There's plenty of room in the moving lane for a car and a half, so the half-a-car that doesn't fit in the bike lane sticks out a bit, but other cars (and most trucks) still get by just fine.

But sure, in those locales where double parking is a problem, or where the counter flow lane approaches the width of a parking lane, some form of street furniture could be used to separate the shared traffic lane from the counterflow bike-only lane.

There's also the benefit of car speed ... where the direction receiving the shared traffic reverses every two to four blocks, that acts as a natural traffic calming feature.

We have lots of streets set up like this in NYC, except that the bicycle lane is in the same direction as traffic, not the opposite. For example, Bleecker Street.

Illegal parking in the bike lane is a constant problem on streets like this. The effects of illegal parking would be even worse with your proposal, because a bike would have to go into opposing traffic to get around illegally parked cars.

You'd have to physically separate the bike lane to avoid having parked cars in it.

Shanghai has these. They only work if there is something enforcing the separation, so that parked cars don't force cyclists into wrong-way traffic."

I have trouble picturing this ... in this part of the country, few people cross over to park on the left hand side of the road, from their direction of travel, leaving their car sticking partway into oncoming traffic. Even if there was just a traffic lane marking on the one way road and nothing indicating what the strip on the side is used for, I don't see how its useful for parking.

If double parking is a problem, its a problem, but its not unique to counterflow cycle lanes, and indeed if double parking became a problem on one of these streets, it would be in the shared traffic lane, not the counterflow cycle lane.

Indeed, for a street with one parking lane and two traffic lanes, it would be possible to increase street parking by going to one angled parking lane, one one-way traffic lane, and a counterflow biking lane. And death cage riders always love more parking.

There is a nasty meld of overanxious drivers and overpowered cars that reach these speeds quickly, so they are driven that way. It's not fun being out in front of these "hotshots."

Bike lanes are only part of "good healthy breakfast": cyclists need secure parking - both outside and with access into buildings; education for drivers, pedestrians and "even" cyclists; and a police and court system that will actually support the law abiding cyclists and pedestrians rather than abuse them further.

Shanghai has these. They only work if there is something enforcing the separation, so that parked cars don't force cyclists into wrong-way traffic.

People's perception of what is (relatively) safe, before getting experience/training in effective transport cycling, and what is actually (relatively) safe are two different things ... including the perception of some real dangers of cycling side by side with total psychological denial of the massive dangers of motoring to the motorist.

Where I'd like painted lanes is in one lane, one-way streets that are wide enough for general traffic one way and a bike lane the other way.

There is substantial room here for public education, but the danger is that the people selecting the information will misinform and reinforce untruths rather than help out.

And as a regional economist, for the motorist whining about transport cyclists ... if you are going to restrict yourself to places that do not get any funding from non-motorists, that's pretty much US routes and Interstate Highways ... everything else gets a substantial subsidy from the sales taxes and local income taxes that I pay.

And for the US routes (outside of municipalities) and Interstate Highways, that's fair enough ... when riding across the countryside, I'd rather avoid the State Routes and US Routes anyway, and when forced onto those routes as a connector will be satisfied with a ridable shoulder that is included in winter road clearance ... and I'm perfectly happy to stay off the Interstate Highway entirely, as long as your gas taxes pay for enough cycle bridges to restore enough of the public right of way paths that your gas taxes helped destroy.

For everything off the designated long distance route system, bicycles should be included as one of their design vehicles. That should be a requirement of any roadworks funding that is handed out in the stimulus.

urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2008/07/ideas-for-making-bicycling-irresistible.html

Go back to sleep.

In theory that is what you have in NYC. The streets have posted speed limits of 20 mph, but most of the streets themselves in terms of lane spacing, sight distance, and street cross sections are designed like freeways not for 20 mph. That's why the only really safe bike lanes in this city are the ones separated from automobiles or the integrated ones on smaller side streets. I think that the bicycle plan released last year does address some of those issues.

And unfortunately I don't think you understand what little future there is in using 2000 lbs machines to transport 150 lbs people.

Clap all you want, but the energy isn't going to be there to sustain your method of transportation...

And then you have nyc, where motorists *will do* 50 mph on the roads designed for 20...