With an increasing number of cyclists taking to the streets, bike lanes have become a critically important part of city transportation. They provide safer avenues of travel for cyclists in cities. But, while bike lanes are substantially safer for bikers than sharing a road with vehicles, they still aren’t perfect. And one design flaw, in particular, can often be fatal.
Further reading:
Outside online
Bloomberg
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-08-13/what-are-toronto-drivers-looking-at-not-at-bikes
IIHS
https://www.iihs.org/topics/fatality-statistics/detail/bicyclists
Gothamist
https://gothamist.com/news/de-blasio-transportation-experts-cyclist-deaths-rise-traffic-gridlock-covid
Bicycling
https://www.bicycling.com/culture/a33521338/advocate-for-bike-lanes-in-your-city/
The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/22178543/bike-bicycle-boom-covid-pandemic-2020-sales-cities-infrastructure
People For Bikes
https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/americas-best-new-bikeways-2020
UCI
https://www.uci.org/news/2020/2020-cycling-boom-in-the-usa
Greenway.org
https://www.greenway.org/
Nycgovparks
https://www.nycgovparks.org/about/history/bicycling
Nyc.gov
https://www1.nyc.gov/
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34 Comments
Simply give cars right of the way as they are having the blind spots and not the cyclist.
Interesting video, but I also agree with some of the comments, suggesting that there are dangers in things like lanes in the centre of the road and painted lines on roads that create grooves. Anyway, I’ll watch for right turns more now after having seen this video. Strange but I actually like roads that don’t have bike lanes and have parked cars on the right as long as the space is huge enough so that I can get by cars with not worrying about doors. I find the cars passing are watching me, and I feel the security of having my own real road lane. When I’m on roads with bike lanes things tend to get confusing and unclear. And both bikes and cars ignore half of the things on them. At intersections, well, I never trust any car or truck to do the right thing. I guess I’m a hyper defensive driver and rider both.
Been cycling all my life and i still find the safest place to be in the middle of a lane. This gives cars next to no opportunity to cut u off . Most cycle lanes are in poor condition and popular with poor cyclists . This makes them my 2nd or position.
They need to make throwing broken glass a $8,000 fine
My rational brain: "Mmm, yes, there are certainly many opportunities for motorists' education, infrastructure upgrades, and incremental improvements to our existing biking culture."
My actual brain: "crush all cars, cagers must die".
There needs to be a bicycle equivalent to the motorcycle safety course. This will not be about cars “getting used to bikes” as none of these issues are new, ask the broader motorcycling community. These issues are just new to the many folks realizing two wheels are the cheaper more fun way to travel. But bikes are a vehicle that require special skills and training to use when sharing a road with larger vehicles. A traffic course for road using cyclists is an idea whose time has come.
If you are in a pedestrian crosswalk you should be WALKING your bike ACROSS. That was once the rule–why'd it disappear? Florida has bike horn and headlight statutes: most ["concerned"] cyclists do not obey them.
Bike lanes create dangers. The right hook is always a danger, the solution is to take enough of the driving lane that the vehicle has to go around to then turn right, a maneuver most will not attempt as the passing vehicle is assuming no small measure of risk in overtaking using the lane to their left.
Bike lanes can cause drivers to think they no longer have to consider bicycles so a bend in the road allows the driver to encroach on the bike lane. Bike lanes tend to be very narrow, so a bend can be very dangerous for a bicycle. It is safer to move an extra yard from the curb to force drivers to consider the bicycle.
Bike lanes are often littered with road junk and potholes, used for additional (illegal) parking and by loading/unloading trucks, blocked by buses, and blocked by turning traffic that is itself blocked.
It is almost always safer to ride fast enough to be able to take a full lane and ride the bike the same way I would drive a car. Some drivers don't like it as their $100,000 car gives them special privileges, but the law allows me to take a lane if I can keep up with the traffic, which is fairly easily done in most cities.
I think, that in the same vein as pedestrians trying to get across busy intersections, there should be no right on red when there's a bicycle lane or a pedestrian Crossing in a city. I can't tell you the number of times I've nearly been hit because of that.
"Determining who's liable can be a tricky ordeal". Determining who's hurt is not. Going through traffic you always
have to look around and think ahead of what the cars can do. Never mind if you have the right of way, you're
the one that can get hurt, not the car. Rinding through traffic can be fun, but you have to be very careful all the
time. The best protection is in your head.
Why tha plinke-plonke-noise in the background? Annoying!
The biggest problem is the cyclists. They tend to forget that they have to obey traffic laws. More than once, I've seen cyclists bust into an intersection and get all pissy when they almost get hit.
