Reducing Bike Lanes

[CoolCat]

http://pulse.ncpolicywatch.org/2015/06/15/why-nc-cyclists-are-insisting-the-senate-backpedal-on-house-bill-44/

It looks like it might be more difficult for municipalities in North Carolina to add bike lanes to the roads if this passes. I see a lot more people using bike lanes for recreation/exercise than to commute (or more people wear bike shorts and tech tees at work than I realize), but this could make it more difficult for people to get into the habit.

Do you feel your area has enough bike lanes? Do you see more bike lanes or shared lanes? My area has both, but I haven't seen much success with cars and bikes actually sharing the shared lanes.

 

[BikeBikeBikeBike]

I am lucky in my area (Ontario Canada) they are slowing becoming more and more bike friendly. This is starting more in the larger urban area's (GTA, K-W, Ottawa) and slowly working it's way outwards.
What NC is doing sounds backwards, now they are ADDING red-tape to the process? That's terrible news.

 

[CoolCat]

I am lucky in my area (Ontario Canada) they are slowing becoming more and more bike friendly. This is starting more in the larger urban area's (GTA, K-W, Ottawa) and slowly working it's way outwards.
What NC is doing sounds backwards, now they are ADDING red-tape to the process? That's terrible news.

It really is. I've only lived here for a few years, but I've been impressed by the number of bike lanes, greenways, and parks. It's possible that the legislators feel the greenways are getting expansive enough to preclude the need for bike lanes on roads. (Greenway is a term that I hadn't heard before I moved here, but they are basically multi-use paths, mainly through woods and going in, out of, and around parks. Sometimes the official greenway route will coincide with a bike lane or shared lane on the road for a portion before going back off the vehicle path.)

In any case, I really hope the drama and panic I'm seeing over this is overblown and the actual effect won't be too noticeable.

 

[Corzhens]

From what I can see, there are only 1 city here with bike lanes. Over here, bicycles are not given much importance maybe because this is a tropical country that is warm so biking is not encouraged. But when the cost of fuel became prohibitive a decade ago, the government was encouraging the people to flex their legs. That's why the city of Marikina had built bike lanes. Their main problem in building bike lanes is the lack of space on the roads. There are actually ongoing projects here for road widening intended for motor vehicles and not for bikes.

 

[Catsyo]

After recently touting ourselves as Bike Friendly, our city has started removing some bike lanes in certain areas of town. It's really annoying because that happens to be the areas of town I happen to frequent. The city is arguing that that the lanes are no longer necessary because people are used to cyclists being on the road. I'd buy that argument if infrastructure here was improved in other ways that help bikes and cars alike but I wonder if they're caving to conservative political pressure. I do live in a really conservative area of the country so we don't like spending money on anything, even though my city is actually doing fairly great financially.

 

[gavinfree]

San Diego has a decent amount of bike lanes, but there's always room for improvement. I've seen some areas in other cities and counties where there are absolutely no bike lanes whatsoever, which is a huge problem. If legislatures want to make it more difficult to install new bike lanes or make them more accessible, then that's a big problem.