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This article from Austinontwowheels.com contains an exceptional video regarding bicyclists and their relationship to stop signs: http://austinontwowheels.org/2009/06/24 … -solution/ .
Another thing that planners need take into consideration on this issue is extended vehicles. An extended cab F350, for instance, is going to cause some problems if the plan does take them into account. The parking spaces need to either be long enough to accommodate them, or they need to be prohibited from using those parking spaces (and such a rule needs to be enforced). Otherwise bicyclist will be forced out into the road, which can be worse then no bike lane at all because automobile drivers assume cyclists will have their own lane of traffic.
The old model isn't working because riding in a door zone can result in fatalities, buses often edge into bike lanes squeezing cyclists toward parked cars, city streets are typically designed to accommodate one type of transportation only—fast moving non-mass transit automobiles, and novice riders are not equipped to share the same roadway with two-ton vehicles moving at 35 miles per hour buffered only by a painted line. The objective is to get more people on bikes, not scare them off. One way to do that would be to provide cushion between the bicycle lane and heavy traffic. I'm not saying reversing the relationship between the bike and parking lanes is the answer (I have my concerns), but I am confident that there is a better way to accommodate cyclists than what's currently being done.
Some things about this plan seem promising (it will cut down on door accidents for one), but I'm still concerned about the visibility of the cyclists as the cars come out of the space, and more importantly as they back into those spaces, essentially reversing the wrong way onto the bike lane.
I'd really like to see a plan to reverse the traditional relationship between the parking lane and the bike lane, so that the bike lane is protected from the lane of traffic and unaffected by cars parking. The only downside would be the convenience of access and egress, but I believe it could be accomplished by opening up a sort of funnel lane at the beginning and end of a block (which would also give warning to cars turning that they need to watch out for cyclists). I know it may seem strange, but the old model isn't working.
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