Extra Wide 4th Street SW bike lane

New 4th St SW bike lane by Payton Chung

Comments

[Jack Cochrane]

1. Is this adequate to allow cyclists to stay clear of open car doors?
2. Would anyone care to measure it? (from curbface to parking line, then parking line to bike lane line (to center of each line)).

[wd]

1. Yes... if they ride on the left side of the lane, which also avoids the manhole bumps (the preferred line is between the two lines on the left side of the lane... if that makes sense).

[ontarioroader]

Yes, heading north in this bike lane you are riding well out of the door zone, because the only usable portion of the lane is the left-most 6". The only reason it's "extra wide" is to allow you to skirt the horribly broken up pavement surrounding all the raised manhole covers [and they are spaced about every 30'].

[Westnorth]

Since this little photo series seems to be gaining so much attention, I went out with camera and measuring tape.

Raised manhole cover without patch attempt (my version of Eric's photo). Note that it's about as high as my 1.75" tire and has a blunt edge. You're more likely to lose control of a wheel by hitting this than by hitting a pothole.

A poorly patched manhole cover, where the patching removes the blunt edge but makes the defect even higher and wider. It fills almost the entire bike lane.

For the record, the new bike lane is a whopping 7'4" wide -- not only wide enough to avoid a parked car's door, but wide enough to park a car in. (That may prove to be a problem.) It appears that DDOT was planning on 6' before widening it at the last moment. The parking lane is 7' and the travel lane is still a cushy 13'. (AASHTO's standard "wide outside lane," meant to be shared between bikes and cars, is 14'.) The street previously didn't have painted lane divisions.

Kudos to DDOT for having the flexibility and wherewithal to rescue this bike lane from Pepco's ineptly done utility trench!