The image illustrates just one of the many ways bike lanes create danger, injury and death. It was taken on East Market Street at the end of 10 blocks of bike lane:
1 – moving cyclists off the road, segregated and out of sight,
2 – conditioning drivers to be unaware that cyclists exist,
3 – then suddenly redirecting cyclists into a shared travel lane,
4 – while having right hand turning motorists unexpectedly cross the shared/bike lane.
Both, the cyclist and the motorist, are surprised to find each other attempting to occupy the same space. Only the cyclist pays the price for the designed assault.
Louisville should bypass the bike lane fad and address the real problem – motor vehicle operators.
Asked what to do with NULU’s East Market Street now that we have burned money and embodied energy/material, the response was:
1. do not build another foot of bike lane in NULU or on any urban streets
2. put sharrows in the travel lanes on Market, Bardstown, Baxter, Barret and all other urban streets
3. take out the white plastic sticks such as those in the image of East Market street
4. fill in the NULU bike lanes making the sidewalks wider or replace the bike lane with vegetation
5. make sure mechanisms are in place to efficiently enforce prosecution and reimbursement
6. fast pace one way to two way conversions (one of the few things Jeff Speck gets right)
7. install mini roundabouts in urban intersections
8. have a hard mayoral and council conversation with JCPS concerning advocating for allowing kids to learn in and walk to the school closest to home
9. allow parking by permit only within four blocks of schools
10. permit no idling of cars, trucks, or food truck generators near schools (or on any street)
11. thank Governor Beshear and Transportation Secretary Gray for past help and insist on
….greater liberty to enact urban solutions on urban streets
….executive orders (if not laws) appropriate to our urban objectives per safety, public transit and sustainable transportation
12. have the mayor announce a new day in urban transportation
….motorists who hit pedestrians and cyclists will be prosecuted
….motorists who destroy property will reimburse, or lose license, or have vehicle confiscated and sold
….cyclists can ride in any lane
….drivers of loud vehicles (radio or engine) will be prosecuted
That is a good start.
Metro inherited a mess, including urban street project designs that are 20 years old. We can do better. But we must drop the illusion that incremental, slow, expensive, dangerous bike lanes are part of the solution. Address the problem – drivers of motor vehicles.
The mayor has a huge opportunity. As does Louisville.