Contraflow: Biking the Wrong Way Never Felt So Right
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Welcome to the world of contraflow bike lanes! Allowing bikes to ride in the opposite direction of vehicle traffic, contraflow lanes can make your commuting and leisure biking more practical and efficient. But are they safe? To help you decide, this video highlights the unique features of several types of contraflow lanes, including tips for how to safely navigate them.
#bikelover #bicyclelife #bikelane #bikelanes #bikelife #bikesafety #rideabike #bikecommute #bikecommuter #contraflow #chicagotravel
Another benefit to having both bike directions grouped together is that the bike lane can handle peak demand better.
This is because faster cyclists have the ability to pass slower ones safely by temporarily salmoning the other lane (when it’s safe). On single lane systems the faster cyclist has to temporarily pop in with the car traffic which is obviously significantly more dangerous.
Thanks for the comment! You're right that some of the two-way lanes have a heavier flow in one direction for the AM, then reversing for the PM rush. Those lanes can almost become de facto double-wide lanes in the rush direction.
"salmoning" lol I'll have to remember that one!
@@james-pmade me chuckle too
@SaveMoneySavethePlanet
I agree with you to the extent that bike lanes aren't usually wide enough. A wider lane on either side of the motor traffic would also allow this without being statistically more dangerous.
>"temporarily salmoning the other lane"
Also, are you intentionally avoiding the word 'overtaking'?
@@unsafevelocities5687 It seems that "salmoning" is a method of overtaking. lol.
I like how the dearborn detour uses the seemingly open bike lane to allow the cars through, and makes the bikes go the long way around, instead of the obvious solution of allowing the bikes through and making the (faster and less physically demanding) cars take the long route. Truly marvelous planning there...
Thanks for the watching! You make a fair point, although it could be worse, if bikers were ignored completely and forced to find their own detour. I was just happy to see bikes accommodated somewhere. Several blocks of the Dearborn bike lane north of the river are getting concrete protection and separate signals, so once bridge construction is complete, this should be an even better route out of the loop.
YES!! Whenever I walk on a sidewalk (thanks America, Canada, and Australia), I always walk in the opposite direction of the lane parallel to me. It's obvious as to why. It can be applied to bikes as well.
Great video! Thanks for representing the Chicago bike community on TH-cam.
Thanks for watching!
By the 2nd shot, I IDd it as Chicago. Love it!
Pedestrians pay little mind to people biking south on Dearborn. Moving uptown, why not make the new lane on Logan Blvd. at Western cover both directions? While a bike lane was solely needed there, why not make one that covers both directions, at least on the block between Elston and Western? Drivers seem to hate us bicyclists enough. Making traffic even more congested through there doesn't help our cause in that department.
Also, you have a new sub 😉
Welcome to the channel, and thanks for the comments! As I was riding around getting footage for this video, there were several times that I thought "Hey, a contraflow lane for a couple blocks would make a lot of sense here." With how car-centric the area around Logan and Elston/Western is, I agree there would be fewer bike/car interactions if the eastbound bike lane on that block was combined with the westbound lane on the north side of the street. Probably not going to happen since the city just made some improvements here, but you never know. My understanding is that a better connection across the river at Diversey is coming soon, so that could increase bike traffic in this area, making further design updates necessary.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr Thanks! On one hand, bicycling is booming in Chicago and could use more improvements. On the other, I'll take what I can get. I am sensitive to how the two groups (bicyclists & drivers) interact since the latter seems to forget the former is helping to ease vehicular traffic. Many of us bicyclists fuel the flames by riding through intersections against lights, etc. And at great risk through all the six-way intersections on Milwaukee! I realize I'm preaching to the choir, though.
I got to enjoy these bike lanes in Chicago a few weeks ago! I'm in Seattle now, and we really don't have enough of a bike network, but at least there are some of these two-way protected bike lanes popping up. I hope to have a network like Chicago's one day, and I hope Chicago's only gets better
Thanks for watching, and glad you enjoyed riding around Chicago! We need to keep pushing city leaders for better bike lanes in all of our cities!
5:52 Why is the bike lane on the Greenway marked on the left side of the street? Seems counterintuitive to me.
What's more: you're not even safe from opening car doors if you ride where you're supposed to. Having no bike lane here would feel safer to me - ideally, there would be painted guidelines on both sides to make the street seem narrower and increase distance from parked cars.
It used to be the Law of the Land,when I was a youngster,that pedestrians and bikers,went against the flow of traffic! That was done,so that the drivers,could see you,and keep out of the pedestrians and bikers way! The amount of accidents was held down,unlike today,where bikers and pedestrians are routinely run down by cars,going in the same direction! The safety factor alone,is well defined,as the pedestrians and bikers are extremely visible and the onus,is on the drivers! You can't have 2 ton cars,running over 50 to 70 pound bikes,and not be held accountable! Where is the common sense,and comprehension of the politicians and highway engineers?? A little compassion wouldn't hurt either! Thank you for an interesting take,on a burgeoning subject that is finally being recognized! Thank you 😇 😊!!
Thanks for the comment! I too remember that guidance, but it always felt like the message was, "This is the domain of cars, and bikes really shouldn't be here at all." Now we're trying to find a way for bikes and cars to co-exist, and contraflow lanes seem like a helpful tool. Protected, segregated lanes are even better, but not always feasible.
