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I have been biking the full extent of the Hollis street bike lane several times a week around noontime and at the end of my work day; there are always vehicles parked in the lane and I counted 10 vehicles in one instance. I don’t know if the drivers do not understand that it is illegal to park in the lane, nor is it legal for me to bicycle with the traffic in the street when a bike lane is available, but I feel it to be an incredible danger to myself that I have to swerve into traffic lanes to avoid the cars. I understand the growing pains associated with an infrastructure change that promotes active transportation in this city, but I have not seen any parking enforcement officers on this stretch of road to ticket, or at least warn and educate the drivers, especially those drivers on deliveries. —Dynamic Dan
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A new bike lane might be rolling onto Almon Street
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 1, 2016.
I pass through there around 5 going towards the south end twice a week and I’ve seen a lot of cars getting towed. Most are on the right hand side though, not the bike lane side.
Easy fix:
1. Write down each and every single one of those license plates.
2. Call 311 to report them for parking violations.
3. Keep doing this until the point is hammered home.
Op,if there are vehicles in the bike lane,then the bike lane – for all practical purposes DOES NOT exist.
For your own safety, DON’T swerve in and out of the vehicle lane.
It is your right to take the lane – and I mean ride right down the center of it like you own it – whenever it is unsafe to ride to the side.
Riding safe is more than just riding to the side. You need to know when it’s time to take the lane,too.
Welcome to the road, Dipshit, where nobody follows the rules and all you do is avoid idiots. On the bright side, if you do get run over and have no life insurance, with all the truck traffic on that street, you’ll likely be flat enough to slide into a large, manila envelope.
that lane should never have been put on the left hand side. The convention with traffic is that slower vehicles stay to the right. So why the hell did they install it backwards?
From the Nova Scotia Motor Vehicle Act:
http://nslegislature.ca/legc/statutes/moto…
Subsection 171(3)
“Where a roadway has a bicycle lane for bicycles travelling in the same direction that a cyclist is travelling, the cyclist shall ride in the bicycle lane unless it is impracticable to do so.”
And 171(4) on riding to the right, paragraph (d) says
“encountering a condition on the roadway, including a fixed or moving object, parked or moving vehicle, pedestrian, animal or surface hazard that prevents the person from safely riding to the right side of the roadway”
as mentioned above, gives bicycle riders the right to take the lane.
No, it doesn’t give you the “right” to do anything, it merely states that if it is impractical or impossible to use your bike lane, you are able to use the lane of traffic. If my lane is blocked on a 2 lane road (in a vehicle), I don’t have the “right” to the other lane, I can switch lanes if it safe to do so to get around the obstruction.
People also need to stop interpreting “right of way” as a “right”, like it’s protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Not the same at all!
Cyclists and motorists need to realize that it is impractical ( and down right unsafe) for a cyclist to be weaving in and out of a right hand lane that is blocked by parked vehicles. This is true with a regular street and it remains true with a street that has a bike lane.
Its simple folks, if you want the cyclist to stay out of our lane, we need to stay out his lane.