
Bike lanes have sped up car traffic in New York City - dodders
http://www.vox.com/2014/9/8/6121129/bike-lanes-traffic-new-york
======
bane
I'm one of those drivers who hates sharing roadways with bikers. It's not that
I have to share, but between slowing traffic down, pure safety concerns for
the biker (who _I_ as the automobile driver am responsible for in the case of
an accident) and the generally shitty entitled attitude lots of bike riders
seem to have (probably earned from dealing with irritated drivers like me) I
get my hackles raised every time I see one on the roads. Bikes aren't
automobiles no matter how much we debate about it. They shouldn't be sharing
the road with cars.

But you know what? I'm absolutely in favor of this kind of road engineering.
Regardless of making traffic faster or not, it's just smart design. Between
roads, sidewalks and bike lanes, this provides a designated travel area for
everybody regardless of the mode they choose to travel with. Bikes shouldn't
be sharing the road with cars, they _should_ have their own designated travel
areas.

It eliminates all three of my issues in one swoop and provides equitable space
for sharing the travel conduits in a city. In fact, it would probably get _me_
out on a bike more often.

~~~
turar
As a motorist who sees cyclists daily, I have yet to see a cyclist obey a stop
sign. I see blatant disregard for stop signs every single day. Same thing for
red lights -- I see cyclists routinely disregard red lights, unless crossing a
busy road, where disregarding a red light will certainly get them killed.

~~~
jrockway
As a cyclist who sees motorists daily, I have yet to see a motorist obey a
stop sign.

When I'm stopped, I have to wave cars through when it's their turn to go
because they don't understand how stop signs work. (Or assume I'm not really
stopped, more likely. Stop signs are a disaster.)

~~~
turar
By that do you mean they don't stop, or that they stop for too long to let you
through, thinking that you're not going stop at all? (Assuming it's a 4-way
stop). If latter, then I could be that motorist as well -- I will naturally
assume that cyclists will NOT stop at stop signs (since I have never seen them
do so), so I would let them through preventively.

~~~
soperj
Stop being that person please! Just follow the rules of the road.

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kazinator
The "before and after" picture at the bottom of the page shows that both
"before" and "after" have bike lanes. The bike lane has grown from 5' to 6"
and is separated by a buffer, but it was there before.

What has sped up traffic is the creation of left turn pockets in the parking
lane. But these could have been created in the "before" situation, by carving
them out of the 8" curb-side parking lane.

So, the claim that "bike lanes have sped up traffic" is poorly supported.

~~~
Zarathust
This article is horrible. The author also states that

> One is that, for the most part, driving lanes weren't actually eliminated
> when they bike lanes were built — they were simply narrowed.

But there is nothing to support the claim that narrower lanes speed up
traffic. Also this phrase is copy pasted verbatim further down the article.

~~~
snogglethorpe
> _But there is nothing to support the claim that narrower lanes speed up
> traffic_

My impression is that the _opposite_ is actually true: narrower lanes tend to
make drivers feel more nervous/wary, and they slow down as a result.

Lane-narrowing (and "perceptual" narrowing, adding features that make it seem
narrower to drivers without actually changing the amount of space) seems to be
a fairly common traffic-calming technique.

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danso
Someone already commented on this but it must be re-emphasized in blunter
terms: the OP's title is sensationalized bullshit, period.

What has caused the improvement in speed is the building of dedicated left
lanes. The fact that the city also added bike lanes at the same time does not
mean that the bike lanes caused the speeding-up of car traffic (correlation !=
causation, and all that)...

Read from the source article that the OP references (and then glosses over):

[http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/09/when-adding-bike-
la...](http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/09/when-adding-bike-lanes-
actually-reduces-traffic-delays/379623/)

> _So what happened here to overcome the traditional idea that bike lanes lead
> to car delay? No doubt many factors were involved, but a DOT spokesperson
> tells CityLab that the steady traffic flow was largely the result of adding
> left-turn pockets. In the old street configurations, cars turned left from a
> general traffic lane; in the new one, they merged into a left-turn slot
> beside the protected bike lane (below, an example from 8th and 23rd). This
> design has two key advantages: first, traffic doesn 't have to slow down
> until the left turn is complete, and second, drivers have an easier time
> seeing bike riders coming up beside them._

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bullfight
Protected Bike lanes are great and hopefully we start getting Protected
Intersections to go with them.

This site has a great video which describes the protected intersection. Having
traversed them quite a bit as a cyclist, motorist, and pedestrian, they are
delight to use.

[http://www.protectedintersection.com/](http://www.protectedintersection.com/)

~~~
arjunnarayan
This site is brilliant, and thank you for that link. I followed some of the
citations. The video on the site makes it seem like it's an experimental idea,
but to be clear, here is this dutch video showing that exact design in use -
today -
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlApbxLz6pA)

I can only dream of living in a place where I could bike with such safety. I
regularly get honked at/shouted at in Philadelphia --- for biking in bike
lanes, because, apparently, drivers in Philly believe that it is their
sovereign right to drive in green painted bike lanes when they wish to turn
right. Maybe I should revise my "move to Canada" life plan, and make it "move
to Amsterdam".

~~~
bullfight
This design radically reorients your attention to that which is in front of
you thereby significantly reducing the chance that you will miss something or
"not see" that ped/cyclist, etc.

