Riding a bike along a city bike lane can be fraught with potential obstacles (especially if you don’t live in a bike-centric place like the Netherlands). From potholes to buses to garbage trucks, these obstacles range from minor nuisances to major safety hazards. Check out this video where I count down ten of the top challenges that you might face on your urban bike ride. Think I might have missed one? Let me know in the comments!
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Hello and welcome to point to point if you’ve been following my channel for a while you’ve seen a lot of pleasant bike route footage filled with Treeline streets and Beachside paths lazy rides through Parks relaxed commutes and mostly wide open Bike Lanes needless to say that’s not always the reality of
Urban cycling especially in the US if your bike commu or casual riding takes you on city streets then you know there are a wide range of obstacles you might find in your supposedly designated strip of asphalt sometimes several in one block today I want to share with you what I
Consider the top 10 bike lane headaches an urban biker can face I think you’ll agree with most of them but there are a couple that may surprise you without further Ado onto the countdown well okay not quite onto the countdown first I want to note a few honorable or dishonorable mentions maybe
These are more annoyances but I thought they were worth including first you’ve got vegetation I know it sounds bizarre but there is one particular bike lane in Chicago that has weeds growing out of the sidewalk and taking over half the bike lane ironically it’s a protected bike lane just not protected from Weeds
I might need to head out there with some hedge trimmers to take care of this myself next up potholes what the classic Road annoyance doesn’t even make the top 10 that’s right the biggest reason is that while these are annoying they’re constant they might grow but they never
Move you know where to expect them and they’re generally not that hard to avoid a second cousin of potholes is puddles these are sometimes easy to predict and avoid but the surprise ones caused by a Clogg gutter or a heavy downpour can ruin an otherwise Pleasant ride and unless you have good fenders
Even smaller puddles can leave you wet and dirty not a good look if you’re headed to work oh and let’s not even mention the puddles that turn to ice moving on this one might seem a little contradictory given the transit videos I make but trains definitely fit
In that annoyance type of obstacle you don’t usually have to wait too long but the waiting always seems to happen at the most inopportune time it can feel like the train is hardly moving and sometimes the train truly isn’t moving at all this is especially fun on a cold foggy winter
Morning last up in The Honorable mentioned category is wrong way bikes these can get dangerous on busier streets when one of the bikes needs to Veer out into traffic even protected quiet Lanes can be tricky when there aren’t any obvious bailouts it’s a game of chicken that I never enjoy playing
Okay now for real on to the top 10 coming in at number 10 is road work hey here’s one obstacle that drivers and bikers can agree on and this should be the solution for potholes and puddles right well yes in the long run but in the short run not so much road
Construction on streets with bike Lanes typically means the bike lane gets removed and the street becomes an unmarked Mayhem if there’s a silver lining it’s that vehicles are often going to travel more slowly through these areas and slower means safer for bikes still it’s not much fun trying to
Navigate a path to safety rolling down a road that’s been scraped of its top layer in all markings all right and number nine we have buses I know I know first trains now buses let me explain on streets with unprotected Lanes a bus on one side and
The door Zone on the other this feels really uncomfortable buses also have that fun feature of making constant stops and often needing to pull across the bike lane to make those stops this would be higher on the list if it wasn’t for the importance of public transportation and the fact that most
Bus drivers do a pretty good job yiing to bikes I say most whoever was driving this bus thought the street markings just didn’t apply to him buses like this are more like a top three obstacle but luckily this isn’t too common also in the category of large
Scale obstacles at number eight we have building construction this could be construction equipment or trucks parked in the bike lane that’s if you’re lucky the more likely scenario is that you have a multi-season perhaps multi-year headache where vehicle traffic and bike Lanes get squeezed together Le leaving a tiny
Corridor of safety in between moving vehicles and a concrete wall well at least the wall isn’t going to move unlike doors you might think this should be higher on the list and truly the damage a single door can inflict on a bike rider is significant if a biker
Tries to Swerve to avoid the door and instead gets hit by a moving car the result can be catastrophic I’m not trying to downplay that this is a very dangerous obstacle lurking on busy streets as well as quiet side streets but being attentive and cautious and
Trying to ride outside the door Zone can significantly reduce the risk of incident and injury that’s why doors only land at number seven for me speaking of risk of injury bikers aren’t the only ones who can get injured in a bike lane at number six you’ve got pedestrians whether Crossing at a
Midblock crosswalk or getting into or out of a car or just strolling along with a bag full of food pedestrians pose a serious risk to themselves and cyclists they’re liable to Dart out from between cars and because because bikes are quiet they won’t necessarily know you’re coming if I think about my
