Originally Posted by
John Forester
The main proponent of bike lanes is the motoring establishment, for its own selfish reasons that don't particularly care about the welfare of cyclists. And the secondary, but most vocal, advocate of bike lanes, are the politically active bicycle advocates who, for one reason or another, also care little about the welfare of cyclists.
Here in NC, the motoring establishment (particularly the state and local DOTs) have have promoted sidepaths rather than bicycle lanes. On many or most important arterials the state DOT has pursued high-speed free-flowing intersection designs through which they are afraid to route cyclists, particularly novice cyclists of the type they believe to be lured onto roadways by bike lane striping. Instead, the engineers have historically preferred to group bicyclists with pedestrians, adding three additional feet to the standard sidewalk width on one side of the road and adding stop signs for the sidewalks at intersections rather than implementing eight or more additional feet of roadway pavement and engineering the intersections for more comfortable through travel by cyclists on the roadway.
Bike lane striping has been advocated mostly by members of the public who are afraid of traffic but who recognize that roadway use is better than sidewalk use.