In the middle of the journey of my life, I am--as always--a woman on a bike. Although I do not know where this road will lead, the way is not lost, for I have arrived here. And I am on my bicycle, again.
Yesterday I had a long work day. The end of the semester is near, so some students are in, or nearing, Full Panic Mode. Some are just naturally nervous, while others simply procrastinated or skipped classes (not realizing just how many classes they'd skipped!) and now want to "save" their semesters.
So, I got to ride only for a short time after work on a sunny day that's the warmest we've had so far this year. But I'm not complaining: I had dinner and drinks with someone special. Michele, one of my French friends, was in town with Alec--her new husband. She married him in September, not long after my trip to Paris in August. Although I saw her then, I didn't get to see him. He is charming and funny, just like all of those Frenchmen you've always heard about.
Like Michele, he is recently retired, a few years earlier than most Americans. (Gotta love the French system, huh?) They actually met, they explained, when they were 18 years old and in Spain. After returning to France, they went to school, took jobs, married and had kids by other people, and did all of those other things one does for about half of one's life. And they got divorced. After being out of touch for 35 years, Michele said, he called her one day out of the blue. But they didn't start dating until a number of years later. Now they are ready to spend their lives traveling and enjoying each other's company, they said.
And, needless to say, I enjoyed theirs. We promised that we'd "reconnaitre bientot"--get together again, soon!
Writing yesterday's post got me to thinking, again, about some of the really bad bike lanes I've ridden. I'm talking about the kind that, if they don't enrage you because they put you in more danger than you would have experienced while riding with cars and trucks, they leave you scratching your head and wondering, "What were they thinking when they built this?"
Of course, some of those lanes aren't exactly built: They were merely designated by some lines of paint and a few signs. But there are the ones that make you wonder why anybody bothered to spend the time or money to build barriers or cut through parkland.
Paths like those lead to nowhere. I wrote about such a lane in an earlier post:
I guess I shouldn't complain, though. No lane I've ridden is quite like this one:
It's in Exeter, England. Hmm...Maybe the Brits have some sort of cycling we've never dreamed of here in the 'States. Whatever it is, it's certainly stranger than riding down this bike lane:
It might be the only bike lane in the world designed for BMXers or downhill riders--though I still rather doubt that whoever conceived it has ever been anywhere near a bike!
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might have noticed that I am not enthusiastic, in general, about bike lanes.
A separate bike lane, especially one that runs alongside traffic, is not intrinsically safer for cyclists than a traffic lane on a typical city or suburban street. The biggest flaw in most bike lanes I've seen and ridden is that they're positioned so that it's all but impossible for cyclists, especially inexperienced ones, to turn or cross safely at major intersections. This is particularly true for those lanes that, in effect, turn into the right-turn lane for motor vehicles at such intersections, or for those streets that have right-turn-only lanes that cross the bike lane. Things are even worse for a cyclist making a left turn at such an intersection, as he or she must cross several lanes of traffic coming from different directions. This particular hazard is exacerbated when traffic flows off a highway into the intersection.
There are also other hazards, such as pedestrians who use the bike lanes as sidewalks or who wander onto them while they're texting or talking on their phones. Two of the worst lanes I've experienced for that are the portion of Manhattan's First Avenue lane below (south of) 14th Street and Brooklyn's Kent Avenue lane (the one that skirts the Williamsburg waterfront). Both lanes are lined with stores, restaurants, clubs and bars. The clubs and bars pose particular hazards, especially during evenings and weekends, with patrons staggering out to the lanes. But even shoppers and restaurant-goers too often aren't paying attention to their surroundings as they walk, and sometimes talk, with others. And, of course, the drinkers, shoppers and restaurant-goers often leave debris in the lane.
Not to mention the drivers who steer their vans and trucks into the lanes to make deliveries at those establishments--or the driver who pulls in mistakenly, to make a turn or, on rare occasion, out of sheer malice. And, yes, police officers who their cruisers in the lanes while they're having coffee.
But even worse than the hazards I've mentioned or lanes that are poorly-designed (or -constructed or -maintained) are those that are built in ignorance or defiance of regulations governing them. One such lane is found in Melbourne, Australia:
Apparently, according to Austroad's guidelines (see p. 30, Figure 4.27) a bike lane should be 1.2 to 1.5 meters wide and be separated from the parking lane by a strip 0.4 to 1.0 meters wide. The bike lane in the video clearly does not follow that principle.
A few years ago, I was "doored" in a similar lane not far from my apartment in Queens. The marked bike lane was not in any way separated from the parking lane to the right of it. Fortunately for me, I did not take a full facial hit; I took a glancing blow that left me looking like I was pregnant on one side for a couple of weeks.
Now, from what I understand, Austroad's guidelines are not law or in-any-other-way-binding policy, so perhaps the designer of the lane in the video was (in addition to a non-cyclist, most likely) possibly ignorant of them.
Similarly, the Department of Transportation here in New York City has guidelines for bike lanes (pp.55-59) but they are essentially unenforceable. To be fair, those guidelines include some of the flaws I have pointed out in this and other posts. However, the guidelines call for physical barriers between two-way bike lanes and arterial streets, in addition to clear markings between one-way bike lanes and narrower streets. I have ridden on bike lanes that fail to meet those criteria. And, worse, those lanes include some of the other design flaws I've mentioned, particularly when it comes to turns and merges--or, worst of all, bike lanes that suddenly disappear.
The thing that rankles me most, though, is that even such dry technical documents as the ones issued by the Department of Transportation continue to blithely tout the "benefits" of bike lanes for cyclists as well as motorists. A poorly-designed or -constructed bike lane helps no one and, if anything, only fuels anger and resentments between motorists and cyclists.
