Protected Bike Lanes

I recently drove to Hudson, Quebec, a town in which cycling is very popular. Every time I go there, which is a few times a year, I note the many cyclists riding expensive-looking bikes along the roads of their affluent town. Because most of the roads in and around Hudson are narrow, drivers must be careful when passing these cyclists, especially when cars are approaching in oncoming lanes. Unfortunately, some drivers can be impatient when manoeuvring past cyclists; rather than wait for a clear chance to pass with room to spare, these drivers will sometimes pass in dangerous ways, narrowly missing the cyclists.

One way to protect cyclists from cars is to create bike lanes that are separated from car lanes with posts or fences. Protected bike lanes have been much proposed, lately, but not much built; it is in Hudson that I saw my first example of such a lane. (The roads in Hudson have only two undivided lanes, and most lack space for protected bike lanes. So even though cyclists in large numbers use these roads, I have only ever seen this one protected lane, which has been in place for a few years.)

I have never had the opportunity to cycle on a physically protected bike lane before, but I imagine I would greatly value the protection afforded by one. Cars are a constant threat to cyclists, and the protected lane in Hudson, with steel posts set about every ten metres, would greatly reduce the danger to cyclists from cars.

While protected bike lanes are undoubtedly a positive development, I do have some concerns with them. I can report that driving on this road in Hudson makes for a rather tense experience. The car portion of the road has been made so narrow with the addition of the bike lane that driving it is surely less safe now than it was before the bike lane was created. Being on it reminded me of driving in the narrow, temporary lanes, set off by pylons, that skirt construction zones on highways. But here, rather than having to avoid soft rubber or plastic pylons, drivers are forced to drive close to steel posts set into the road. And this bike lane goes on for a few kilometres. That is quite a distance to be driving in such a narrow lane. A casual survey of the posts showed that many cars had collided with them; most of the posts, perhaps four fifths, are bent significantly backward.

A driver would likely be injured from a collision with one of these posts. But even more dangerous is the increased likelihood of a head-on collision occuring with another car because someone was driving too close to the oncoming lane in an effort to keep clear of the posts. It is mentally tiring to keep a car within the bounds of such a narrow lane, and the chance of driver error is, therefore, increased.

Any time a protected bike lane is created, planners should make sure that the road isn't made more dangerous for drivers when the posts are put in place.

Another concern with posts being added to roads comes up in places that have snow in the winter. As I have written in another blog, the number of cyclists on Toronto roads starts to rapidly drop in November, and by winter, very few are still cycling. Having permanent bike lanes will seem pointless come winter if no one is using them. I wonder of bike-lane posts could be made temporary. I am sure a civil engineer could devise a method to have these posts come out of the road in the winter and go back in in the spring. If pemanent posts are used, I can imagine that many protected bike lanes will effectively become protected snow piles in the winter.