Saturday, October 31

Bedford Bike Lanes

Updated Sunday with NEW photos!

Seeing the post about upcoming bike lanes in Irving over at Cycle*Dallas (I'm STILL not sure he's being serious over there), bike lanes in NYC on CommuteOrlando , and even Rantwick with a SMOOTH bike lane,  I thought I'd show a shot of our bike lanes in Bedford; one of the "Mid Cities" near where I live. The dashed line designates the left boundary of the bike lane. It's dashed because automobiles are allowed to use the bike lane when no cyclists are present. You'll note that we're thrifty in Texas. No unnecessary signs or paint are wasted. Instead, the money was spent making the bike lanes TEXAS sized!

I think it's a superior arrangement all round. The motorists keep the bike lane swept completely free of debris. I've never seen heavy traffic on this particular road. I'm not sure parking on it is illegal, but I've never seen anybody try it. It's a favorite of mine for north-south travel. It also has nice, smooth pavement.
When my mom was visiting, I took her down this road. She was pretty skeptical about the bike lane arrangement, but admitted it worked pretty much the way I said. I kept seeing her sneak over towards the curb whenever she thought I wasn't looking, so I'm not sure she really bought into it. I think it's all that time in Seattle with their sharrows stuck over where the cars park.

6 comments:

dickdavid said...

That's a beautiful stretch of road.

RANTWICK said...

I wish I had access to bike lanes like that. (Nudge, wink.)

ChipSeal said...

Why don't you use that perfectly good bicycle facility off to the right? /sarcasm

Steve A said...

Actually, even that facility wouldn't be too bad except for the various driveways (not being sarcastic) and bumps that slow things down. I see people riding on it from time to time.

The bike lane is smoother and quicker. I like speed. I might not have much horsepower but I like what I have to make me go as fast as it can.

Rantwick, eat your heart out! There are advantages to benign neglect. They have nothing like this in Portland or Seattle, or, sadly enough for you, in London. It's almost worth the August heat.

Golly, writing this makes me feel so enthusiastic I think I'll go out and ride up & down it some more just for the heck of it!

GreenComotion said...

I haven't seen the Bike Lanes in Irving yet. I usually do not often go south of Royal towards downtown Irving. I have to check'em out. May be they will be Texas sized as well, who knows?

Peace :)

PS. The story about the hanging of Ms. Avrill was sad. I guess people have used personal biases, religion and other reasons to their advantage, all over the world, including this great country!

PM Summer said...

Those are the best bike lanes. "The only good bike lane is a shared (with other traffic) bike lane."

P.S. I believe Irving has installed sharrows the same way... with the point -4' from the curb face on a street that allows parking.

Post a Comment

No Need for Non-Robot proof here!