That’s a very good point. Maybe do fines for now and use the funds from the fines to put up bollards.
5 Likes
I share this sentiment. It probably doesn’t help that I joke to people that that section of St. Mary’s is used as a service lane for lawn care vehicles.
2 Likes
I run into this quite often as well.
Also run into this one too.
I’ve kind of moved past it with an attitude of “it sucks, but that’s life”, but am happy to see others are equally as frustrated.
If we were to create a list of items that I think are wrong with bike lanes then it would be the following:
- Cars in bike lanes. This not only happens in sections of St. Marys, Anderson Dr., but also in sections downtown at S. West Street, and right in front of the courthouse. We’ve also had it reported here that the buses are terrible as well.
- Trash cans in bike lanes. This also happens on West and Harrington.
- Get ready for fall. We will now have leaves in bike lanes.
- Low hanging branches in bike lanes which I’ve complained about before as well.
- Poor drainage in bike lanes. I tend to ride in the rain since I commute to work on my bike.
- Roundbouts that cause bikes to have to merge into traffic. This happens all along Hillsborough St.
- Construction blocking bike lanes. This includes the new building on Hillsborough St. Why couldn’t we keep the bike lane and close off the middle turn lane? N. Salsibury St and Lane St. Lane is blocked there. I would say the Alexan, but N. West St at this section closes it off. That brings me to one more:
- Bike lanes that randomly end. For example when you get to St. Mary’s and Glenwood and have to merge into traffic. I’ll use the sidewalk there. This one I just blame poor design.
Given all these, I’ve just taken everything as “you get what you get”. There’s quite a few places where there are bike lanes, but I don’t ride in them for various reasons. The big problem is that we have them designed by people where I’m pretty sure they don’t ride themselves; This makes it an afterthought.
9 Likes
These don’t bother me so much. I actually find much of Hillsborough St to be one of the more pleasant arterial roads to cycle on. I think drivers are pretty used to seeing cyclists and expect them on the portions near NCSU. In some instances, I think forcing cars/bikes/peds to share space can actually make it safer for non-car users because it trains drivers to expect people not in cars.
The construction thing I sort of get, drivers complain about construction too, it’s a fact of life. All I want is that pedals/feet get the same consideration as drivers do when we have to make changes.
6 Likes
You can add just general debris and trash in the bike lane. Cars tend to naturally push any debris in the road out to the side, into the bike lane. Anything from sticks, leaves, to glass shards from broken taillights, and just general trash.
Not great for cycling.
I find that dodging everything makes me have to swerve in and out of the bike lanes while riding, going into car lanes quite frequently, which is more dangerous then just riding in the car lane all the way.
Years ago in a different city. I actually rode my bike right into the side of a trash dumpster. It was night time on a poorly lit street and I saw it at the last second. Luckily it was slightly uphill so I was not going that fast, and I was able to apply my breaks and the impact was minimal. But I did hit it. If I had been going faster on a downhill, I would have ended up in the hospital.
This stuff is not just inconvenient, it’s seriously dangerous. The city wouldn’t allow trash dumpsters just randomly sitting in car lanes. But nobody cares because ‘It’s just a bike lane’.
6 Likes
This is how Google thinks I should navigate the 440/Western diverting diamond interchange on a bike. (Please don’t do this).
3 Likes
I was always confused about this. It seemed from the plan documents that NDOT wanted to extend the MUP through the interchange on the upper side, kind of like how Google has it. It wouldn’t be good or comfortable at all, as you’d need to cross 4 (!) on/off ramps, but IMO better than nothing. I know they’re still working on it over there, but no idea if that is actually happening or not.
Went biking downtown today and ended up taking St. Mary’s across Wade Ave. It looks like they are going to be putting in bike lanes just south of Wade Ave. I remember the survey on it, but am now seeing where it’s going to be put in place. It was a pleasant surprise today.
I’ve been more looking forward to the ones happening on Oberlin since they are going to be almost through the entire section of Oberlin (with the exception of sharrows in some areas).
