Let's to it Pell-Mell

Bike Lanes... Of Death
For awhile I thought it could only be in my head but recent events have lead me to conclude that it is in fact more dangerous to bike in the bike lane then just to bike on the road.

"Why?" I can hear you asking, because you are dying to taste the fruits of my experience, "What leads you to that strange and ironic deduction?" Well, my intensely interested friends, this is why:

1. Bike lanes are located to the extreme left of roads, which places them dead in the way of drivers making left-hand turns. Which means that several times during my commute every day I have drivers with more lead in their feet then brains turning across the lane in front of me causing me to swerve into traffic to avoid them or screech to a halt. Or they honk at me because I am blocking their turn, which is also charming.

2. Although bikes lanes are called "bike lanes" and have little pictures of stick figures on bikes on them they are also popular locations for double-parked cars, pedicabs, taxis trying to pass slower cars and pedestrians who think they're too good to share the sidewalk with the common folk. Construction crews and cops are also big fans of blocking bike lanes, meaning I spend almost as much time swerving around obstructions as I do actually riding in the lane. People just don't get that bike lanes are for bikes, no matter how loud I scream it at them.

3. Bike lanes seem to encourage stupid behavior by people on bikes. Most notably, biking in the wrong direction. To even the most ignorant biker biking against traffic on an avenue would seem suicidal but the presence of a bike lane seems to make some bikers feel that this is an acceptable practice. Having nearly collided with several of these misguided souls I would like to assure them it is not.

And that's really it. Having suddenly come to this conclusion on my ride home yesterday during rush hour I switched from biking in the bike lane around midtown on 6th avenue to swerving in-between cars in the middle lanes and you know what? I felt safer. Also, it was a lot more fun. Besides, bikes should assert their presence on the roads! We have all the legal rights of cars... only we also get to run red lights. Cheers!

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