Lincolnite

nice to see the LJS printing this article.

I was at the bike lane meeting last thurs, have been following the progress for a few weeks now.  being I live and work downtown, and commute mostly by bike, I am pretty stoked.

I spoke with the prez of GPTN at the meeting, and asked a few questions:

they had a bike lane marked out on the floor. Looked fricking huge. 6 foot wide.
apparently it is so bikers can pass eachother.

There will be a buffer zone between the parked cars and the lane. yup lanes will have to be moved a bit. But, as he said no two streets downtown are the same width. It will not squeeze the car lanes much at all.

if approved by the city council, they hope to have it done before UNL gets going again, aug 20th. The downtown Lincoln ass. is all behind it. There is little to no opposition (besides a few smartass bikers;)

Phase One will be 11th and 14th street. yup only north south. Phase 2 to happen if the 1st is deemed a success.

an ordinance will be added to the law. Splained to me as

I hope this will prove to be a positive thing that gets more people to use their bikes as transportation. I do have a couple of concerns, though. Ok, more than a couple!

1) Will cyclists, especially new ones, know how to use the bike lane? Will they know what to do at intersections (leave the bike lane if they are going straight, so they don’t get right hooked? Leave the bike lane early to turn left?)

2) Will cars realize that the bikes do NOT have to be in the bike lane?

3) Why put bike lanes on low-speed, many-intersection streets at all? Bike lanes should ideally go on higher speed streets with fewer intersections, like Vine, Old Cheney, etc.

4) Will the city keep the bike lanes swept up, so that trash/litter, glass won’t create hazards for my wheels?

Anyway, my two cents!

1) that is a really good point.  i will look at the blueprints they handed out at the meeting to see what side of the street they are on during lunch.  I would think they are supposed to be used as a going forward kind of thing, not turns.  But it raises a good question.  What about cars that want to turn.

2) I am sure the memo will not get out to most drivers.  yup just having our own lane is not going to change attitudes of some drivers and bikers.

3) Well biking downtown requires you to be in the street.  Most bikers avoid high traffic streets, but downtown you have no choice.  Also there are many bike routes that do go on streets next to busy ones.  This is basicaly a pilot project.  if it works out well, I bet we will see many more around town.

4) I hope so.  also there will be a buffer zone between the parked cars and the bike lane.  Many complain on the city not doing enough, but they do street sweep a bunch.  The street sweepers fill up on water right by my house and they are out all the time.

3) That’s my point; the streets downtown are ideal for cycling as they are, with wide lanes and low speeds. There’s little point in having a bike lane. Riding on a sidewalk is almost always dangerous anyway and no one should do it, even where it’s not illegal.

Think about this; what does the cyclist do in a bike lane on a low-speed street with many intersections? Bike lane for a block, leave the lane to negotiate the intersection, then back in the bike lane for a block?

Old Cheney would be perfect for a bike lane—just like any higher speed, higher traffic road (Vine, etc). In downtown, stop and go traffic, they just arent necessary.

Ooh, I forgot one thing, BorK; do you know if they were actually taking comments at the meeting, or was it “here’s what we’ve decided to do.”? Do you know if I can still send in a comment? 😊

Honestly, I’m not against bike lanes at all; it just that the city seems to be choosing streets that dont’t really need them.

So, as long as they don’t design them as in the following pics!! (credit to a poster on Bike Forums):

“Here is the newest Honolulu Bike Lane. It repeatedly weaves left, is in the door zone, has many blind busy driveways and drivers get angry when I refuse to use it.”
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/2…ture006ft3.jpg

I currently take up the whole lane I am in downtown.  I feel completely comfortable down there as well.  but I go just as fast as the cars and have never been honked at or flipped off.  If I was in the bike lane I would stay in it.  not sure why you would need to get out of it to negotiate the intersection.

If anything it might just make those who are afraid of riding downtown feel a little safer.

No matter what you just cannot trust cars, if you do you are gonna get smacked.  I do not like being on streets where cars are going faster than 25.  Cars hurt 😉  we have many great trails that go all over town.  i would much rather be on one of those than a busy street in a bike lane.

More pics from the poster on Bike Forums—bad, bad designs for bike lanes!!

“Here is a great Bike Lane that narrows from 3 feet wide to 2 feet wide in a right bend of the road.”
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/5348/dcp03400pu8.jpg

I love the next one!!

“And best of all, I am pretty sure it is safer taking the lane rather than using this Bike Lane.”
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/2394/dcp03408vc9.jpg
http://img291.imageshack.us/img291/6869/dcp03410ca7.jpg

oh yeah they are still taking suggestions.  At the meeting they handed out green sheets just for that.  I will grab the info and post it here and on my site after lunch.

They are working on putting the info up on a website gptn.org I think as well.

here is some discussion on it at the local bike blog
http://lincolnbiking.blogspot.com/2006/07/downtown-bike-lane-meeting_13.html

You have to leave it to let cars know what you are doing—so you don’t get right hooked, for example. Think about it this way; you stay in the bike lane at the intersection you are planning to ride straight through. A car is in the lane next to you, on your left. He/she wants to turn right. You want to go straight. The light turns green, you go straight, the car goes right and hits you.

