Tricky Lanes

Bike lanes offer a variety of benefits. They can provide a safe path for bicyclists, a safer visual way for pedestrians to note where cyclists are coming from, a traffic calming effect, and even reduce the risk of vehicle collisions with pedestrians. Of course, these and other benefits depend on the type of bike lane (physically protected path, bi-directional protected path,buffered bike lane, painted bike lane, shared lane, signed route, green-way path) and the available space on the road. Some bike lanes, however, have bee designed in strange, odd or inconvenient ways that take away from their intended purpose.

Because of space and traffic constraints, some bike lanes are laid out in seemingly strange ways which make them difficult to follow. Here is an example: 

Bleecker St. between Elizabeth St. and Bowery

The Cross-Over on Bleecker St.                     vosizneias.com

On Bleecker St. starting on Elizabeth St. the buffered bike lane does a cross over and ends at Bowery in the middle of the road. North bound traffic makes a left on Bowery so it crosses over bike lane to the left lane before making the turn. South bound traffic moves to the right. Bike riders cross to the middle and from there can head in either direction. This cross over prevents northbound traffic from cutting off bicyclists when making the left turn. However during the cross over bicyclists can be cutoff anyway. Depending on the amount of traffic performing the crossover can become difficult and a point of contention between motorists and bicyclists. Finally, beyond the intersection the bike lane suddenly turns into a shared lane without any warning signs.

Take a look for yourself:

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Certain bike lanes end abruptly or have no warning of what lies ahead. In this next example bicyclists, especially those new to the area, have to be very attentive to avoid heading into oncoming traffic:


Park Slope - S 5th and 4th Streets

Riding into oncoming traffic on S 4th St.
Photo by Stefano Giovannini
brooklynpaper.com

The east-bound bike lane on S 5th St. in South Williamsburg ends suddenly at S 4th St where it becomes west bound only. Because of the lack of signs indicating this, riders may turn east-bound toward the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and after a block find themselves without a bike lane and riding against traffic. Without and alternate route, eastbound bicyclists will continue veering onto incoming traffic.



This is S 5th St. with S 4th St. at the end. A right turn on 4th St and a block later, traffic is one-way and west bound.

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More often than not bike lanes are dangerous and tricky to traverse because of the high number of motorists, and sometimes even law enforcement officers, that break the rules of the road by blocking the lanes.

Jay St.

Encroaching & double parking along Jay St.
 nyc.mybikelane.com

This Downtown Brooklyn street sees heavy pedestrian and vehicle traffic throughout the day. During rush hour and at other times motorists block the lanes by double parking for extended periods of time or by encroaching into the lanes to make turns or to overtake other drivers. This occurs mostly around the Metro-Tech area. The amount of motorists that break the rules in this area is substantial. Last year, a four weekday afternoon rush hour survey conducted by the Transportation Alternatives advocacy group found that 49 drivers per hour parked in the bike lane for more than 10 seconds of which on average 3 were police officers.
During my  undergrad years in City Tech I walked along this stretch many times and I can attest to the conditions described in the report by the TA. Not once did I see a clear bike lane even from Poly Tech to Tillary St.

Yo can see some of this going on below:

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Also, check out this interesting video by Ron Gabriel that shows some of the conflicts created by the "bad habits" of pedestrians, motorists and cyclists alike. See if you can guess which intersection it is.