[BikeLongmont] Parking in Bike Lanes

[Richard Masoner]

Mike Dodge wrote:

> One thing that I believe needs to corrected in Longmont to make 
> cycling safer is the parking of cars in the bike lanes.

David Oliver responded in part:

> ...good bike facilities will cause some cyclists who don't feel 
> comfortable
> on busy streets to ride more places than they otherwise would.

For those who didn't see Mike's photo, it shows a Ford pickup truck 
completely blocking a six or seven foot bike lane on Collyer Street. 
It's typical in Longmont for bike lanes to be used as parking lanes, 
which, as Mike and David point out, eliminates the usefulness of these 
lanes for cyclists. I think making parking illegal in these lanes, 
however, is politically impossible.

On the other hand, the bike lane is on a 30 mph street. There's a part 
of me saying that we should just erase the segregation stripe. I ride 
home on Deerwood Drive, which also has wide bike lanes that are 
constantly occupied by parked cars. Last week, trailers and other 
equipment from a landscaping company were in the lane, so I rode well to 
the left of the white line. A motorist pulling left out of a day care 
into Deerwood expressed her annoyance that I was in the way and forced 
her to wait, which wouldn't have happened had I been in my "place" in 
the bike lane. The fact that the lane was occupied didn't seem to occur 
to her. For this motorist, the lanes seem to reinforce the idea that 
Bikes Belong ... off of the streets and in segregated facilities.

I agree with David that lanes probably encourage some less-assertive 
cyclists to come out and ride. I think I kind of like the lanes I see on 
a portion of Mountain View Avenue. The street is striped to the left of 
the parallel parking area. The door zone positioning is a problem at 
this location.

RFM

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