The wonderful bike lanes of Atlanta
 

I have a short 2.5 mile commute to work, inside the city of Atlanta. The majority of my route has a bike lane, which are somewhat uncommon in the metro Atlanta area. I choose not to use them because of the absolutely horrible condition of all of them. I sometimes get yelled at for this by cagers, but I'd rather not risk my life in those sorry excuses for a bike lane.

For my own amusement I took pictures of the bikes lanes on my commute and I thought I would share. You will see lots of pot holes, cracks in the pavement, debris, storm drains, door zones, metal plates, trash, busses leaning into the lane, and a generally too narrow lane.

I think I see of my old friend west peachtree.

Indeed those pictures come from 5th Street and W. Peachtree.

Maybe you should get a cyclocross bike.

I'm impressed someone marked the door hazard. Doubt that was the GaDOT's doing.

The only good bike lanes (meaning where the road is shared) in the state are in Calaway Gardens.

Get those bikes out of my door lane!

I spent about a month in Atlanta last year for work; the city (compared to NYC, Philly, SF, and other cities I've been to) seems absolutely HORRIBLE for cycling; it was difficult to WALK around in! Most times (except for the midtown area) I was the ONLY person walking on the street. Atl is also the only city I can think of which has a seedy part of downtown.

I dont see any markings to indicate that those are bike lanes.

I lived in Auburn, AL for several years in the 90s and pedaled about town there with no problems. However Atlanta is 100 miles up I-85 and 100 times larger, so there's no comparison. I have been to ATL many times and would be scared to ride around the city except on Sunday morning before 8 am. It's like that in many cities in the southeast, and outside the cities on the rural county and state roads. A decent shoulder on the road is typically not there, you better have a good mirror, and pick your route with care.

Wow, looks like Houston, wel except for the hact you have cars parked and the bike lane goes around them. Most people just park in the bike lane.

Atl is just the worst, more often than not those big metal plates become part of the road for over a year.

http://www.dot.state.ga.us/dot/plan-...ps/index.shtml
Georgia's state bike routes.
Click on the green route signs and it'll give you turn by turn directions. Folks who know the state should get a kick out of them.

I must not know what good is. They don't seem bad to me.

They seem to be OK unless you have skinny 23mm tires.
Some people commute on gravel roads without a problem.

I recently spent a week in Atlanta (my first visit to the US) and I saw one, say one, cyclist.

That must have been you.

http://www.warringtoncyclecampaign.c...y-of-the-month

you're not alone

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...astlepoint.jpg

You can't see it in any of my pictures, but those lanes are indeed marked with a bike symbol.

Markhr,

Does that bike lane head you straight into a tree? Is that on your route?

It's not on my route but is one of many crap cycle lanes in the UK where it's illegal to cycle on the pavement. Inspite of this many idiot planners try to shoehorn cycle lanes onto pavements. Clearly planners have never read either cyclecraft or effective cycling :rolleyes:

Warrington cycle campaign have even produced a book on the problem of useless bikelanes.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...-month/CCL.jpg

Looks like most bike lanes to me. They're not meant to help you, they are just a step towards getting you off the road. A typical persons response to those bike lanes would be, use them, or if not drive your car.

Exactly - a judge "over here" declared cycle facilities MUST be used where installed. Lucklily, that was over turned on appeal by the cyclists' defence fund lawyers (if I recall correctly).

^^^There are quite a few must use laws here. We have a "must use" law in my town. We weren't able to beat it, but we were able to pull the bike path/lane funding. So we have a "must use" bike lane law, but no bike lane.

I"m sure the people who prefer bike lanes thank you profusely. Did it ever occur to you that some cyclists don't want to ride in traffic?

Not that it's entirely relevant, but which streets had must-use bike lanes? Last I checked, most posted limits in your town are 25mph anyway. While I don't agree with your tactics, I'm at a loss as to what streets wouldn't facilitate in-street cycling.

Sometimes I feel the city wants to claim they have a bike infrastructure, so they do the absolute minimum to make that claim.

I think they are marking how narrow they want the new painting of the bike lane to be :p

yes, because we all know how cycle lanes always encourage new cyclists :rolleyes:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...-both-ways.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...h/mulhouse.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...-dismounts.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...noets-road.jpg

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.me...ad-croyden.jpg

...want me to go on?

Cyclists are by far safer, faster and more visible cycling with traffic than excluded by misguided ideas that cyclists shouldn't be part of traffic.

There've been multiple fatal accidents in the UK where even experienced cyclists who follow bike lanes have either ended up either crushed under turning vehicles or pushed into stationary objects/vehicles by turning traffic. Even more at risk are inexperienced and timid cyclists who are most likely to wrongly assume that bike lnes are there to help them.

The books I recommended use the principle that if you wouldn't do it in a car (not signalling, no lights and reflectors, passing on the inside, driving on the pavement, running red lights, not checking before changing lanes, kerb crawling, driving against traffic, etc.) then you shouldn't be doing it on a bicycle.

Ride as you would drive for a strict road test and you should be ok. Situational awareness is key as most road users attempt the bare minmum to get by and are quite often distracted.