[ConservativeMind]

Paying for bike lanes as a substitute to roads for cars is crazy. People can ride on nice days, but rainy and cold and “too hot” days means you have to drive the car.

Unfortunately, traffic is worse because they didn’t build out lanes for cars, and now you are not using your bike like before.

[kearnyirish2]

I guess Marylanders aren’t “getting right” - our government is determined to eliminate private ownership of vehicles, and reduce us to Red Chinese serfs. In my area in NJ, you can see imported braceros riding their bikes 12 months of the year to their under-the-table jobs - like a Hispanic Beijing.

[ronnie raygun]

These bike lanes is an effort by the eco Nazis politicians to save the planet form fossil fueled cars and trucks. I traveled down a familiar street in my neighborhood that was just enough room for ONE car and wouldn’t you know these stupid bastards put a bike lane on that same street. Shows you the idiots and their idiotic ways

[sphinx]

Bike lanes are not a substitute for roads for cars. This isn't an either-or question. The first tier solution is to build roads with adequate sidewalks and wide shoulders. That's not optimal for bikes but it will work in a pinch and may be the practicable solution in highly developed and congested areas where there isn't room for a dedicated bike lane or off road trail. Pedestrians should be able to walk around their own neighborhoods safely and cross the street without dodging cars. Take care of the pedestrians and the cyclists can piggyback on that infrastructure. Just be sensible enough to build wide sidewalks.

The second tier solution is to plan consciously to steer pedestrians and cyclists away from arterial roads and onto quiet residential streets. In many areas this already happens naturally. If there is a regular street grid, it's usually easy for a cyclist to move over a block or two and avoid the traffic. Cult re sac style development, however, often creates areas in which the side streets don't go through and everyone gets forced onto the big road to get anywhere -- which also makes the arterial road even busier than it would otherwise be. There is also often a shortage of safe crossings. Morning drive time radio is a steady litany of pedestrian struck by car reports. There are several nearly every week. This is the consequence of bad road design. Planners should look carefully at roads that create chokepoints and barriers. Solve those, and a lot of the problem would disappear.