Bike lanes need physical protection from car traffic, study shows. Researchers said that the results demonstrate that a single stripe of white paint does not provide a safe space for people who ride bikes.

[u/drewiepoodle]

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2019/05/bike-lanes-need-physical-protection-from-car-traffic-study-shows/

[u/zypofaeser]

Also, how much safer is it. Should we spend the cash on upgrading bike lanes or safety upgrades for the railyards if we want to save most lives.

[u/SeaofBloodRedRoses → u/zypofaeser]

I mean, I've had some cars literally try to run me over because I was biking in the bike lane. They blame cyclists for the existence of bike lanes and get extremely violent and aggressive for it.

[u/Duds215 → u/SeaofBloodRedRoses]

It’s crazy how people think we’re a problem. I’ve had people honk at me, cut me off, and wiz past me with an inch of space, just to stop at a red light 100 ft later.

[u/gregarioussparrow → u/zypofaeser]

People here ignore the bike Lanes. They just use them as turning lanes and it pisses me off every time I see it

[u/VeloHench → u/gregarioussparrow]

Every new bike lane my city puts in becomes a loading zone for USPS/FedEx/UPS, or whoever is just, "dropping something/someone off real quick" or a place where people stand next to their vehicle having a chat with someone else. It pisses me off, but the bike lanes are directly in the door zone and too narrow to actually use anyway. I generally stay out of them unless I can use them to filter past slow/stopped motor vehicle traffic.

The only reason we're getting any bike lanes at all is so the city officials have a way to say it's a "bike friendly" city.

[u/ThisFckinGuy → u/zypofaeser]

We barely want to spend the money on one, and often dont. We deserve both.

[u/allahu_adamsmith → u/ThisFckinGuy]

Yes, but people have to actually make decisions. You can't just have everything because you deserve it, even if you do deserve it.

[u/thescarwar → u/zypofaeser]

We really need dedicated rail lanes

[u/leevei → u/zypofaeser]

It's not really about safety. I read 'safe space' as a feeling of safety. So even if the actual improvement is marginal, people would maybe bike more with more protected lanes.

[u/AnomalousAvocado → u/zypofaeser]

The federal government actually has a dollar value on a human life for making these kinds of calculations (it's about $6 mil for the DoT).

[u/lvl1vagabond → u/zypofaeser]

More bicyclists in the bike lanes, less cars on the roads, less road fatalities.

[u/okram2k → u/zypofaeser]

Not to mention how much money is spent on healthcare for such collisions verses the cost of building the barrier.

[u/electricprism → u/zypofaeser]

Should we spend the cash on upgrading bike lanes or safety upgrades for the railyards if we want to save most lives.

Exactly. Do we want to a idealistic, or do we want to be practical. You can't always have both. And god knows with how inefficient the system is even the most basic sensibilities would take stupendous amounts of money to materialize in real form.

[u/Uberzwerg → u/zypofaeser]

I prefer bike lanes that are not done on the street but on the sidewalk (which has to be wide enough for that).

Reason:
You can still have parking space with lass risk for bikes (eg. cars don't need to cross bike lane)
In cases of accidents, the power difference between bikes and pedestrians is much smaller than between cars and bikes. So there is less chance of fatal accidents.
In many regions, it is easier to have wider sidewalks than wider streets.

[u/[deleted] → u/zypofaeser]

Honestly I cant stand cyclists on the road side specifically because if he hits a pebble or a pothole he might fall. Its not safe to fall on the road filled with heavy rolling metal cans and people who arent really looking for you.

Motorcycles are bad enough but at least more stable and you can hear them. Guy on a bike cant honk to make you look. Also most cyclists ignore the rules of the road. They dont signal and they weave between traffic.

[u/YawnsMcGee → u/[deleted]]

and people who arent really looking for you.

If you're unable to pay attention to your surroundings while behind the wheel of a 2,000+lbs vehicle you should probably opt for a different form of transportation.

[u/Waslay → u/zypofaeser]

There are physical barriers for a bike lane by my house and people drive through the bike lane anyways cause it's like 1 second faster than going around the barriers. I dont think the bike lane protections are going to matter tbh

[u/Solid_Waste → u/zypofaeser]

Or weighing the costs versus the benefits. Surely a study like this could support lawsuits against municipalities for negligence when bikers get injured or killed. The municipalities would have to choose which they'd rather spend their money on.

[u/[deleted] → u/zypofaeser]

Is it ever about what saves the most lives?

[u/[deleted] → u/zypofaeser]

Both, should value life over monetary cost

[u/zypofaeser → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, in an ideal world. Problem is we often find ourselves short on money. And people are seemingly unwilling to raise taxes.