USA Today has a very poorly written, short-sighted, one-sided article regarding Long Beach’s Green Lanes in Belmont Shore. You should write a letter.
Some of the highlights:
“Even though cars were whizzing by at 30 miles an hour yesterday, bikes were free to ride right in their path.”
“To put them out in traffic is just stupid.”
Be sure to check out Russ Roca’s video of riding the Green Lanes, where it takes him 7 minutes to go about 1/2 mile. Are bikes slowing cars down, or are the cars slowing the bikes down? You decide.
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USA Today: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2009/10/620000725/1
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/russroca#p/u/26/ecaEo4pJeqE
This article is so frustrating!
The lanes are an interesting idea, but most drivers and cyclist have no idea how to use them. I don’t!
When traffic is going fast, I have stayed to the right and let cars overtake me. But, I think the intended idea is to “share” the lane. Treat it like a full lane for bike or car. Let the overtaking car pass in the left lane. That doesn’t make me feel too comfortable though with the thought of cars tailing me, if they can’t move over!
The columnist, Chris Woodyard, is virulently anti-bicyclist. Reading his earlier piece, “Two-wheel troublemaking: Have motorists let bicyclist ‘rights’ go too far?” is eye-opening —
“Taking space away from cars? Ouch. When late to work, it pains a driver to slow down for a bunch of bicyclists hogging the roadway. In the past, you might have tried to steer around them. These days, they are right in front of the car. ”
You see, the problem isn’t people being late for work, distracted in their cars, driving improperly… no. If only bicyclists would just stop trying to exercise their ‘rights’ and stay in the glass-and-debri-filled gutter, where they BELONG, and out of my damn way, then we wouldn’t have to hit the damn bicyclists.
Jay,
The whole point to the green stripe is to give motorists and cyclists a visual of the rights that were already there. If the lane is too narrow to share, you should automatically take it, rather than put yourself at risk of being doored or other hazards that may be to the right in any narrow lane. If the lane is wide enough for you and a motorist to share, then so be it. You should at least have about 3 feet of breathing space if that’s the case though. Don’t be intimidated by drivers behind you. They have the left lane to merge into if they’re going straight through.
Hi Jay, just like Jayme said, the lanes are just a visual representation of the laws that have always existed. Don’t worry too much about cars behind you – think about when you are driving your car; where are you looking? In front right? You see all the cars/bikes/pedestrians in front of you, and that car behind you while you’re bicycling sees the same.
If you’re in to numbers, less than 4% of car/bike crashes are of a car hitting a cyclist from behind.
And so what if they are honking? That just means they see you!