The way to be safe in this situation is to *always* take the lane at an intersection, the traffic lane, that is. That way, the car can’t right hook you, you can easily turn right if you want, the motorist WILL see you, and the motorist will know exactly what you are doing. They don’t want to run you down, and they won’t. You can move through that intersection more quickly than they can, even if they don’t realize it.

Thanks for the info, BorK 😊

BorK lol I never really looked at it that way.  I like to use bork, borked often thanks.

OK looking at the blueprints it makes a bunch of sense.

The lanes are inbetween traffic lanes, not on the raf right ot left to make room for turning lanes and not bork (he he) the flow of traffic.  so like this:
parking | car |car| bike | car| parking
same on 11th and 14th.

looked at the comment sheet I got and there is no email address only a snail mail one.

David Cary, Transportation Planner
City-county Planning Dept
555 south 10th street suite 213
lincoln ne 68508

I know that Ian who was in the article today, listed a phone # on a few posts around the lincoln blogosphere. 441-7491

I will work on scanning in the blueprints so I can provide a link tonight.  They are cool, even shows where the signs for sharing the road will be.

BTW funny pics.  Have you ever been in a town/city where they have bike lanes?  I was amazed when I was in Ft Collins and I was not even a biker back when I saw them.  I would love to see Lincoln kick some butt in this area.  We already have a great trail system, and it is getting better all the time.

check out http://www.gptn.org/ to see what is being done, or is gonna in the future.

All I know is I love to ride my bike to where I am going, for fitness, and to make me smile on a daily basis.  Commuted to work almost every day for a year now.  Even ride home for lunch.  Much prefer twisty singletrack dirt to concrete anyday, and would rather get hit by a bat, possum, or spider web than a car anyday.

it is funny if you look at the comments on the LJS article, how some motorists feel about bikers.  i cheat a little sometimes, but I use hand signals even when people are not looking (it be habit), although I am sure not many motorists actually know what they mean.  Oh well…..

look both ways, then look again.  And turn down the ipod 😉

THANK YOU for mentioning the thorns on the Salt Creek trail.  I’ve been avoiding that trail for over a year now because of those.  A friend says you can have the bike shop put some stuff in your tires to help prevent flats.  Ever heard of that?  Does it work?

oh good old slime http://www.slimesealant.com/bike/index.php

and users reviews here:
http://www.mtbr.com/reviews/Tube/product_88863.shtml

depends on the valves you use as to how easy it is to use.  Schrader valves, the big ones are simple.  buy a bottle, pull out the valve with a tool they give you, fill each tube with 1/2 a bottle.

With presta valves (the small french ones) it is easier to buy slime tubes with it already in there.

I personaly do not run them, but I have in the past.  It adds rotating weight to the wheel (me a bike nerd)  But they do work pretty good.  you still need to carry a pump.  Once you notice it leaking, pull the thing that made a hole out, spin the tire, some of the slime will come out, and once it hits the air it seals up pretty good.  Turns into green threads that look like snot 😉  Then pump it back up to proper inflation.

It can make quite a mess though.  Say you get a rip in your tire and tube, it will make quite a mess.  I take my gear with me on any off road adventure.  Pump, tons of one step sticky patches, two tubes, tire levers, a multi tool with chain break, and even an extra chain.  I will never get srtanded again.

heck last night I re-tore a 1 inch gash in my tire which made my tube pop out and burst.  had to use my laminated insurance card to cover the hole enough to make it home.  A dollar works good in a pinch, but did not have my money clip.

I use Armadillo bicycle tires made by Specialized Bicycles and I haven’t had a flat since. They use a 3 stage Kevlar flat protection system. (For more info click the link below). I bought my wife a pair at Scheels and now she’s had no problems on the Salt Creek Trail. I don’t work for any of these companies I just thought I would pass on what’s worked for us.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/outdoors/1276791.html

wow those look pretty fricking cool.  I can see that they would be perfect for some.  Thanks for the tip.

unfortunately I am going with a 29 inch tire, they make 29 inch MTB ones, but I like them to be huge, they don’t make them huge :(

I run Hutchinson 2.3 airlite tires on my good bike, and hutch 2.2’s on my commuter SS.  So the tire itself is ultra thin and light (kinda asking for it ya know, remember bike dork 😉). 

I am really good at changing the tires in the middle of nowhere, it does not happen all that often either.  Stay in the trail, avoid the green patches, and you should be good.

BorK! Thanks for the lane info; wow, that’s pretty interesting. It wouldn’t have occurred to me they’d set it up that way. I’m looking forward to trying it out. If you want to turn right on a bike, you’d have to move right, but that’s not a big deal—easier than moving left!

I’ve been to cities that have bike lanes, but not ridden in them. Minneapolis bike lanes are a hoot; middle of the street, dead center, two-way bike traffic in one lane, and not very wide! ACK!!

Looks like Cary has done due diligence on this one. And I love that there will be ‘share the road’ signs. Today, downtown Lincoln; tomorrow, the ‘burbs.

One more thing - I wonder if those Lincolnites who say that they want bike lanes so they’re ‘out of traffic’ when they ride realize they’re going to be right in the MIDDLE of traffic! 😊 Sweet!