According to the New York Times, a seven block stretch on Ninth Avenue in New York's Chelsea district is getting a makeover. The plan calls for taking this wide street, and creating three car lanes in the middle, with parking lanes on each side of the driving lanes.
Then, between the parking lanes and the sidewalk they will be putting bike lanes on one of the sides of the street (see graphic to the left - -and click on it if you need a larger version.) In between the parked cars and the bike lanes would be planters for beautification that would double as barriers to prevent cars from entering the bike lane. The idea is to build bike lanes along this route, but use the parking lane as a buffer between the bicyclists and the moving traffic (given Kansas Citian's propensity to run over bicyclists).
There has been a lot of talk about improving Grand (or is it Grand Avenue of the Americas?) as part of the downtown revitalization. This plan would be following New York's direct lead on building more bicycle lanes (downtown badly needs this) and ensure the safety of the growing number of bicyclers.
Hat Tip to PSFK.
While this sounds like a good idea, it's actually bad. This basically creates a side path, which is statistically the most dangerous place to bicycle.
This is because removing bikes from the the automobile traffic also removes them from motorists' attention. Your odds of getting hit by a turning car or someone pulling out of a drive way go up significantly on a side path or sidewalk.
European cities that pioneered this physically separated bike lane are starting to discontinue them in favor of regular bike lanes in the actual roadway.
Posted by: Eric | October 10, 2007 at 11:23 AM