Geoff Brighton, Corvallis, Oregon
♦ As a 30 year bicycle rider and bicycle activist in the university town of Corvallis, Oregon, I write about bike lanes with first hand authority. Most bike lanes endanger the lives of both bicyclists and motorists and are a waste of public funds. To the point:
Bike lanes are under-utilized. In many cities, especially small ones, almost no one uses bike lanes. Should taxpayers, overwhelmingly motorists and pedestrians, be forced to pay for the frivolous outlay of public monies for a few self-absorbed bicycle riders who care nothing about bogging down traffic and creating road hazards for others?
Bike lanes are poorly designed and endanger both riders and motorists. Many are built with no thought given to how they will slow and congest traffic. Many bike lanes are placed in dangerous door zones where accidents have a high probability of occurring. How many of us have witnessed a bike rider sent flying by a thoughtlessly opened door and wind up in a brain trauma center or suffer a severe spinal cord injury?
Bike lanes slow the traffic flow on heavily traveled roads and streets and invite high-speed accidents. Many bike lanes are painted onto existing roadways with no real thought of area traffic patterns or road speeds. Let’s face it, roads and streets are engineered only with cars and truck traffic in mind with no thought whatsoever of alternative means of transportation. Pasting bike lanes onto existing roadways and streets is an invitation to a needless high-speed accidents and fatalities. A fact, overlooked by overzealous bike lane fanatics in attempting to force bike lanes on taxpayers and motorists, more bicycle accidents and fatalities occur on roads and streets with bike lanes. I repeat: more bicycle accidents and fatalities occur on roads and streets with bike lanes.
Bike lanes in most urban areas are extremely dangerous. Motorists, according to numerous road fatality studies, simply don’t notice bicyclists. They have a blind spot for bicycles because their brains often exclude seeing bicycles. Vehicular accidents with bikes are often unavoidable simply because the bicyclist goes unnoticed. A bicyclist and his bicycle are no match for a fast moving multi-ton vehicle.
Bike lanes are popular public fund and grant “gift horses” sometimes dipped by unscrupulous municipal officials. In the backrooms of some municipal governments officials skim a percentage of the grant money and obtain kickbacks from contractors involved in bike lane construction.
Bike lanes are frivolous expenditures. Most often in municipal budgets bike lanes rank as bottom tier priorities.
Bike lanes attract road bullies who harass bicyclists. In urban areas numerous cases exist of drivers who will edge close to bicyclists forcing them off the road, bumping their rear tires, getting right behind them and honking, shoving them off their bikes, or suddenly screaming at them from a side window. It is no secret that some teen bullies will harass bicyclists and force them off the road. This “sport” occurs on streets with bike lanes where drivers resent sharing the road with much slower two-wheel conveyances.
Bike lanes are often not as safe as well-traveled roadways and streets. Bike lanes frequently don’t provide safety touted for them.
Bike lanes are positioned closer to the curb and are often too narrow, inviting danger when roads and streets are wet. Water slicks roads and streets closer to the curb when its raining, making roads and street surfaces slick and slippery–an increased danger to riders. Too narrow bike lanes raise the probability of being side-swiped by vehicles.
Bike lanes seldom adhere to safety standards. Municipalities often put bike paths up in a slapdash manner. No wonder why many riders avoid them and find safer streets where they blend better with traffic.
Bike Lanes, through seedy sections of urban areas, are prime for bike-jacking. How many times have we heard of bicyclists being beaten and dragged off their bicycles in bicycle lanes and had their bikes jacked?
Bike lanes are often covered with tree and trash debris and unfixed potholes. Bike lanes universally are neglected by street departments which make bike lanes very hazardous to ride.
Know that organized bike groups often pack public gatherings with persons irrationally demanding bicycle lanes. Most of these strident voices represent only a miniscule percentage of the population and know nothing about traffic engineering. Meanwhile many thousands of motorists and taxpayers, wanting nothing to do with bike lanes, are often unaware that bike lanes are being talked about or forced upon them by bicycle groups.
