A Sign
There are many new bike lanes around town. However, just because there’s a bike lane it doesn’t mean that I get to bike in it. For a while I tried flag down cops and ask them to ticket illegally parked cars. But that really didn’t do the trick. However I have a proposal- one that will get every single driver’s attention:
THis very creative….. Good job.
My commute is in a very different environment, about a third of it just riding along a lake. The roadway has high traffic speeds, a narrow lane, and relatively bad pavement, so I am happy to ride along the shoulder. The shoulder has signs all along, specifying no parking. Someone leaves their car there? I just call the police to ticket, with a description of the vehicle and license plate. Maybe because it’s not in an urban environment, the police come along within the hour and write the ticket. And yeah, it probably costs them about $100 an hour, just not in quarters, so it makes the point.
Its not just people it is also businesses. There are lots of hotels that help people unload their car while parked in the bike lane which gives a message that it is OK to do so.
Lets put some of those $100 meters over in front of BU Warren Towers 🙂
If that bike lane is is the curb lane right in front of their business, it’s hard not to see their point. That’s pretty bad planning. From the business owners’ perspective, the bike lane would be blocking their loading zone.
As long as they are just dropping off or picking up they are allowed to stop in a bike lane, they are allowed to load or unload. Stopping and parking are two different things. Just as city buses or taxi’s are allowed to block the lane while loading or unloading passengers.
The driver yelling at the cyclist reminds me of the time a cab driver actaull stuck his head out the window to get in the bike lane and then did a head on collision into a light post. 🙂
Sadly, here in Texas a bike lane is *not* a no-parking zone unless there are also No Parking signs.