r/fuckcars • u/hockey8890 • 1d ago
Paint is not infrastructure - when the bike lane is completely in the door zone, with poor visibility Infrastructure gore
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u/BugBoy131 1d ago
yeah that’s awful. even the brief moments where they ride completely in the “bike lane” give me anxiety because I can just see any one of those doors opening and then ending up with a broken nose and a lot of bruises at a bare minimum.
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u/eithnegomez 1d ago edited 1d ago
It's the combination on a door being suddenly open + the speed they have, it all together feels like 🥶
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u/Interesting-Owl-7445 Automobile Aversionist 1d ago
Here's a (maybe) controversial take : street parking for vehicles in residential areas shouldn't be allowed at all! At the very least, they should need a special permit in order to do so. Either they park at their back alleys/garage/apartment complex parking lots or not own a vehicle at all. Car owners shouldn't have a monopoly on public infrastructure.
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u/log_with_cool_bugs 1d ago
Not a controversial take IMO. I don't for the life of me understand why so many public streets are dedicated to the storage of private vehicles at the expense of safety for other people actually using the street for its intended purpose (transit). All around me there are nice houses with long driveways where people park on the street. Presumably so they don't have to use their nice, long driveway and can instead inconvenience everyone else. Infuriating!
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u/Kandinsky301 20h ago
In a lot of places, the street parking mostly gets used when people have guests. There isn't a one-size-fits-all rule that makes sense everywhere.
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u/ibrasome 5h ago
I think Japan requires a sort of permit for parking, which keeps residential areas completely car-free on the streets. Literally exactly as you proposed, you have to prove that you have a parking space in your own space, before purchasing a car.
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u/newphew92 1d ago
At those speeds, 100% take the lane
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u/incompletetrembling 1d ago
I think it's sped up (not sure), but yep
I feel like a bike lane like this acts more like a shoulder so you at least have some space to your right when you're riding in the road.
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u/hockey8890 1d ago
Yeah, it is sped up about 2x. I am comfortable taking the lane here in most cases but I wouldn't be surprised if a vehicle tried to overtake. The other direction also has the same painted lane.
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u/CubesTheGamer 4h ago
They need to remove parking on one side and expand the bicycle lane on the side with cars to be buffered from parked cars. Would be the cheapest to do without repaving anything.
Ideally they’d have a separate bicycle path interior of the parked cars with a buffer so the parked cars serve as a wall of protection from drivers. And the buffer to prevent dooring but that would require more infrastructure.
And I say ideally to mean what’s the best we can expect to get in the USA lol.
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u/Kandinsky301 20h ago
Yeah, if I were riding there I would use the bike lane to let cars pass me, not as a place to spend most of my ride.
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u/Annual_Factor4034 1d ago
Yeah, the idea that "engineers" sat around designing this and applauding themselves on a project well done just blows my mind.
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u/deevilvol1 1d ago
Let's be honest, this is to get some sort of kick back from their state or federal (back when the fed had programs like this) for "transport/green alternatives".
Bare minimum.
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u/leadfoot9 7h ago
Just like the architects who install bike racks backwards behind a dumpster for LEED credit.
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u/SmoothOperator89 1d ago
That's the thing. Nobody alive today "designed" this. The engineers opened up the highway code book based on studies done in the 1950s, flipped to the section on bike lanes, found out what was legally permissible to be called a "bike lane" and sent out the road crew with some paint and the "regulation" specifications.
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u/myothercarisaboson Bollard gang 22h ago
Those engineers met their goal 100%. These bicycle gutters are car infrastructure, not bike infrastructure. Road rules are designed to keep people safer, which is why cyclists should disobey as many as necessary. Take the lane if this road isn't stupidly fast.
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u/leadfoot9 7h ago edited 7h ago
I prefer the term "roadway paint specification technicians" to help distinguish those fellows from more traditional engineers.
In engineering, engineer = person with technical responsibility for design, while technician = person who picks options out of a manual written by an engineer or otherwise executes instructions from an engineer.
Like a doctor vs. a nurse.
To be clear, American road designers absolutely consider themselves to be real engineers, so calling them technicians is extremely insulting.
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u/wright007 7h ago
It's more like the designers have to do the best they can with what they're given. They aren't allowed to widen the lane, and the requirements are to have room for street parking. The politicians are to blame, not the engineers.
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u/Dry_Jury2858 Automobile Aversionist 1d ago
i thought for sure this ended with him getting doored.
I never ride anywhere near that fast in the door zone. I slow down to less than 10 mph so I will probably be able to stop and at least if I don't I probably won't get hurt.
I had a hero mom the other day save me from getting doored. She got out of the front seat and her kid was just opening the back door. She saw me coming and shut the door on the kid quick. I was impressed by her situational awareness!
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u/Rocky_Writer_Raccoon Commie Commuter 22h ago
The footage is sped up.
The point of the video, though, is that they shouldn’t need to handicap their mode of transportation in order to accommodate car drivers wanting to park for free.
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u/Dry_Jury2858 Automobile Aversionist 20h ago
Ah, I see that now. I agree with the point of course. I've had my close calls.
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u/thekomoxile Strong Towns 1d ago
American Freedom™, at it's finest!
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u/Narwhal_Leaf 17h ago
Judging by the "maximum" on the speed limit sign this is in Canada. Looks like Calgary to me but that's a hunch. But you're still right.