Closest calls over the past 12 months several of those near accidents involve people wandering into the bike lane hey halfway to number one this would be a great time to give this video a like if you haven’t already now back to the countdown number five schools and daycare really this is any location
Along your route that could have a surge of a vehicle traffic for a short window of time School drop offs in an urban setting are sometimes a free-for-all with every parent maneuvering to get their kid to the door with minutes to spare on top of the vehicle congestion
You have doors opening left and right kids trying across streets and bikers being generally ignored my word of advice try to ride through these areas half an hour earlier or later it will be a relative ghost town in comparison look how relaxing the same street is if you beat the school
Rush number four snow not everyone deals with snow but depending on where you live this may top your list it could be a consistent obstacle all winter or it could be only an occasional obstacle but on those occasions wow even a few inches can be a big problem sure the streets
Get cleared but much less attention is paid to bike Lanes often staying sloppy and slippery for days in a best case scenario the lane gets half cleared pushing you out toward traffic in a worst case scenario the street gets plowed into the bike lane and protected
Bike Lan sometimes have it worst of all not getting cleared or getting sidewalk snow dumped onto them total disrespect for bikes there at number three we have a pretty obvious one delivery trucks and garbage trucks the disruption from these is huge sitting right in the bike lane and part
Of the lane of traffic forcing bikes nearly into oncoming traffic even if these large trucks make it to the curb they’re still blocking at least half the bike lane I’d rank this category higher if not for the essential nature of what these trucks provide someone needs to
Collect the trash and someone needs to deliver supplies to stores and restaurants the best way to avoid this is to try to find a route through a less commercial area if that’s an option now number two is not as obvious as some of the previous ones but hear me
Out to me the second biggest obstacle is poorly parked cars what do I mean by that primarily it’s going to be a car parked along the curb but not close enough to the curb to stay out of the bike lane as a result the car ends up partially parked in the bike lane
Individually this isn’t a huge issue but the problem is that it happens so frequently and each time it nudges a biker a few inches further into the lane of vehicle traffic now I’ll admit in a big city with lots of parallel parking this can get tricky it’s not always done
With malicious intent but I often see cars parked into the lane where the driver clearly had plenty of room to maneuver closer to the curb these are the ones that really burn me up where the driver obviously didn’t care about anyone else trying to share the road and finally at number one any
Driver picking up or dropping off people or food this includes Uber lift door Dash grub rubhub taxis it doesn’t matter not only do these vehicles add to overall Street congestion but they’re constantly stopping to drop off passengers or packages or food or waiting to pick up new ones and where
Are they most likely to stop or wait you guessed it in the bike lanane what’s frustrating is that very frequently curbside parking is available a few feet away but these drivers want to be able to quickly get back into the flow of traffic unfortunately that ease of
Re-entering traffic comes at the cost of the bike lane being clear sometimes these drivers manage to block both bike Lanes temporarily with a mid- block U-turn like poorly parked cars this one is a constant thorn in the side of bike riders and that’s why it’s my
Number one obstacle so that’s it my top 10 or maybe bottom 10 although this video had a bit of a cynical tone I want to end on a positive note these bike lane obstacles are not insurmountable even when several of them pop up on the same block sometimes the key is
Understanding where the worst obstacles are and adjusting your route to work or the store or back home to avoid as many as possible sometimes the key is mental fortitude to keep getting back on the bike and when you notice a road construction project that’s finally been completed or an unexpected Improvement
To an existing bike lane or an Uber driver who pulls all the way to the curb you can be grateful for one last obstacle on that particular ride speaking of gratitude I appreciate you watching to the end of this video and I hope I’ve inspired you to face the
Bike lane obstacles on your next ride thanks as always and I’ll see you next time
4 Comments
I see so much bike-lane-protected parking, and so little parking-protected bike lane in this video. Several of these obstacles could be mitigated with better street design, I think.
Everyone wins when food delivery people use E bikes instead. They don’t have to pay nearly as much for maintenance, depreciation, insurance, and fuel so their profit margins are bigger…and we don’t have to suffer them constantly blocking the bike lanes. Every body wins!
Sometimes I think delivery trucks should just park in the lane and have cars figure out passing – one way streets and/or less onstreet parking could mitigate this.
Love your video! You are on the money with all of your examples. We just have to be tough and deal with the obstacles. We can do it; we’re bicycle riders! Also so much fun to see the neighborhoods I ride in most featured. Keep up the great work. Can’t wait to see the next one.