Bicycle lanes for safety



Corzhens

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2015
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Yesterday in the news, it was said that 198 bikers have died from accidents in Metro Manila last year. That is the verified statistics based on police blotter. The proponents of the bike lane are asking the local governments (cities in Metro Manila) to provide bike lanes in the main roads for the protection needed by the bikers. I am monitoring this group because I know that bike lanes may not encourage biking but certainly it is a safety measure for bikers and other motorists alike.
 
While your right when you say bike lanes themselves might not encourage more people to cycle, having them in place making it less dangerous might do though? If people know they're going to be safer then it might just convince them to at least give it a go, and even if they don't, at least the cyclists now will be safer if they are brought in.
 
Here in my country (Portugal) we are building more and more bicycle lanes, on my hometown there's already 3 and they're pretty good and people use it all the time! I hope this keeps spreading around the world
 
Bicycle lanes are great but if a cyclist uses them properly. Around her we have plenty of bike lanes, nice wide ones but on busy fast traffic roads. Cars are moving 50+ on these streets (non highway fwy roads).

Very nice but too often I see a group of 3 or 4 cyclist riding side by side. One or two out in traffic. OK now I have heard of taking the lane but I think to make things safe for everyone, they need to make up their minds what to do. Use the bike lane or take the lane, not both!

Of course many insist on taking the lane when there is a perfectly fine clean bike lane which is pretty stupid. Many put themselves at risk even when there is a bike lane present then call foul when they don't get their 3 feet from the drivers.

When I have a bike lane I use it best I can!
 
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Bicycle lanes are great but if a cyclist uses them properly. Around her we have plenty of bike lanes, nice wide ones but on busy fast traffic roads. Cars are moving 50+ on these streets (non highway fwy roads).

Very nice but too often I see a group of 3 or 4 cyclist riding side by side. One or two out in traffic. OK now I have heard of taking the lane but I think to make things safe for everyone, they need to make up their minds what to do. Use the bike lane or take the lane, not both!

Of course many insist on taking the lane when there is a perfectly fine clean bike lane which is pretty stupid. Many put themselves at risk even when there is a bike lane present then call foul when they don't get their 3 feet from the drivers.

When I have a bike lane I use it best I can!

Your right, and just because cycle lanes are in place, there's no law that says that cyclists have to use them as far as I'm aware, and that to me defeats the purpose of having them there in the first place.

You do get some cyclists that even now refuse to use them or weave in and out of them as they see fit, and that brings more danger to the roads than cycling in traffic sometimes as drivers never know when a rider is going to cut across traffic or not.
 
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I'm not that fond of bicycle lanes because usually when you have bicycle lanes, you have joggers, people pushing baby carriages, dog walkers, and even horse riders (in the country), even though there are signs saying bicycles only.

I rode the bicycle lanes in Denver, and I came up on 3 runners running side by side, when there were signs everywhere, indicating it was a bicycle lane. I eventually gave up and took to the roads.

I tried to ride the bicycle lane in Binghamton, NY, one spring day while on business there, but noticed that the lane was loaded with sand and the bike lane was "strategically" placed so that the lane, coincided with the drain culvert, which would have swallowed a bike wheel. While riding one morning and wisely not riding in the bike lane since I didn't know where a drain culvert would jump up, I was yelled at by several motorists, telling me I was supposed to be in the bike lane. They were obviously mistaken, but try and convince some irate geezer on a cell phone that thinks he might be late for his early coffee break before work.

Bicycle lanes aren't what they are touted to be, and I'm worried that some politician will pass a law requiring all cyclists to be in a bike lane. That would spell the end of fast cycling everywhere.
 
198 is a seriously crazy number. With that many deaths there do need to be more measures in place to make it at least that little bit safer for cyclists riding along busy and less busy roads. Even if the outsides of the roads are widened a little it might make things easier and separate the traffic.
 
Having seen how bicycle lanes don't seem to work and how cities relegate the lanes over drain culverts tells me what the municipalities think of bike lanes. I'm a fast recreational rider so I'm going to stay on the roads, especially since the bike lanes already have enough runners in them, which makes for an unsafe ride for me. Thankfully, I live in a rural area where bike lanes are non-existent.
 
It's a bit of a shame that something cannot be worked out to make bicycle lanes more bicycle friendly, as crazy as that sounds. Drains could be moved over to the side and as for runners, signs could be erected but all this is wishful thinking.
 
