Paul L.

I am curious. Is there any hard data that shows Drivers percieve bike lanes as meaning "bikes keep off the road"? Carpool lanes seem to not have any influence over opinions of carpoolers.

It seems to me that the average driver would have a tendency to think bikes should not be allowed at all, but if we have a bike lane then we have at least chipped away at that mentality a little. Has anyone done any actual surveys or statistics on this (on how drivers opinions are affected by bike lanes) or are we all just philosophizing here? Personally as long as the road is wide enough I don't care about bike lanes. I do tend to not check behind me as much if there is a lane as I know most drivers will stay between the lines. It is not the careful drivers (who do slow down) I fear but the innatentive ones who are talking on a cell phone or whose attentiveness is otherwise compromised. If the city does not intend to build a bike lane it seems to me with budgets being what they are, the width is not there when the road is built though. I definitely like bike lanes better than narrow lanes.

Incidentally (in reference to an earlier post), an accelerating car has nothing to do with slowing down for me necessarily. I don't know about you but many people (mostly morons) accelerate past me because that is how they can rev their engine and show me how mad and stupid they are.