Comment 122068

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted October 29, 2017 at 11:36:11 in reply to Comment 122067

That's true, except that in this case there is no way for the southbound cyclist to just move over into another lane, which makes it much more dangerous and inconvenient. The only option is for the southbound cyclists to stop, lift their bike up onto the sidewalk, push it past the truck, and then put in back down on the street. It wouldn't take many incidents like that to have cyclists stop using the bike lane.

And even in the case where there is another lane for the cyclist to use it undoes the safety benefit of the bike lanes to have to frequently move out into traffic to pass vehicles parked in the bike lane. It also annoys drivers who aren't expecting cyclists in their lane when there is a bike lane on the street.

The equivalent is really a delivery truck blocking the entire lane of a one lane street. In cases like this I've seen drivers drive up on the sidewalk to get around the truck. And I'm pretty sure the truck would be ticketed if caught.

Adding a physical barrier is a simple solution and is done in many cities because they realize that people using bike lanes as extra parking is going to happen very frequently unless it is not physically possible.

In Europe they put metal bollards at the edge of sidewalks to stop motorists parking on the sidewalk for the same reason.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2017-10-29 11:37:38

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