My neighborhood has a lot of bike lanes sandwiched between parked cars and the main road. It looks wide in this photo I found online, but in practice the lane feels pretty narrow. Like it’s pretty much in the range of where the car door would open, if someone was opening their door on the driver side.
Currently I try to bike very close to the left line and I try to slow down to less than 10 mph so that I could hypothetically emergency brake if someone swings a door open (but I have no idea if that’s slow enough?) also not sure if being closer to the moving cars is worse..
I know the safest is to just bike in the middle of the car lane, but it makes me feel self conscious because the bike lane is painted right there. And most other cyclists seem to use it.
What is the best approach for these kind of streets?
by Additional-Owl425
50 Comments
These are technically called bike sharrow(s) I believe. And in all honesty, it’s a lot of hoping and praying the people driving aren’t total assholes, and also the people opening their car doors don’t just swing them open.
My commute to work has this for a 1/2 mile stretch or so. There’s street parking there but it’s rarely used so I usually bike on the right line of the lane and have tons of room.
I feel like it’d kinda suck in a downtown or similar.
With offerings to the gods
That’s the kind of infrastructure I avoid. It’s dangerous.
Go slowly enough to react to predestrians. Wear a high vis reflective vest and helmet mirror. Keep your head on a swivel.
You’re responsible for keeping yourself safe. Be smart.
Stay away from the doors. I’m generally riding in the left hand side of the bike lane. This means I’m also paying attention over my left shoulder.
Plot twist: you can’t. I ride down side streets over these, but google maps is horrible when it comes to these streets. Likes to send people down them so anyone who isn’t from a specific area and doesn’t know the streets ends up down them because they don’t know better. Look at alternate routes if you can, honestly. I try to avoid them best I can. The 50km (30 mile) sharrow in the industrial zone of my city that I ride through feels safer than those. Because it’s low traffic and while people are going at speed, they aren’t speeding because it’s a two way one lane road with some parking. And it’s fairly low traffic.
The bike lanes in my neighbourhood look like this too. I bike on the left line, out of the door zone. If I get squeezed, I take the entire vehicle lane until I can get safely back into the bike lane. I’m on an ebike that isn’t going any slower than traffic anyway.
The best approach is more or less what you’re doing. It’s just a trash design/placement for a bike lane.
You bike slowly.
I’ve never been doored, but I have seen videos and read accounts, it’s not fun.
Even a loud horn or bell doesn’t stop them from opening their door.
The US can’t be bothered with the “Dutch reach” using the right hand to open to afford a look out the rear view.
American drivers are propelled by a sense of entitlement and comfort that make even the smallest extra effort for anyone on the road besides themselves stingy over the effort.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
https://preview.redd.it/55co877ylyzg1.png?width=1280&format=png&auto=webp&s=e5b3b8c35fbe4652439987d2b6d16fc01c2fbd1c
This is what you find across most of the US. If you want something different you need to start asking for it. Civil Engineers and Planners will not retrofit existing crappy on-street infrastructure until you demand it, unless you live in a community where there are practitioners who use the newer best practices or other standards that far exceed on-street facility design.
Make aure your bike has a frame
1. Go slow
2. Head on a swivel
3. Out of the door zone as much as possible
4. Constantly over-shoulder checking and listening for cars in the lane, and moving over slightly for them.
One nice thing about NYC is that people tend to fold their mirror in when parked, so you have less concern about the door flying open. When I pass an unfolded mirror I’m extra cautious.
I would take the full-size lane to the left, and only shift over and go slow in the bike lane if there’s a line of people that need to pass. That bike lane is not the safest position to be in, and I will always prioritize the safest position, even if that means pissing off entitled motorists
Take the car lane, or at least the very right side of it. Only way to avoid the doors and idiots pulling out without looking.
Make your traffic engineer ride down it with their kid
You don’t. They’re death traps.
Depends on the slope.
Uphill, ride in the bike lane, it’s going to be an ordeal to open a door wide enough to cover that lane. And you probably won’t be going super fast to make a collision dangerous anyway.
Downhill, don’t even think about it. Every door that opens is going to immediately cover that bike lane. Just ride in the traffic lane: because it is downhill you should be going pretty quickly anyway and the cars can just deal.
Flat, try to look through each car to see if there is someone sitting there, and if not, ride on the outside of the bike lane. What I’ve found to be effective is to just shout “No” if someone opens the door. “No” registers really quickly, none of this dumb “on your left” bs that takes a second to even figure out what the person said and THEN what the hell they are even talking about, given that you haven’t been watching them and still can’t see them. 100% of the time, when I shout No, the door closes immediately.
The best approach for these kind of streets is to join your local safe streets advocacy group and push the city to redesign them into safer protected bike lanes.
I wouldn’t call cycling in one of these safe regardless of the method, but a slightly safer way is to stay very alert and watch out for cars on your left and idiots opening their doors without checking their mirrors on the right.
Stay away from doors, bike defensively, don’t bike so fast you can’t react to anything, have great brakes. Most importantly, know the road. Some of these I would never bike on. Others I bike all the time.
