Thursday, May 2, 2019

Lazy bike lanes

Sometimes I have a chance to revisit places I've been to long time ago. It's fun to find out what has changed, what's new, what's gone. One of the things that I immediately notice in my neighborhood are new bike lanes. The fact that they pop out more often makes me happy, but at the same time their design makes me mad as hell.
 
That's because we seem to be getting mainly two types of bike lanes in America. The first type is a "paint-protected" bike lane. It has a buffer, painted on the road, but no physical barrier separating cyclists from fast-moving car traffic:
The second one is a door-zone bike lane. It's a lane "built" with just two stripes of paint, between parked cars and speeding vehicle traffic:


Both designs have essentially the same flaws. Since paint protects only from corrosion, it's pointless to designate space for bicycles on street, if that space gets often blocked by parked cars, which, as a result, force cyclists to go around them and move into the traffic lane. Basically, drivers see such bikes lanes as a convenient place to pull over, park for a (longer) while or unload their truck. Even police doesn't seem to care and parks in these lanes frequently.
 
But what really pisses me off is that such design simply shows how motivated our politicians are to protect drivers' convenience over protecting people's lives. Bike lanes painted on the wrong side of parked cars (from the traffic lane and not the sidewalk side) benefit drivers, not cyclists. They serve as a convenient buffer (no-traffic zone) when exiting a car. At the same time though, they place cyclists between a speeding traffic and swung-open doors of parked vehicles.
 
These lazy bike lanes are also very cheap to "build". All you need is a bucket of paint. As such, a local governor who approves such design sends a message - "I don't give a shit about cyclists. Here, this is a bike lane. You got what you wanted. Now, piss off".
 
Somehow, I feel that whoever approves this crap should be forced to bike-commute there everyday, including his/her (grand)children.
 
Just recently bike-commuters all across the United States proved how bad such designed lanes are by placing red cups in the buffer zone, where you would normally expect a solid barrier. Not surprisingly, most of the cups were quickly crushed under wheels of cars ignoring these buffer zones completely.
 
So there you go - we need more bike lanes but not just any lanes. They absolutely have to be properly designed, otherwise they are only a little better than sharrows. Unfortunately, there are plenty of NIMBYs in every neighborhood who are ready to fight any changes and will often oppose removal of a single parking spot to make space for bicycles.
 
Cambridge, MA made a move into the right direction thanks to its mayor (and a whole lot of activists), who understands that human life should come first, even if it means losing a few parking spots.
 
Unfortunately, just across the river, in Boston, things are much less rosy pink. While councilor Michelle Wu proposed ending giving residential parking permits for free, like candy on Halloween, mayor Walsh quickly objected that "charging somebody who lives in the city of Boston for a parking sticker to park on street, just isn't fair." Wu's proposal was actually very modest. She wanted to raise the cost of annual parking permit from $0 to $25 for the first car and by an extra $25 for every additional one. To be fair, this still sounds ridiculously low, but it's a start. By my take it should be at least $100-250 for the first car (per year), much more than that for the 2nd and more than 2 cars per household shoudn't be even allowed!

 Of course, this wouldn't make people like #FiveCarFlaherty, or actually Michael Flaherty - councilor in Boston, happy. He admitted to own 5 cars and is scared he would have to pay $375 per year to park them. Many people quickly pointed out the idiocy in his words:



But, I guess it's easier to blame too many bus stops for parking problems than notice that Boston's streets have limited capacity, especially if you're trying to park 5 cars per household on them.
 
Meanwhile, it's raining again. Brilliant. I read that today Boston had the coldest weather in the entire United States - even worse than northern Maine or Fairbanks, AK. This (and lousy bike lanes) won't stop me from riding my bike though.
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