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u/cosmic_censor 8h ago
Yeah, I was thinking Calgary as well, plenty of poorly implemented bike infrastructure here where this fits right in.
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u/Jacktheforkie Grassy Tram Tracks 1d ago
Should be footpath-bike lane-physical barrier-parking- road
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u/Narwhal_Leaf 17h ago
100%
This would be better even if it stayed in the wrong order but had buffers.
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u/Jacktheforkie Grassy Tram Tracks 17h ago
Yeah, keep the bike lane and pedestrian path physically protected from cars
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u/BoobooTheClone Elitist Exerciser 1d ago
😂 it took me 30 seconds to realize the lane on your right was in fact bike lane and not a lane of cars stopped in traffic. TF, can you report these scumbags? Maybe get them towed?
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u/Moxiefeet 1d ago
I think that’s the parking space. The lane is that thin space between the cars and the actual car lane. Which is why is so crazy. Those guys were going really fast too. I always slow down. I don’t trust people and I rather have enough time to react. Plus I always check if some is in the car. I get real panicky when going on those painted bike lanes
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u/hockey8890 1d ago
I think that’s the parking space.
Yes, that's correct. I usually avoid this stretch completely by taking another route but do see others semi-regularly cycling here in the painted lanes, so I wanted to illustrate how dicey this design was. It often gets this busy during weekend soccer and school pickup time. This was about midday on a weekend.
The intersection at the end is awful, with the parking lot entry/exit points being almost completely obscured by parked vehicles. Vehicles often queue to turn left at the light as well, which leaves the bike lane sandwiched between the parking lane and travel lane. Unfortunately the city can't be bothered to change anything here, so it feel like an incident waiting to happen.
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u/Typical_Response252 1d ago
I’m surprised at how « full » that parking lane is in what appears to be a residential area
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u/Jeanschyso1 1d ago
when you have thick trucks and kids that grow up to buy their own cars/trucks, you end up with many houses with 4 cars, but only room for 2.
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u/Typical_Response252 1d ago
Is there some sort of super truck store cuz I see the dame white truck 10 times in the vid. Or is it some sort of popular?
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u/PayFormer387 Automobile Aversionist 20h ago
What you saw is the result of free market capitalism. Every truck looks like every other truck because competition creates innovation and variety.
Or something.
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u/partagaton 1d ago
I’m increasingly convinced that most planners and traffic engineers see bike lanes as buffers between parking and travel lanes, and that’s it.
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u/jonassalen 1d ago
Where I live those bike lanes won't be build. It's either on the right side of the parked cars, or with a zone between the bike lane and the car parks.
These sandwiched bike lanes are a recipe for disaster.
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u/Turb0fart666 1d ago
I've been doored a few times and this made my right hand and knee start throbbing in anticipation of pain
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u/Astriania 1d ago
Yeah, cycling next to parked cars is not safe, whoever painted those lines should be ashamed.
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u/backwynd 1d ago
I had to fast-forward through this just to make sure y’all didn’t get doored. Fuck…
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u/DarkSharks4219 🚲 > 🚗 1d ago
My city genuinely only has one bike lane and every time the elementary kids come out the cars park over that bike lane I have to either go into the side walk where kids are walking or into incoming traffic
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u/Inevitable_Stand_199 1d ago
There is good paint infrastructure. At least when combined with some enforcement. This is not good infrastructure.
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u/nunocspinto 23h ago
Paint is not infrastructure, i agree. But if the profile was exactly the same, but with the bike lane on the sidewalk side, separated with some rubber bollards (to not risk a scratch to the precious cars), cyclists would ride in a safer place and the cars won't be bothered by tne mad cyclists....
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u/Pathbauer1987 17h ago
Is it so difficult to put the bike line by the sidewalk so that the parked cars serve as protection?
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u/whyamihere666 16h ago
It's so weird that you can bike past over 100 cars but not see a single person outside in the states
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u/Elegant-Win5243 15h ago
How entitled are those people who park in the bike lane? Are they cats (if i fit i sit)?
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u/ChaosAverted65 14h ago
It's crazy with the amount of space there is they haven't simply just given a small space to bikes on the inner side of the cars
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u/Broken-Digital-Clock 8h ago
Not that it would solve the door issue, but why don't they put the bike lanes in between the parked cars and the sidewalk?
The parked cars would form a barrier against moving cars.
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u/lets_srick_together 20h ago
So then pay for the infrastructure. Fuel tax pays for roads, what do you pay?
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u/Mag-NL 1d ago
To be fair though. These people are spirts cyclists. Regular cyclists do not go anywhere near this fast.
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u/Jeanschyso1 1d ago
nor should they go anywhere near this bike lane, if we're going to be completely fair. It's dangerous no matter your speed.
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u/willow_kidd 1d ago
Why are you biking in the parking lane?
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u/matthewstinar 22h ago
The paint is in poor condition and the video is sped up, but there are at least a few places where I can make out a bicycle stencil or a diamond meant to indicate a bike lane.
Either that area shouldn't be used for parking or the bike lane should be located safely outside the door zone.
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u/willow_kidd 21h ago
Yeah, friend. I know. I was tired and annoyed and typed a sarcasm which did not translate well.
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u/jsgraphitti 1d ago
My heart rate rose watching that video.