The belief that bike lanes visually narrow the lane and slow drivers is based on junk science research which has been disproved. Most bike facility “research” that has been done has used poor methodology with the results manipulated to justify the desired conclusion of the consultant’s client (a DOT that want to keep cyclists out of the way).

Fortunately, one researcher (who believed he would prove that bike lanes slowed traffic) had the integrity to use proper methodology and disproved his own desired hypothesis.

The truth should be self-evident (when we get over the mythologies which obscure rational thought): placing cyclists on the other side of a line allows motorists to disregard them and pass closer and faster because there is no need for caution or consideration. This is a factor in why cyclists get hit from behind in bike lanes and shoulders. Inattentive drivers unconsciously edit out their presence because the dividing line makes them “no factor” to the multi-tasker’s brain.

Here’s another good report from the UK:
Effect of Cycle Lanes on Cyclists’ Road Space.

Joyce,

Would it have occurred to you to try using a wide lane if there were other influences in the culture which encourage cycling on the roads?

Here’s the thing about using bike lanes for “encouragement”: What that does is address lack of knowledge about safe cycling by placing a permanent, restrictive and sometimes-misleading marking on the road. Lack of knowledge should be an impermanent condition, so the appropriate way to address it is with public awareness, social marketing and education. Those methods, in the long-run, are far less expensive and cover all the miles of roadway. That those methods have been nearly non-existent, and far overshadowed by calls for an inferior solution, IS the reason beginners think they need bike lanes.

Now, if we combine public awareness with properly-placed sharrows and quality wayfinding systems, we have the best of all worlds. We can encourage ridership responsibly and do no harm. Punishing the competent to coddle the uninformed is fundamentally unfair to both!

Keri– Sharrows and route signs (plus a map) are what I am most used to, and maybe sharrows are generally better than striped lanes because they provide less of a visual restriction on where on the road bikes should be, and perhaps don’t gather debris so much either. Keep in mind that new cyclists (at least us dense ones!) may not immediately grasp sharrows– there’s a sharrowed route one block from our house, and it took me months to learn that those bike-y arrows stencilled on the road weren’t just some new form of graffiti. I think (I hope!) I would have recognized what to do with a striped bike lane sooner. Maybe this just means that a bit more promotion may be needed when introducing sharrows to an area unfamiliar with them.

Cycle lanes can do a whole lot more than say “this is space reserved for bikes”!

If we could combine the comfort provided by added width with a form of encouragement that didn’t restrict lane position, mislead novices or gather debris, it seems like that would be appealing to everyone.