Bicycle Austin forum

dougmc

Administrator

Registered: 2008-06-01

Posts: 631

South Austin neighbor says bike lane curb to blame for tire blowouts

"South Austin neighbor says bike lane curb to blame for tire blowouts, city says it improves safety"

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/austin/ … es-safety/

My favorite bit from the article is this :

“You cannot chalk it up to bad driving or new experience,” he said. “One, because there are new people coming to Austin every single day, so every day, you’ve got a new driver that’s not familiar with this area, and that’s going to happen for years to come.  You have to understand there is an inherent problem here.”

Dude, people hit the curb because they're driving in the bike lane.  I might have to chalk it up, at least partially, to bad driving after all.

Though I am surprised that they made the curb so abrupt -- they could have angled it to do less damage to the bad drivers who hit it anyways.  And do paint it bright yellow or something.

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: South Austin neighbor says bike lane curb to blame for tire blowouts

Dude, people hit the curb because they're driving in the bike lane.

Indeed.  My son was watching the bit about this on the TV news and that's exactly what I was thinking.  It never crossed the drivers' minds that if they're hitting the curb, they're crossing into the bike lane, and what does that mean for cyclists?

Jack

Member

Registered: 2013-03-27

Posts: 344

Re: South Austin neighbor says bike lane curb to blame for tire blowouts

Well, in terms of promoting safety, I had wonder whether putting an obstacle in the roadway that can so damage automobile wheels and tires is that good an idea. Isn't there a fair likelihood that a driver may lose control of the vehicle when that happens?  Can a cyclist or motorcyclist run into or over the obstacle and stay upright?  Does the obstacle actually help improve safety for cyclists?  Studies vary in results.  Note this study:  https://www.iihs.org/topics/bibliography/ref/2193  It tends to endorse heavy separation, with the necessary cautions about safety results only when avoiding frequent intersections and the resulting conflicts and avoiding high speeds (such as not having barriers on downhill portions) .

MichaelBluejay

Webmaster

From: Austin, TX

Registered: 2008-05-26

Posts: 1,466

Website

Re: South Austin neighbor says bike lane curb to blame for tire blowouts

Someone on Nextdoor put it this way:  “Area driver hits curb, blames curb.”