Quote:
Originally Posted by Drybrain
The real problem was haphazardly cleared bike lanes full of slush and snow boulders.
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Absolutely that's the problem. The cyclist that I mentioned in my previous post wasn't doing anything wrong, it's just that the lanes were narrowed because of the large snowbanks, so there was less room for all vehicles, plus it was dark which made it more difficult to see him (apparently for the driver behind me).
So no wonder that there was only 1 cyclist that I saw on the road, given the conditions.
That said, there are realities, such as after a large dump of snow, the first priority is to clear the roads as well as possible for the majority of users, which are cars and trucks. This is done by pushing the snow to the side, which invariably narrows lanes after a large snowfall. These lanes need to later be widened by use of a snowblower and dump trucks to haul it away, which obviously takes more time. This is for areas where a "bike lane" is just a painted line on the roadway anyhow.
For dedicated bike lanes, there's no excuse for them not to be cleared at the same rate as sidewalks, since the equipment used would be the same.
It sounds like, perhaps, more of a budget issue or a contractor equipment issue if the clearing isn't happening as quickly as desired.
One would think, though, that there would be somebody behind the scenes who might question why we need all this budget for the few cyclists who will use the lanes in the winter, without realizing that if they improve the infrastructure, they will get more cyclists, in theory at least.
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