Unpopular take: local bike lanes are doing more harm than good in my city

I was at a city council meeting in Portland last Tuesday and heard a guy say bike lanes are the single best climate move we can make. I get the idea, but watching them rip out two car lanes on Burnside to add curbs and planters just made traffic worse, and now delivery trucks idle for an extra 15 minutes at every block. That idling burns way more fuel than a handful of cyclists save, plus it pushes more people to drive on side streets at night to avoid the mess. I'm not anti-bike, I commute by bike twice a week, but these lanes are designed by people who never sit in the backup they create. Has anyone else seen an actual before and after emissions count on one of these road diets, or are we just guessing? I'd take real numbers over a painted line any day.

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stellat4618d ago

We had the same fight in my town over a road diet on a main drag, and what actually helped was getting the city to release their traffic counts before and after. Turns out the backup was real but short, like 6 weeks, and then people just found new routes and it evened out. Ask for the raw data at the next meeting, they usually have it and just don't bother showing anyone.

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