Transit Miami

I was bewildered last week when I read this:

“Rush hour traffic often flows smoothly on the highway thanks to a fourth eastbound lane added during the past two years in the congested stretch between 136th Avenue and Douglas Road.

But the new bike lanes added during the same project are a different story: Mostly, they’re empty.”

Then I took a look at the accompanying picture (above), which immediately ended my confusion. Instead, I thought well of course nobody uses them, what do you expect when you add bike lanes to an I-95-like facility? Implementation of bike lanes on streets such as this one on Pines Boulevard are a huge waste, nobody in their right mind will ever feel comfortable riding bike on a street with 8 lanes of vehicles. Now, while we fully support the expansion of bicycling facilities and lanes in our region, we must do so with caution and restraint, creating lanes on streets where they are likely to be used and will provide a general net benefit to the public. This haphazard, understudied form of bike lane implementation is a waste of taxpayer money and will do little to change the autocentric mentality of South Florida.

Via Spokes ‘n’ Folks