I simply can't fathom how anybody thought it would be a good idea for city buses to have to cross a traffic lane, a bike lane, and back across the bike lane, between the SOB and O Street. Somebody is going to be killed.
The awkward dance happens hundreds of times each day. One of these days, a bus driver is going to forget to look before swinging across the lanes, and he's going to take out a bicyclist. That, or the driver will look, but a groggy bicyclist won't notice that he has camped in the bus's blind spot.
I know the situation bothers Star Tran's drivers. It's easy to discern the traffic issues that frustrate them most. And surely bicyclists don't enjoy having buses swerving around them twice in such a small stretch (and again two blocks later). I sure hope somebody is looking for a solution.
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I was a huge supporter of these bike lanes, went to the meetings, studied the blueprints, and was uber excited to roll down them before and after they were finished. I fought to educate the journal star readers and others on different blogs, but it seemed I was duped.
Couple problems I have, as you mentioned the buses, but my maim problem is that the blueprints were not followed. view the blueprints here
Lanes were lost in the most busy areas.
I know drivers will never give a crap about cyclists, and I never expect them to look out for me. But the bike lane is 10 X scarier than just taking up a car lane. Me splain:
Cars never really work well in trafic with eachother. Continious starting and stopping keeps trafic flow at a crawl. In the bike lane with going below the speed limit I am flying by cars. I know they cannot see me, and would only have to move a foot or two into the bike lane for me to slam into them. The roughness of the pavement is kinda spooky as well.
It seemed like they just gave up on 11th street. Overall I do not like them at all. i only feel safe in them during slow trafic times.
Really bummed cuz bike lanes are actually a good idea, but they need to be implemented correctly. I am fearful that this is going to hamper future bike lanes :(
First off looking wile making a lane change involves checking mirrors and over your shoulder in your blind spot. I know it
I’ve only ridden the 14th street bike lane twice, and neither in heavy traffic periods, but overall I liked it a lot. The busses are a problem, and I hope a solution can be found. The other problem is the idiots that think changing lanes every 15 feet will get them somewhere faster- unfortunately, I don’t see that changing.
As a biker rider, even with the lane changing danger, I still like being in the middle of the street rather than on the edge where cars can back into you at any given minute, and one car sticking out too far into the street forces a dangerous swerve into traffic.
I still don’t see why they don’t allow bikes on certain sidewalks. Bikes and pedestrians share some very congested corridors on campus with few issues. I almost think that they don’t want to have to fess up to a sometimes dumb policy. (I’ve had friends get tickets for riding on the sidewalk when not a pedestrian is to be seen.)
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