Bike Lanes: Love 'em or Leave 'em

you guys brought 20 frame pumps on a group ride?

I bring 20 frame pumps when I’m riding solo, bitches.

I don’t go out of my way to use them, but they’re not the devil. If they’re full of idiots I avoid them.

god i love bike lanes when available. or shoulders. i guess i’m not used to riding in the street yet. people here aren’t nice.

In Phoenix/Tempe I loved them because unless I was on a residential street it was a recipe to get killed without them. I always give respect to guys willing to ride without them on the major streets. But here in the Chicago area it has been a pain in the ass, I’ve almost been doored about 4 times in as many days and on the side of the road for the bike lane it is just shitty for street conditions (or at least compared to what I’m used to, I may just have to get used to it). Either way I’m way more in favor of taking the lane. Far safer as far as I am concerned, or at least that’s my perception of being tapped on the rear wheel versus sideswiped (I may be way wrong, never had either happen yet thank god).

technically it is the LBS “hard” ride and some times only 2 guys will show up so people generally bring their own stuff because its kind of hit or miss. all 20 or us did not have frame pumps it was probably a little more than half, so i said most because its just a cooler mental image.

so today had to have been one of the worst. almost got hit 3 times, then after polo we were all riding through downtown, with two separate egging incidents, which we attempted to take into our own hands (as well as involving a cop that we happened to run into). what the fuck is going on recently?

people want in on the tarck but can’t type fixedgeargallery.com out right. it’s a long name… i don’t blame 'em. jealousy is all.

I was confusing bike lanes with bike paths. I hate bike paths, they are always taken up by joggers, who only ever seem to intersect when i’m about to overtake. Bike lanes are ok I guess. I am blessed with 2-car-wide bus lanes for most of my 15-20km journey, and since I leave around 6am theres not too many buses.
Being car doored is still my main fear though.

I don’t really care either way. If it is convenient to ride in the bike lane, then I’ll use it. If its filled with broken glass, potholes or some jackass in a car trying to be slick and pass traffic, I won’t use it. However, I’ve noticed that bike lanes are pretty unimportant in downtown, but seem more integral to your survival on the big arterial roads in the suburbs, with the high volume of speeding, inept drivers. Unfortunately you can’t really take side streets out there, because they all seem to end in dead ends or cul-de-sacks. What morons design these fucking places?

In my hometown these are ALWAYS treated as a way to get around cars that are waiting to turn left, and I’m sure that 98% of drivers don’t look before they swerve into them to pass. I’m terrified of most of my hometown’s bike lanes, and would much prefer that they weren’t there to provide the extra room to make drivers want to pass a turning car instead of waiting.

austin was pretty cool with the bike lanes. i highly enjoyed them there.

i have yet to see them in dallas though. denton has them, but only on a couple streets. its really weird.

i’ve also ridden on a ‘freeway’ with cars going 60+ and no shoulder until you get a couple miles out of town. (380 from denton to mckinney and back for any locals)

and

agreed on all fronts there my friend. sometimes when im in subdivisions its like, why not just live in an apartment complext? it feels basically the same, especially when theyre gated/walled. ridiculous. the street names are always horrible too.

I just don’t get why the developers can’t make one or two of the side streets go longer than 3 or 4 blocks.

At least there are some cool street names in some of the subdivisions out here.

I will use a bike lane when it’s present, but if not I’m not really stressed and I’ll just keep on doin my thing.

I once got lost in a subdivision, took me like a half hour to find my way out of that goddamn place, everything looked exactly the same, shit was creepy. I never want to live in one of those places, ugh.

hey, i live in the suburbs, in a “subdivision” where everything looks the same.
i don’t have neighbors on top of me, below me and on the other side of the wall, either.
i can blast my surround sound with the sub at full power at 4am if i want.
it doesn’t feel “basically the same” as living in an apartment complex.
i grew up in downtown dallas, and every time i go there, i still get lost.
…but i will agree about the street names.
our neighborhood is nothing but streets with the names of texas cities.
and as much as i love texas, that’s kinda weak.

yeah I agree on the stereo issue, but I hate fucking living in shithole mormonland utah.

I use the bike lane sparingly, at best. I rather keeping up with traffic and riding the white lines. Always entertaining to see the looks on drivers/passengers faces when you are next to the window, while you riding the white.

Bike lanes here are on the left side of the street and there are only a few streets that have really nice ones.

Kudos to everyone that can keep up with traffic on a fucking bicycle. Just about all the streets here are 35mph , and I’m ASSumming that everywhere else its about the same, give or take 5mph. If you guys are seriously riding beside cars and in traffic at that speed, then I obviously need to ride a little harder.

I guess I should elaborate.

Traffic, in Manhattan at least, is usually at a point where you can be going 15-20mph and be next to peoples windows no problem. Sustaining that I guess depends on the person and the ratio they are running, I run 49:16 so it’s not too difficult for me to keep up at 20mph. But when traffic clears up… 30mph is my breaking point and I move off to the side if I feel cars are passing me a bit too fast.

Though you will probably never see a sign, unless you are looking for one, the speed limit in Manhattan is 30mph. Although the average speed is probably more along 15-20 during the day, rush hours even less.

Dude, move the fuck away from suburban Dallas before it’s too late.