes in Manhattan would make those streets safer for cyclists or keep cyclists as safe? Good biking friends don't let their friends think bike lanes make them safer... surely you are a good friend, are you not?That last statement would require me to believe that a well designed and well placed bike lane does not make bike riders safer. And in any case I no more presume to tell my friends, who bike in NYC all year long, how, where, when or what to ride. I don't expect other people to tell me how to do such things so I don't force my opinions on them. As it is they, and the NYC DOT see bike lanes as safer than those same streets without- and my experience on those streets would judge them to be correct.
By the way, you can take a virtual ride down any of those streets by going to Street View on google maps.
One additional note- I crack up when you Southern CA folks talk about bike lane debris. Here in the Northeast our roads are in such bad condition that any part of a road is filled with hazards from potholes to chunks of pavement. In the winter a lack of debris of any kind would be an anomaly regardless of the presence of a bike lane or lack thereof.