I’m usually ebiking, but I basically ride the left line of the bike lane and only enter the door zone when cars are present.
I usually take the car lane and then just scooch over when a car is ready to pass, slide back out when the car(s) have passed. If I can’t take the car lane, I slow down to the 10-12 mph range so I can avoid being doored and/or a dooring is less injurious.
Not possible. That isn’t a bike lane, it’s a death trap by engineers who don’t know how to design.
You pay attention to the parked cars and watch for doors opening. Opening a car door is a 2-point motion. First, pulling the handle, then pushing the door. Most people don’t open them fast enough that you couldn’t swerve a bit to avoid them.
I just ride like normal, pay attention like hell, and cover my brakes.
Keep a close eye on occupants of those vehicles and be ready for a door swing open into your path all the while keeping an ear out for the traffic in the traffic lane
These are all over my city. I stay on the left line and I keep up the pace and watch for right turn signals and any sort of movement of doors and people leaving their parking space. On the left line, you *shouldn’t* get doored. Covering the brakes the entire time, ready to swerve. I find this shit super fun.
You need to bike at least a “door away” from the cars.
Lots of painted bike lanes are like this (in the door zone if street parking is available). Mostly I’m in the habit of watching the parked cars fairly closely (looking for people who might get out). I’m usually riding left of center in the bike lane when passing parked cars. It’s always fun when the residents on the street add their waste carts on pickup day (right in the middle of these lanes).
I would ride basically on the left line of the bike lane, which maaaaybe is out of the door zone for normal (non-flinging) door openings, BUT (you need a mirror for this) continually swerve over the line into the car lane, like a foot or two – do this as a car is approaching, but then as they near, get back on the line (this isn’t a game of chicken and despite the internet idealism of “taking the lane”, bikelash/road rage is real and that can create other threats).
Ideally they peg you as an erratic cyclist who may damage their paint job and themselves move over into the next lane of traffic to pass you with cushion – but at the very least, you’re more noticeable to them.
If a car is passing _them_ at the same time, recognize that most drivers will NOT slow down so they can move over safely, so be prepared to temporarily slide into the center of the bike lane when this happens. Just don’t stay there any longer than need be.
ride on left side of lane, be super alert and look at the cars to see if someone is sitting in them
These are better than many “bike lanes.” The cars actually fit in the parking spaces. Like you, I ride cautiously and to the left. However, doors are not the only danger. At intersections, you are hidden between the parked cars on the right and the motorists on the left, so you are at risk of right hooks *and* left hooks.
Thus, I either merge in with the cars to go through intersections, or I take the crosswalk (legal here).
Us bikers were never meant to be safe. I don’t comprehend this………
You can’t really drive that safe on that.
A rule of thumb tho is following the line of the left. So you have enough space to not get yourself a door in the face
You really can’t sorry mate. Paint is not infrastructure. Take the lane.
slightly outside of them. unless there are lots of cars and then it’s fully outside of the lane. (toward the center of the next lane.)
Hypothetically if someone did open their door who’s fault would it be? I wouldn’t be surprised if in the US they blame the cyclist.
I call it a suicide lane
If it were me, I’d ignore the bike and ride in the center of the car lane.
But also I have an electric bike that can go 30mph. And I’m a bit of a prick 🙃.
So there’s that.
This is just a poor road design. You’ll find plenty of that in Germany…it is just a sorry ass excuse for letting people think the city developers and/or politicians care about cyclists
you go at a speed that you can stop or steer yourself out of an inadvertent door/kid/ped emerging from btw cars looking at phone. often i can bike faster, and see us going fast, but we shouldnt go faster than actual limitations of the environment (thats driving and cycling). its really hard to follow this bc the machines we make today are amazing at making speed feel like nothing
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Friend of mine had a piece of his skull in a freezer for weeks while he was in a coma because of this kind of set up.
The worst part is when someone is turning, they can’t see past the cars to the bike lane, especially if 2 SUV’s are the first 2 cars before the intersection.
Either ride at walking pace or in the middle of the car lane for faster speeds.
That’s the kind of bike lane that defeats itself. Cyclists who use it will eventually get doored and drivers will still be annoyed having to overtake cyclists who won’t “stay in their lane”. Yes the only safe way to ride with that design is in the car lane.
Cars don’t door other cars for a reason.
Learn to look for signs of people leaving cars, heads in seats, lights on, etc
I only use those when there isn’t a whole line of parked cars like this, so I can see into individual cars to see if they’re occupied. (Empty cars rarely door people, thankfully.) Even then though, they’re a major hazard. One of the worse close calls I’ve had lately, a large work van started to pass me then immediately veered *into me* to try to get right to park. I braked hard and honked at him and he pulled back into the road, only to IMMEDIATELY do it again.
Better to take the lane, though then you’re subjected to road rage and other unsafe behavior from drivers who think you don’t belong.
The lane literally marks where you shouldn’t be.
At least there’s no potholes and there is a lane. My commute has street parking and a narrow road very common for big ass pickup trucks to get entirely too close.