I have to say that I don’t mean to insult any of them, but they feel likes rodents and insects that came from no where.

Um…. nobody is going to take you seriously if you talk like this.

Should there be license test for bikers? So that we know we have qualified bikers who understand the rules and etiquette of biking.

If NYC decides to adopt biking as a mainstream transportation, it has to come up with regulations.

I am a defensive driver in NYC, but have been approach by rude bikers telling me they own the streets of NYC and should be watched out every second. I have to say that I don’t mean to insult any of them, but they feel likes rodents and insects that came from no where.

Biking does not necessarily fit every city especially NYC where it’s full of vehicles and pedestrians.

And the great thing about New York City is that if you don’t feel up to the task, you have almost endless alternative choices.

Seriously, if you are so worried about your driving abilities that you don’t think it’s safe for bicycles to be on the same street as you on a protected path where there is almost no way for a sober driver to accidentally “not see” the bike lane and plow into cyclists, you should really not be driving, period. No one will think less of you in these parts if you put that limit on yourself, either.

I bike on Kent Ave. several times a week, and have driven it under both the old and new configurations. Any driver who sees that bike path and is worried that their car presents a significant danger to cyclists using the new bike lanes is not fit to drive in New York City, plain and simple.

Bikes aren’t like cars, which go extremely fast, are difficult to control, and give drivers a very limited view of their surroundings. I don’t need a double yellow line to deal with oncoming bike traffic, because I will see said traffic coming in plenty of time to make sure we don’t hit each other.

Imagine the city funds that could be saved if we didn’t approach infrastructure with a bunch of assumptions based on cars…

And yes, while driving I’ll focus most of my attention in the direction of traffic once I’ve established that there are no pedestrians at the intersection (Driving can be really difficult to do at some places!). In the meantime without my knowing it, a cyclist could arrive from over a block away from a direction I am not expecting. With a facility design that has cyclists coming from a direction that drivers are not accustomed, you run a risk of collision if that intersection is unsignalized.

Driving a car is probably the most difficult cognitive activity that most people will ever do. It is up there with neurosurgery. YES! Really! (But I don’t have the source for that tidbit in front of me.) It becomes exponential more difficult in an urban environment where the “moving variables” become that much more numerous. To combat this engineers use predictable designs (I know. They can become TOO predictable at times). Building a new facility with a design that drivers are not familiar with can cause problems if those problems are not mitigated. From what I’ve read here from others, I believe that NYCDoT has mitigated those concerns by signalizing most if not all intersection that cross this bidirectional bike lane.

1) “most if not ALL of my attention is us focused to my right for traffic, not to my left”. How do you deal with pedestrians when making turns? Theyre coming at you from both sides.

2) “I for one sure wouldn’t propose Montreal like facilities in the US” Is the population of Canada fundamentally different from that of the US? Do urbanites in Montreal behave differently than those in the US? Why do you assume that invisible political lines actually mean anything? It’s the same argument used for every single improvement. “Oh sharrows may have worked in San Fran, but theyll NEVER work here!”, “Oh, bulb-outs are everywhere in Boston, but drivers here would hit them!”. None of these arguments are accurate.

The only question I have with this bike lane is for the turn lane in the picture. Do they have a signal independent of the bike lane, or does everybody get green together? If the latter, than I wonder why the green wasnt extended through the intersection.

You’d be doing it wrong. (Drivers like you mean bicyclists’ self-preservation demands they look at the faces of drivers at intersections, and treat as suspect any driver whom they haven’t seen look in their direction.)

Well they are a different country and many in Quebec would rather be a different country a second time around too. I for one sure wouldn’t propose Montreal like facilities in the US and I haven’t heard of them being replicated elsewhere in Canada but I could be mistaken.

I just know that when I driving and I’m pulling out of an UNSIGNALIZED intersection onto a one-way street in the manner that SUV driver is doing in the picture, most if not ALL of my attention is us focused to my right for traffic, not to my left. This becomes even more true when the road is busy and sight lines compromised by parked cars.

Even if a driver is being very attentive to the bike lane, there come a point where a driver can not take in and calculate all the potential “targets” moving on the road (This is talked about in regards to pedestrians crossing busy multi-lane roadways all the time and pedestrians have a less obscured field of vision). I see a design like this having the potential of pushing that cognitive envelope if an unsignalized intersection where to cross a bike lane like this.

And Mike E.

There are plenty of designs out there that are less than optimal and others that have come about to correct those imperfect solutions. If I’m starting a bike network from scratch, I would not be willing to implement a design that has questions about its safety just because someone else is doing it. It would be best to use the latest design solutions. Those Montreal bike lanes were implemented years ago and would not be considered state-of-the-art by most bike / ped planning world today even if the locals are “used to it.”

Even so, I wonder if the lack of some physical separation from motor vehicle traffic might legitimize wrong-way cycling.

If I’m not mistaken, road work that affects the flow of car traffic is always indicated with signs and road markings or cones — I expect the same for bicycle traffic.

Those folks get my best of luck and what’s coming to them.