What 5 Cities, 17K Cyclists, and 20K Cars Tell Us About Protected Bike Lanes

[thelakelander]

Protected bike lanes — a.k.a. "cycle tracks," or "green lanes" for the color they're often painted — are far rarer in the United States than they are in Europe, and U.S. cities, says Christopher Monsere, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Portland State University, are holding off on creating them until they better understand how they fit into urban traffic flow. Monsere and a team of 10 other researchers recently examined how protected lanes work in Austin, Chicago, Portland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., and found that while Americans generally support green lanes, understanding how those lanes are perceived — by cyclists and drivers — is critical for promoting future citywide acceptance.

One reason why protected bike lanes haven't gotten more traction, suggests Monsere, is that the civil engineers involved in designing city streets have tended to be "vehicular cyclists" — or road riders accustomed to mixing with on-street traffic. "They didn't think that on-street facilities of any kind were good to begin with," explains the professor, "and that [green lanes] are even worse, because they put cyclists out of the space where drivers would see them. They'd forget about them, and at the intersections it would cause all kinds of chaos."

full article: http://nextcity.org/daily/entry/us-city-bike-lanes-bike-safety

[IrvAdams]

We need to do three things:

1) Construct some protected green lanes here and observe how bike riders will come out of the woodwork to use them.

2) Educate the public - show Jax the City is solidly behind human-powered transportation.

3) repeat...

[tufsu1]

Step 1 is underway....hopefully on Liberty Street through downtown very soon

[carpnter]

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars. 

[finehoe]

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

[carpnter]

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

The Idaho stop is all well and good, but they didn't even yield to traffic, they just cut me off and made a left turn in front of me.  Fortunately it wasn't a corner where there was an obstruction and I saw them in time.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

And?

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0300-0399/0316/Sections/0316.2065.html

The 2013 Florida Statutes


Title XXIII
MOTOR VEHICLES
Chapter 316
STATE UNIFORM TRAFFIC CONTROL
View Entire Chapter
316.2065 Bicycle regulations.—
(1) Every person propelling a vehicle by human power has all of the rights and all of the duties applicable to the driver of any other vehicle under this chapter, except as to special regulations in this chapter, and except as to provisions of this chapter which by their nature can have no application.

There are no provisions regarding the cyclists 'option' when it comes to traffic signals.

Now on to carpnter's point:

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars. 

I agree with you on the red-light running.  There's too much risk, even for me, when it comes that.  Do I sometimes cross, after stopping, while it's still red?  Yep.  But blowing through one isn't something I do.

When it comes to stop signs, I take a few liberties depending on whether or not it's a 4-way stop, line of sight and so on, but I will blow through one if there's no apparent danger.

And, yes, it only takes a few of us to make us all look bad, but I get more upset over those that ride on the sidewalk and against the grain of traffic than the ones who blow a few signals.   

[Shwaz]

Now if bikers would just obey the traffic laws. 
I saw one blow a red light on A1A in Ponte Vedra this morning and when they rode through my neighborhood I'd regularly see them blow through stop signs.  All it takes is a few bad ones to make them all look bad since there are fewer of them than there are cars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idaho_stop

The Idaho stop is all well and good, but they didn't even yield to traffic, they just cut me off and made a left turn in front of me.  Fortunately it wasn't a corner where there was an obstruction and I saw them in time.

Comments like these are an epidemic in Jacksonville. Even in the news when a cyclist or pedestrian is struck the blame is almost always to put on the cyclist-pedestrian.

It's always some anecdotal bullshit like this too. I saw a cyclist go through a stop sign or I saw a jaywalker on riverside avenue. Talk to any cyclist about the things that they've seen and the close calls they've been through! I guarantee you they've got 99 anecdotes for each one of yours.

[finehoe]

And?

There are no provisions regarding the cyclists 'option' when it comes to traffic signals.

Merely pointing out that some cyclists may have a slightly different perception of what is or isn't acceptable behavior; they're not necessarily blatent lawbreakers.  You yourself admit to not always stopping at stop signs, even though that is the law.

Common courtesy by pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers goes a long way.

[peestandingup]

I'm in DC now & have been doing the whole bike share thing (wasn't able to bring my bike). I honestly wouldn't hold it up as some kind of standard to follow. The protected lanes shown are few & far between, most "green lanes" are non-protected, there's not very many of them, etc. The majority of the infrastructure consists of regular bike lanes or riding beside speeding cars in their lanes while they're zipping every which way.

My point is, its chaotic & why I'm a big advocate of total separation between cars & bikes. I'm no stranger to street riding & knew it was the norm when coming here (sidewalk riding is against the law here), but it doesn't seem any safer than Jax to be perfectly honest.

Yes, there's infrastructure, but its still like a constant battle between car & man. You WILL get honked at (even if doing nothing wrong), yelled at, cars cutting you off, car doors opening & dodging them, bikers pulling equally stupid stuff as well to get through the crowd of cars, etc. Not fun. The cars don't like the cyclists & the cyclists don't like the cars, and neither should be put into the same space.

Separate them. Having to ride a bike like its a car, stopping with regular car traffic at lights, having to put up with the same idiot drivers as you would have if you drove, etc sorta negates a huge reason to bike in the first place, takes the pleasure out of it, and is dangerous to boot. Just my opinion.