It is worth the time to read this link if you have not seen it.
For some reason, it feels good to get spanked. "Minneapolis striped some of its bicycle lanes in a highly unusual location -- down the middle of streets, between travel lanes that flow in opposite directions. I do not know what the reasoning was for this location of the bike lanes. Bike lanes in this location are not even considered in the AASHTO guide, the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices or other engineering references."
Accomplishments: November 2024
2 weeks ago
I have read that and it is way off base. When I tell people in the NE about counter-flow bike lanes many in the planning community's eye brows go up (since they never thought of it). I actually like how the bike and bus lanes are free from traffic because they are flowing in the opposite direction. Are there still problems, yes, but there will always be problems no matter how the bike lanes are designed.
ReplyDeleteJohn Allen is a northeast guy and he's not sold on these, but I ride these pretty regularly and like them quite a bit. You can see what's going on well, are very visible and I have not had much of a problem with them. You need to watch out for cars turning into or pulling out and only looking at what they think is the on-coming traffic. But, the same can be said of riding a bike anywhere else in the world that I can think of.
ReplyDeleteI think of John Allen spent more time on these, he would come around to the concept, but I admit it looks a little scary the first time you see one.
It cracks me up cause he is stuck on the right side (door zone) lanes. Doesn't compute with me.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I do like about NYC is they usually put the bike lane to the left on one-ways, which is great.