My company works for me as a bike commuter because of choices i've made. My home lies 1/2 mile from a bike path. The road that connects to the path and takes me into work is a 40 mph secondary with a central lane almost the entire way so cars can easily pass. My "parking spot" for the bike is in a safe public area of the building locked to a secure shelving upright. The 7 mile ride to work usually takes me from 20-30 minutes depending on traffic. Despite the Atlanta metro area being pretty darn bike unfriendly as a whole my suburban commute is rather nice.

Maybe the best place is Deutschland. I learned today, that even though many of the roads are only two lane, each road MUST have a bike lane. Talking about commute friendly.

Bike lanes are anti-bike, not pro-bike. They rarely add space to the road for bikes. Instead, they take away space by confining bikes to 7% of the road. They also increase dangers at intersections and cause cyclists to ride with less caution. Give me a wide curb lane anyday. For more on the evils of bike lanes, look here, here, here, and here.

Bike lanes are bike ghettos.

Bike lanes in Germany are like this:

oooBTdRRRRdTBoooo

oo = open land
B = bike lane
T = tree
d = ditch
R = road

May not be perfect, but sounds better than US.

Here I agree, wide lanes are better, particularly since here "bike lanes" are multipurpose and get filled with parked cars, strollers, dog walkers..

Huff

The separated sidepath is generally the most dangerous kind of bike lane out there. They make cyclists FEEL safer, while actually making riding more dangerous. When you hit an intersection, turning cars aren't looking for you.

Generally speaking, the safest place to be in your scenerio is the road. Smart cyclists stay the heck away from separated sidepaths. Since experienced cyclists won't use the sidepaths unless forced to, local governments often enact mandatory sidepath laws. If the sidepaths and bike lanes are so darned safe and helpful, why does government have to force us to use them?

Unstriped, wide curb lanes are the most helpful bicycle "facility."

The German bike lanes sound much better that the U.S. version. Also having wider traffic travel lanes to accomodate cycles would work for me. The more bikes there are on the road around here with the riders interacting (positively) with auto drivers, the better the conditions for cyclists wll be.

If you're in a bike lane, you're not on the road. When you ride in a bike lane, you "interact" with cars at the most dangerous places (intersections) and you are coming from an unusal spot (a bike lane or side path), putting you in even more danger. Bike lanes give a lot of cyclists warm-fuzzies, but bike lanes generally put is in more danger.

If you want to feel better about yourself as a cyclist, see a counselor.