In many intersections a big part of this includes clearly marking whom has the
right of the way through an intersection negating the need for signals which
leads to far less intersection congestion.

* As a pedestrian the ease of crossing at intersection is unmatched, no more walking halfway into the intersection to see around parked cars.

* As a cyclist it fundamentally transforms the experience. Every ride can be taken at ease and in comfort. No more fighting for your life.

* As a motorist you worry much less about hitting a cyclist or pedestrian because they are always in front of you where you can see them. NO more straining to check every blind spot 3 times before a turn.

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davidp
I'm a fan of biking to work, but my inner skeptic is wondering about
correlation vs. causation. You'd also have to compare the total automobile
traffic levels to get a clear picture. It's possible that drivers are avoiding
the streets because they assume they're worse with the bike lanes in place.

Edit: Oops, somehow I missed this part:

"You might imagine that these bike lanes decreased congestion by cutting down
on the number of cars on the road. But if that played a role, it was very
slight: on Columbus Ave., the DOT counted cars, and saw only a very slight
drop in overall volume during morning rush hour, when travel times declined by
35 percent. Instead, it seems that a pair of design decisions are
responsible."

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dominotw
Having 2 of my coworkers killed this year on their bike( both by drunk
drivers), I wont venture out on a bike until all my path is a completely
protected from cars.

~~~
fumar
Sorry to hear! As a fellow Chicago cyclist, I recommend using bike lanes as
much as possible. I will go out of my way to stay on designated bike lanes.
Also, the Lake path is useful during the work week. But, throughout the years,
I have noticed drunk driving does rise on the weekend nights. I do my best to
stay off the streets then.

~~~
agumonkey
On bike lanes security weighs on the bikers, since pedestrian will cross or
even walk on them, you're always worried about some hidden kid running wild.

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apendleton
The results here are impressive, but the particular example they show in the
last picture seems pretty dangerous, unless I'm misunderstanding. It seems
like it places left-turning car traffic to the right of cyclist through-
traffic, creating an opportunity for "left-hooks." Many jurisdictions use
mixing zones instead: [http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/dc_mix...](http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-
content/uploads/2013/03/dc_mixing_zone.jpg)

(Unless there's a separate signal phase for the cyclist through-traffic, which
is possible, but not that common in the US.)

~~~
melanarchy
Separate signals for bikers in about 80% of these intersections, the rest have
signage telling drivers to yield to cyclists before turning.

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misiti3780
They need to put up the concrete barriers on every lane. Biking on an ave A +
ave B is still not safe.

~~~
SippinLean
An unfortunate side-effect of the protected-lane type bike lanes is that
_pedestrians_ feel much safer there too. They are right next to the sidewalks,
and as sidewalks become overcrowded and overflow (very common in NYC) the bike
lane turns into a sidewalk extension. The result is a very dangerous mix of
walkers, joggers, luggage carriers, hotdog cart pushers, strollers, and
everything else crowding the bike lane, and creating a very dangerous
situation.

~~~
mjmahone17
Still, much less dangerous than pedestrians overflowing onto car lanes. I've
hit a pedestrian who stepped in front of me (I was 2 feet behind him when he
stepped out), but I'm not going to kill someone when it happens. We might get
hurt, there could even be blood, but unless the person is very fragile,
there's next to no chance of a fatality.

Also, as bicyclists fill the bike lanes, pedestrians (at least, non-tourists.
Avoid Times Square!) learn not to blindly step into the bike lane. It's a
learning process, but I have noticed even throughout the last year, with
CitiBikes adding to the bike traffic, that walkers seem a bit more wary of
jumping through the bike lane.

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jbza
I lived in Shanghai for a brief period a few years ago, and there were
protected lanes everywhere. It was utilized by both bikers as well as
scooters. When it comes to managing loads of people, I'd imagine the Chinese
have quite a bit of insight.

~~~
wisty
Compulsory Chinese traffic cartoon -
[http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.com.au/2007/06/beijing-
traf...](http://soimgoingtochina.blogspot.com.au/2007/06/beijing-traffic-
lesson-left-turn.html)

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yeukhon
Try to drive in Chinatown. It is a nightmare with the bike lanes, let alone
the traffic from along Delancey. It is nice to see the city encourage biking
(well, at least for the Bloomberg administration), but the extra bike lane is
hurting the safety of drivers in Chinatown, which, brings safety concern to
bikers too.

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richard_cubano
Who drives in New York?

~~~
TheCoelacanth
Literally millions of people.

~~~
nknighthb
That's an interesting statistic. Where did you find it?

I ask because the available statistics I've seen on NYC car ownership and
daily usage would make me wonder if there are even 1 million cars operated on
NYC streets per day.

~~~
bane
[http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-
cars](http://www.nycedc.com/blog-entry/new-yorkers-and-cars)

~~~
nknighthb
Those are the statistics I'm aware of, yes. Not listed is the supposed
statistic I'm seeking.

~~~
bane
The statistics are murky. According to

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_New_York_Cit...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_New_York_City)

less than 30% use cars daily, but even then that's something over 2 million
cars from city residents alone. I would't drive if I lived in Manhattan or
along the subway in another borough, but there's some places it makes sense.

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8295712](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8295712)
is related.

