LexRides

[brokebike]

LFUCG is doing a survey on the effectiveness of the new floating bike lanes on Vine Street.

[elzie5000]

I'm pretty sure the designer of that survey doesn't realize it is legal to ride a bike in all traffic lanes.

[brokebike]

I'm pretty sure it's Kenzie who did the survey, and I'm pretty sure she knows that, just not wanting to confuse the issue any more than it has to be. Perhaps the wording could've been structured a bit better.
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[elzie5000]

It was the difference between the first and second questions with the lane pics. Not allowing multiple check boxes in the first one is very poor question design.

[danws]

I think the floating lanes are great, but they really need to do more work to keep people out of the bike / parking lanes during non-peak times, especially in the evenings when there are few parked cars. I drive home through there every night, and I often have to wait to turn right onto Upper because some car behind me pulls into the bike lane and drives straight through the intersection. I see it so much that I'm hesitant to park there in the evening for anything; I'm afraid someone will take out my rear view mirror trying to squeeze between my car and the traffic in the driving lane.

(yes, survey is complete, with several paragraphs in each of the last two questions )

[brokebike]

Here's my take: I really appreciate the addition of the floating lane in this section, because Vine street is a pretty obvious candidate for a bike lane, and it is apparent that at least some small section of parking is needed there too.

However, I think because it is such a small section, and traffic travels so fast through this part (and the entire length of Vine for that matter), that in the split second most cars travel past this point, they don't even realize that there's a floating lane there if they're not already well familiar with it. Not to mention that's a slightly distracting block anyways.

I think the main thing for making all downtown streets safer, regardless of bike lanes, is to severely limit the speed at which motor vehicles can travel. Why not slow it down to something more in scale with the congestion of the area and with bike and pedestrian traffic? With appropriately timed lights, a speed of 15-18mph wouldn't be unreasonable, especially in a downtown as small as Lexington.
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[elzie5000]

The main problem with doing floating lanes here is that drivers are not equipped to process "sometimes lanes". They have problems understanding bike lanes when they are in the same place 24/7, much less ones that move.

edit: forgot to bitch about the fact that the bike lane ends in the middle of the block, right where cars are changing lanes to turn. There shouldn't be a bike lane unless it goes the whole length of a block. To end in the middle is not only dumb but dangerous.

[iridetoobs]

I hate them, I think they'll end up killing someone. I haven't filled out the survey yet.

[elzie5000]

Fill it out, then delete cookies from 'surveymonkey.com' and fill it out again. Repeat 20 times a day.

[iridetoobs]

Really? So that's how that works.