11 Likes
I think that is simply reflective of how bad the city is at cleaning litter and debris around a huge portion of our streets. (The NCDOT does a better job on roads they maintain.). This affects everyone and I often wonder why we don’t have more street sweepers.
4 Likes
Yes, I can’t wait for Fall to start up so we’ll have a nice border pile of leaves along the sides of every neighborhood road for the next 4 and a half months.
1 Like
i am not sure about lawn health on this issue. i live in roanoke va on about 1/3 of an acre. i get hundreds of thousands of leaves form residences across the street and autumn wind patterns. 4 years ago I bought a battery powered mulching mower…some info said chopped up leaves and winter fertilizer would spur bacteria to turn the leaves into organic fertilizer quicker…that’s what I have been doing and my spring lawns look fantastic. corral the leaves in the yard and zap them with the mulcher.
5 Likes
This meeting could be interesting.
Thursday, September 26, 2024 at 3pm
https://go.boarddocs.com/nc/raleigh/Board.nsf/goto?open&id=D99JLY4DC6B4
During the July 2nd City Council meeting, Council requested information on bike lane design, implementation strategies for the BikeRaleigh Plan, and enforcement for parking in bike lanes. The BikeRaleigh Plan, adopted in 2016, is the framework for expanding Raleigh’s bikeway network and improving safety, comfort, convenience, and accessibility for bicyclists of all ages and abilities. More information on the 2016 BikeRaleigh Plan can be found at raleighnc.gov/transportation/services/bike-plan.
11 Likes
Thanks. Your bolded portion is key. Bike lanes are useless if people treat them like on street parking.
3 Likes
Drive down Anderson in North Raleigh - literally never NOT multiple cars parked in those bike lanes. In all fairness, that street is weird - zero sidewalks yet entirely residential, and zero street parking. However, the bike lanes are absolutely useless because you couldn’t possibly bike down that stretch without having to veer into the road multiple times. Would love to see some of those a-holes get tickets.
3 Likes
In general, I think design is more important than enforcement. If the design makes it harder for vehicles to use the lanes, you spend less money on enforcement.
You have 25 mph signs everywhere but if the road feels and looks like a highway…
Plus many of the perpetrators in bike lanes are police officers, especially downtown lol
8 Likes
Bike line public input survey up for Watauga Street in Oakwood (like most other comments, I mostly just want a sidewalk on the specified block)
2 Likes
That’s a great example of a near useless implementation. That street is 35 mph and wide enough to allow a two-way cycle track, separated from traffic. Personally I don’t feel we even need bike lanes there but not going to argue with anyone about it. I don’t think the street there is needed for maintenance vehicles and lawn care vehicles for those larger homes. They almost all have very long driveways which is perfectly fine to handle visitors and other vehicles and keep them off the street.
I’m of the mindset that we’ve spread ourselves too thin on bike lanes and I’d like to see less lane at a much higher quality given no increase in funding for these.
3 Likes
But will it apply to GoRaleigh?
3 Likes
I really hope so.
My understanding was that these bike lanes that GoRaleigh parked in are temporary, so they don’t give a shit about the current safety of bikers.
In my opinion, these bike lanes should be removed if they’re going to treat them in that way. And, I’ve generally stopped using that lane because of that.
2 Likes
@trueurbanist nailed it, it’s all about engineering the roads to reduce speeds vs just reducing the speed limits, and bike lanes should be engineered to eliminate the possibility of parking in them (i.e. bollards/curbs).
And 25 mph neighborhood streets don’t need bike lanes per se, chevrons are fine, but I do actually think we should continue painting as many bike lanes as possible in Raleigh to encourage bike culture. They’re great visuals and make people think about the possibility of biking, even if they don’t today. They can also be iterated on (adding bollards later), so painting is the first step toward the next iteration.
I want to see lanes painted on East Lenior and North State, two super wide 25 mph roads that connect to other streets with existing bike infrastructure. Brought this up to representatives at the DMV site event.
5 Likes