More and better bike lanes

[Lunican]

East 8th Street has bike lanes. Main Street does not.

East 8th:

[Driven1]

btw...i ran across this today.

want to see how quick you could pay off that new bike purchase ($750 - $2,000) by commuting to work for a while?

go check out this calculator...

http://windycitytrek.com/

here you can also see the estimated cost of commuting to work in your car each month.

ps - bought the wife a new bike today...

[obie1]

Happy about the improvements on the Boulevard bike lane, a more pleasant ride now and less death defying by a little. The bike lanes are a no brainer but the driving and public needs to be fully educated on bikers and the fact that they are legally treated as motorists on the roads without bike lanes and should have the same rights as people in cars, along with following the same rules of the road. This includes not riding on sidewalks. To be fair I've seen a car or two do this as well. I ride here all the time but it never feels very safe and it is the ignorance of the drivers as opposed to the lack of bike lanes that makes this so. yesterday I almost got hit on East Duval and North Main thanks to a multi tasking driver smoking and talking on their cell phone. I think they just came out of the church parking lot. maybe share the road should be a required sermon?

[Bike Jax]

I now live in Baymeadows and work in Deerwood.  I am still close to work, 2.5 miles to be exact, and yet there is NO safe route.  I literally take my life into my hands each day I ride down Baymeadows Rd. with no shoulder, no sidewalk on the correct side of the road, and people whizzing by me at 50+ mph to get to work on time.  Not to mention the idiots screaming out of the Panera Bread parking lot with their coffee and bagels.  I have 3 options and 3 options only, one of which consists of riding in the wrong direction on a narrow sidewalk filled with children waiting for the bus, and the other two riding on roads without bike lanes or shoulders with a drainage grate every 50 feet.

Hey SP. You do have another choice. Unfortunately cyclist, motorist, and local law enforcement is completely unaware of it. You have every right on that section of Baymeadows without a bike lane to "take the lane".

Here is the Florida Law:
Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at less than the normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under the conditions then existing shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

1.  When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

2.  When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

3.  When reasonably necessary to avoid any condition, including, but not limited to, a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, bicycle, pedestrian, animal, surface hazard, or substandard-width lane, that makes it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge. For the purposes of this subsection, a "substandard-width lane" is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and another vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

What this says is that if a roadway is too narrow to allow a car and a cyclist to safely pass each another at the same time. Then the cyclist has the right to take control of the lane.

Keep in mind also that you as cyclist are entitled to a 5 foot barrier around you. State law states that you should ride 2 feet from any curb or roadside. While drivers must give you a 3 foot buffer when passing. If look at most any lane of travel in Jacksonville you'll see that 5 feet eats up the majority of that lane.

I know this doesn't give you any really relief from the drivers that are speeding through Baymeadows. But you do have the right should you so chose.