Your right, and just because cycle lanes are in place, there's no law that says that cyclists have to use them as far as I'm aware, and that to me defeats the purpose of having them there in the first place.

You do get some cyclists that even now refuse to use them or weave in and out of them as they see fit, and that brings more danger to the roads than cycling in traffic sometimes as drivers never know when a rider is going to cut across traffic or not.

Have you seen the cycling lanes they've put in on Wilmslow Road, south of Fallowfield? They're more of a danger than they are a protection. Town planning initiatives are often driven more by a need to spend surplus public money than they are for the good of the residents. I'll definitely be avoiding them if I can.
 
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Have you seen the cycling lanes they've put in on Wilmslow Road, south of Fallowfield? They're more of a danger than they are a protection. Town planning initiatives are often driven more by a need to spend surplus public money than they are for the good of the residents. I'll definitely be avoiding them if I can.

Those ones do look pretty precarious.

I've seen some worse ones that are only around a foot or two wide which seems a little strange to me. I didn't want to say it but I reckon you're right about councils using the surplus money.
 
It does sometimes make you wonder if they're actually trying to get rid of cyclists rather than attract them.

With Manchester having a massive student population then you'd have thought that the cycle lanes would have been something the council would have taken seriously, but looking at a lot of them, not just around the Fallowfield area, that's obviously not the case.
 
You might think that all cycling advocates would support bicycle lanes. You'd be wrong. Some cyclists oppose bike lanes on the grounds that they protect only from rear-end collisions (which are rare), and increase the likelihood of collisions at intersections (which are more common). The research data is a bit conflicting. Here at Bicycle Universe we generally support bicycle lanes because:
They make cycling feel safer. The surveys always show that #1 reason why people say they don't bike is because they feel it's too dangerous, and the #1 thing that would make them feel safer is more bike lanes.
Even if bike lanes don't help, it's unlikely that they hurt. Some research shows that streets with and without bike lanes are about the same risk for cyclists. In that case, there's no harm in installing the lanes, especially if they encourage more people to bike.
Bike lanes mean more cyclists. Cities that install bike lanes see an increase in the number of cyclists.
Bike lanes keep cyclists off sidewalks. Riding on the sidewalk drops when bike lanes are available. Riding on the sidewalk is dangerous to pedestrians, and actually dangerous even to cyclists because they're vulnerable to getting hit by turning cars when coming off the sidewalk to cross the street.
Other countries have them. Other countries with higher rates of cycling (and lower rates of cyclist injuries) employ bike lanes.
 
So basically there a nothing really to say that more and more bike lanes shouldn't be made, especially in cities and built up areas?

Pretty much everything you've pointed oitvij that post is in favour of them from what I can see.
 
Bicycle lanes are safer indeed, especially when we are with kids. At the same time many people still sees them as sidewalks, so we need to watch out for that too.
 
Of late, the bike lane is getting to be a blown up issue in Metro Manila. Every day there is news of interviews of advocates to emphasize the need for it. However, the govenment gave a reply yesterday that a bike lane needs an appropriation for the budget since it is not as simple as drawing up a line on the road with a paint. We need to widen the road to accommodate the bike lane. So there, at least the government is honest.
 
When these bike lanes are being introduced, I do think it's a lot more complicated than just drawing a line down the road like your government says.

While widening a road though to incorporate the cycle lanes does cost money, if it's going to save lives then surely you'd have thought that it's worth the cost?
 
That is another issue, certainly it costs money, but it's something that benefits everyone and that makes people healthier, so I'd see it as a priority.
 
Bike lanes are safer with kids? Well, I don't want to be riding with kids. I want to be riding 18-25 mph, and kids are going to get in my way, not to mention people on cruiser bikes, who don't have a clue how to properly ride. Keep bike lanes out of the picture, because some legislature is going to pass a law requiring all cyclists to use bike lanes, just like has been passed in Australia.
 
Bike Lanes can have there positives and negatives. Positives would be it would give bikers there own area to ride without having to worry about someone getting to close to them/hitting them. A negative is that runners, jogging strollers, etc... might use them and they are going a lot slower then a bike which would cause the bike rider to go around them endangering both them and person they are going around from a car going by. I think they would help but should be only be used for biking only.