Ebikes are motorized cycles and should be banned from bike lanes
Maybe add a few more road usage schemes just to make it that bit more dangerous. Keep it random for every city so visitors have no idea how to use the roads.
Here in the Netherlands, traffic lights let bicycles cross the road at different times from cars on busy road crossings.
This may come as a bit nationalistic coming from a Dutch person, but we've already solved bike safety here in the Netherlands up to the point where people don't even need helmets because roads are so safe.
This video is better than nothing, but it is still bad if you apply any common sense and world's best practices. Some solutions provided here are outright bad, many are half measures in the best case. I'd give it 4 out of 10, just for raising the problem. There are other videos which cover bike commuting and safety in cities much better.
Bike lanes are dangerous as people think they are safe while they get run over .
Women was recently got ran over and killed riding the green bike lane in Philadelphia in front of the museum steps.
Civil engineers will explain that roads are designed for vehicles, not cars , and the cyclist will be killed or disfigured while the driver will be fine from the accident. Just an accident.
Selecting appropriate roads to train on is important for survival . Among the most successful united states cyclist was killed on a training ride . She was from Philadelphia and raced for legendary club and shop , Hill Cycle .
My driving constructor had a bike bell on his side of the car. Whenever I started to turn a corner without looking out for cyclists, he rang the bell. It was an exceptionally loud bell. It ingrained in me to look out for cyclists. It also made me aware of how invisible you are as a cyclist. So when I ride my bike, I ring my bell before street crossings, but I also look out for cars turning the corner, and I am ready to stop at any time.
Gas taxe is used for roads. How do cyclist and power plant electric generated stations pay for the energy used by Ecars. How are ecars paying their share ?
Rubbish video. Just watch NotJustBikes. But hey, Americans go ahead and, like we say in The Netherlands, invent the wheel again. Until then good luck having the most traffic accidents in the western world…
As a motorcyclist we are constantly taught that while our smaller size and the extra maneuvering ability this gives us is a benefit. We need to use it responsibly and never expect drivers to anticipate us cutting past traffic and to do it with extreme prudence. I feel sometimes that because bicycles need no license or training to get onto and have no mythlogy around them as being dangerous that very careless people can become riders and rush through busy cities playing a part in these incidents. But this never gets talked about and the car driver is the only one to ever take blame.
It would be great to spread the word about defensive biking and make sure people are well educated on blind spots and such
learn to bunnyhop up a kerb it'll save your life
Uh..how about angry drivers ?? I got chased and cutoff IN a protected bike lane …cuz I yelled
"Stop" at him …yes sir , people suck . Too many angry people in general , now . I get off the road ASAP , on a path in the woods !
The biggest problem with Bike Lines are the Bike Na zis who ride them! They think they own the road. Remember, you are just a speed bump!!!!!
Love how everyone is just assuming riders are riding safely on their bikes.
I biked without bike lanes back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s and it wasn’t too bad then.
My city's bike lanes are a joke. On certain roads you have no choice but have to get in the bike lane to turn and there are absolutely no median to deter cars from driving in said lane. Also right turn on red still shouldnt be a thing, cars assume that they rule the road so therefore they get to turn even if theres a bycicalist/pedestrian in the road. The only reason why right turn on red was implemented was because of the gas shortage a while ago.
Many bike lanes are incomplete and are dangerous and I do not feel safe. In the suburbs where I ride, I typically ride on the side walk and never use the bike lanes even if I was on an ebike.
We need to make bike lanes safer to reduce the safety and environmental risks that are present.
"What are the ways to solve this problem?" Trivial: bicycle only roads. If a bike route uses a separate surface from the motor route, then the bike route should have its own, dedicated right-of-way. Segregated lanes that follow a road should be abolished. They cannot be made to work, in my experience.
"Segreaged intersections" are bullshit. They do not even address the problem as it originate many meters from the intersection, hence redesigning the intersection is pointless. If they work, it's only insofar as they force cyclists to slow down because of the awkward bends it creates.
"Have you ever biked on a road with no bike lane?" 30 years and counting to the tune of 5000 km per year or so. No accidents in that time.
We would never design a road for cars where the curb lane can go straight, and the middle lane is allowed to turn across the curb lane. When it's cars, we somehow instinctively understand that is far too dangerous and chaotic. When it comes to cyclists, who are far more vulnerable, too many planners (including most cycling advocates) suddenly think that arrangement is the perfect solution. It baffles me just how dumb these people are about this issue.