The best painted bike lane in the world?

[Deleted member 121159]

Painted bike lanes are loathed by cyclists and cycling campaigners worldwide but this one in Oulu, Finland (from BicycleDutch Youtube channel) is a world apart. Is this the best painted bike lane in the world? Cyclists get as much, if not more, space as drivers! (Filmed from the cyclist's perspective.)

 

[Drago]

Still nothing to physically prevent motorists going for a jolly over it though.

 

[Bristolian]

There's probably not much risk of that. The Finns are rather more law abiding and (not to put too fine a point on it) decent people to do that deliberately. Accidents, of course, can happen anywhere.

 

[Deleted member 121159]

Still nothing to physically prevent motorists going for a jolly over it though.

There's probably not much risk of that. The Finns are rather more law abiding and (not to put too fine a point on it) decent people to do that deliberately. Accidents, of course, can happen anywhere.

I think the beauty of this is that (especially compared to our abysmal painted lanes) it so clearly says "This space is for cyclists". It leaves absolutely no room for doubt as to whether cyclists should be there and gives them total legitimacy to be there. Drivers' rage at seeing cyclists on the road comes from the erroneous belief that cyclists shouldn't be there, so it eliminates that problem.

 

[Sallar55]

A jolly on this one is a visit to the garage

Still nothing to physically prevent motorists going for a jolly over it though.

 

[Alex H]

Also, in Bordeaux

 

[rydabent]

A jolly on this one is a visit to the garage

View attachment 719171

Those wedges at the side would stop most drivers.

 

[Alex321]

Those wedges at the side would stop most drivers.

I think his point was that anybody NOT stopped by them would be requiring a visit to the garage for repairs

 

[mjr]

I think his point was that anybody NOT stopped by them would be requiring a visit to the garage for repairs

Maybe we can get car repair shops to help us campaign for them to be added to UK cycleways?

 

[Time Waster]

I think the numerous cycle paths in Holland and Belgium which are alongside the road but separated by a barrier, raised ground or other beats this one. Seriously, if there is nothing stopping a car from being there but the law abiding nature of vehicle drivers then it is not a good cycle way imho.

In fact I don't think the Dutch or Belgium planners would allow that painted cycle path thing. Imho that is more UKish than a lot of routes in the cycle friendly parts of Europe I've seen our heard about.

 

[Emanresu]

Brindisi in Italy. Complete separation of car and bike with kerbs to prevent mixing. Not so much a bike lane but a bike road.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Brindisi in Italy. Complete separation of car and bike with kerbs to prevent mixing. Not so much a bike lane but a bike road.

View attachment 732915

I rode down one like that in France once. I wasn't paying proper attention and didn't realise there was a low raised kerb to my left ... with painful consequences. Not a mistake to be made twice.

 

[mjr]

In fact I don't think the Dutch or Belgium planners would allow that painted cycle path thing. Imho that is more UKish than a lot of routes in the cycle friendly parts of Europe I've seen our heard about.

Not sure about the Dutch. Their law probably allows it, but the planners are very cautious about substandard designs for various reasons.

The Belgians definitely allow it. Paint-only lane on a 60mph main road:

How about even a door zone contraflow cycle lane that isn't even paint and indicated only by a dotted line of different colour cobbles? Check:

I think the difference may be that it's now only used for new builds in low-traffic low-speed areas (where the Dutch wouldn't now mark a lane), they acknowledge that they are old shoot waiting for money to replace or a compromise for "heritage" or whatever, and politicians won't queue up for photos and videos next to a fudge: in the UK, they'd be proudly grinning and pointing at that shoot, blethering on about how they've "gone all the way for cycling this time".

 

[mjr]

Almost as I sent that, I remembered riding this one into Dordrecht, which only has posts every km or more, so the Dutch clearly allowed them at some time. OSM says the speed limit is 30kph but it really didn't feel like it! Ironically, the section south of here has a 60kph limit and not even painted lanes which I think sends a pretty clear message: government really wants you to use the fairly-new riverside cycleway, not these old roads.

 

[Ming the Merciless]

How about a glow in the dark one?