Sure this is about Toronto, but much of it could apply here.
It is absolutely illegal for courier trucks, taxis, delivery vans or anyone else to stop or park in a bike lane, but any avid cyclist can tell you how selectively this law is enforced, and how useless reporting it is.
Most filling of existing roadway is done with a dry, ready-to-use form of asphalt called Cold Patch, which is actually harder than the surrounding road top and compacts almost immediately when applied correctly. The weak points are at the seams, where the Cold Patch must be applied flush to the existing pavement. Road crews don't necessarily seem to consider the additional importance this carries when repairing a bike lane. What may be a little dip for a car might mean serious injury or death for a cyclist.
Probably the most staggeringly stupid allowance is how contractors tearing-up the road surface aren't required to return it to its original state, but only to an alleged "good condition"—read: for cars.
I often find myself riding on sub-standard road repairs and though I've avoided it, I've heard some bad stories about crashes that resulted from bad pavement (I have had a flat or two that I attributed to unrepaired roads). When thinking about widening I-66 I'm reminded of what my Mom used to say to me when I'd leave toys in the yard, to paraphrase "if you can't take care of the roads you have, then maybe you don't need any more." Toronto is planning to up the number of people working on their bike plan from one temporary person to four full time. DC is at about 1.3 people and falling behind on their plan.
There's a D.C. version of the site as well: http://dc.mybikelane.com/
In fact there are many cities represented. It's not very obvious...you have to click on 'all cities' in the breadcrumb navigation above the photos.
Posted by: Graham | April 30, 2007 at 07:01 AM