When we sent out a message on Twitter asking for photographic evidence of the worst bike lanes on the planet, the response was huge. Apparently, there are a lot of crappy bike lanes out there, and people are not happy about it.
The variety of mistakes shown demonstrates that it isn’t just about size, or shape, it can be about when the lane begins or more importantly where it ends. A bike lane is only useful as part of a network. It makes little sense to establish a safe cycling area only to dump cyclists into frightening situations on unsafe roadways at any given moment.
The good news is that cities are building more and more bike lanes. But the evidence shows that some bike cycling lanes can actually be far less safe than if they didn’t exist at all. For instance, we all know sharrows do nothing to keep cyclists safe. But bike lanes encourage cyclists to ride there because of a perception of safety. If they aren’t designed properly what you end up with is more accidents and more risk for vulnerable road users.
The response also shows that bad bike lanes are everywhere. And more needs to be done to call them out and advocate for safe cycling infrastructure right now.
Without further adieu, here are the worst of the worst.
High-speed zones
Some of the worst bike lanes send cyclists near or directly onto highways, off-ramps, into oncoming vehicles or merging into fast-moving traffic in seriously unsafe ways. Have a look.
In Waterloo, cyclists pass over a series of train tracks and alongside a highway on-ramp.
In Austin, Texas, one commenter described this situation, “We got this brand new bike lane off a highway ramp as part of our 400 miles of mostly “all abilities all ages” bicycle network in Austin back in 2017!”
Impediments
Some bike lanes are just bad in many different ways that involve natural obstructions or those stuck there by a sometimes comically unaware populace. Have a look.
Our favorite is this bike lane in Clearwater, Florida, which probably surprises no one. But there are many more.
Hong Kong
We reserved a special place for the cycling infrastructure in Hong Kong because for some reason there were just a lot of really bad choices being made. Here are just a few.
Other random faves
Here are a few other bike lanes that fit into a few categories, or are just generally bonkers.
The gems
If you have any others, please share them with us via Twitter.
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