In the next few weeks, the San Jose Dept of Transportation will be - TopicsExpress

In the next few weeks, the San Jose Dept of Transportation will be having meetings regarding adding new bike lanes, which leads me to wonder: Are bike lanes *always* a good thing? I feel like a poorly designed bike lane is can be more dangerous for bike riders than no bike lane at all. When bike lanes exist, car drivers expect bike riders to ride in the bike lane. If the bike lane is not safe to ride in (due to being in the door zone, filled with debris, etc) and the bike rider decides to ride in the car lane, car drivers tend to become impatient and will be more aggressive. I noticed this a lot in Santa Clara where almost every bike lane is a door zone lane. The Hedding bike lanes are example of bike lanes which may or may not be well implemented. These lanes have buffering in some sections, while other sections are in the door zone next to parked cars. To make up for the door zone areas, the lane was painted green. While many in the bike community praised the first green bike lanes in San Jose, the high visibility of the lanes possibly generated more anger from car drivers than it generated new bike riders. These bike lanes were originally installed as a traffic calming measure, and they have been effective in that regard, but as bike lanes, Im not sure they are entirely beneficial. We undoubtedly need more biking infrastructure in San Jose, and its great the city is addressing that need. Lets just make sure these lanes are implemented well! :)