In Toronto there are some neighbourhoods where they have discouraged through car traffic by making streets one way, with the direction changing every block. Cars must weave through this maze or go to a larger street. To encourage cycling, bicycles can go straight through (contra flow in alternating blocks.)
Excellent! We need to see more of this, where cars are funneled to the main arterial streets, and side streets are kept quiet for bikes and pedestrians. Frankly, I would give up some of the bike infrastructure on the main streets for more side street prioritization.
Those tree-lined streets are beautiful! Thanks for sharing!
They sure are! Thanks for watching!
Excellent vid. And what you presented is relevant in many cities. Chicago is just an excellent example. Many of the side streets you show look remarkably similar to Hamilton, Ontario downtown sections (upper middle class neighborhoods) that have always fascinated me, a Torontonian in how bidirectional lanes can work on one-way systems. (Hamilton has historically been a 'one-way grid', Toronto not with very few exceptions.)
There's no quick and easy answer as to which is best for cyclists, but I think we can all agree that for limited space, a wider bi-di is better than two impossibly narrow one-way bike lanes.
A lot of making it successful is, as is made clear in this vid, partitioning for safety, and an awareness on the part of planners to what's *actually* safer for cyclists, as opposed to 'what should be safer'. Toronto, for instance, has many very dangerous bike lanes on major arteries.
Thanks for watching! Chicago has similar types of higher-speed arterials, and my preference would be to leave those generally free of bike infrastructure. It would be great to see more of these quiet side streets become bike arteries, utilizing contraflow lanes and other bike infrastructure to create a low-stress bike grid. In some cases, the implementation hasn't been inconsistent, but it's good to see the city trying new things to see what works best.
The nice thing about riding in the contra flow lane is now having to check over your shoulder for cars behind you. It’s especially nice when riding with another person because you can ride in the oncoming lane and just tuck it in when a vehicle is coming. Riding two abreast is sometimes stressful when riding with traffic as you constantly have to be checking behind you for cars.
Thanks for watching, and good point about riding in pairs! It's nearly impossible in a typical bike lane. Your best bet is finding a quiet residential street if you want to ride with someone else.
It truly is minimal infrastructure. I routinely use one on Wrightwood between Cicero and Riis Park. It's been slowly getting better as far as cars completely ignoring the oncoming traffic, but the one way street seems to encourage a lot of cars to speed through that residential neighborhood. One problem though is that they didn't do anything about the stop lights, so at the major intersections, you have a three way stop light, and the westbound bike lane gets to just look way off to the side for a pedestrian walk signal, once you get past the point where parked cars completely block your view. Another fun bit is that some sections got no signage at all, so they painted the lane green and left a giant "do not enter" sign right next to it, with no notice of "except bikes." You also get to be extra careful at every alleyway where cars like to pull out without looking in the contraflow direction.
Thanks for sharing! Minimal is good in terms of not requiring great cost of time to implement, but as you point out, it can't be so minimal that basic safety measures are missing. I'm finding that there are simply some streets that are better suited for these lanes than other streets. Too many curb cuts or too much car-centric infrastructure in the surrounding area leads to a much less enjoyable ride.
To your point about the maps updating: if you use google maps app there is a feature to "add a missing road" or something of the sort. This allows you to suggest changes to roads which should speed up the process of eventually getting the directions updated.
Thanks for watching, and for the reminder that we should all be trying to fix errors in Google Maps when we find them. I've submitted a request for those Sunnyside blocks, and we'll see if that helps move the process along.
I was just thinking about contraflow today walking along a one way residential street connecting two major streets in my city! I'm more interested in the question if more city streets should be converted to one way car traffic (Glasgow almost exclusively has one way traffic, also a lot in Manchester), especially with the presence of parallel streets and multiple connections. But, to your illustrations, it just goes to show how resilient and versatile bikes are with just the bare minimum of infrastructure (compared to cars), even with subpar implementation. Also, what are the odds that you get doored by a passenger! That is one fringe benefit of contraflow is considerably less chance of getting doored without having to give up street parking, although unfortunately you were almost the exception to that.
Thanks for watching and for the comment! It truly is the bare minimum of infrastructure in some cases, but that should make it easy to add (and to reverse, if it causes too many problems). And at least if a car facing you opens its door, you can see the vehicle traffic in front of you, so you know if it's safe to veer out into the vehicle lane or not.
Had to click because I recognized the intersection in the thumbnail. Yay Chicago!! Lots of work to do but I believe in us.
Hey, thanks for watching! Slowly but surely, Chicago it becoming a safer and more enjoyable place to ride a bike.
Nice! Visit Paris. They have basically normalized contra flow on virtually any narrow one way street. Also see Netherlands. But Paris is more like how a big US city would do it.
Thanks for watching! A trip to Paris to ride the contraflow lanes sounds fantastic. I've heard and read a lot of good things about how the city has improved bike infrastructure!
When I lived in Boston (before bike lanes) I would sometimes intentionally ride on the left side of the road or contra-flow on one way streets to avoid getting doored.
That is a strategy, although not foolproof. I present 7:55 as evidence that doors can find you just about anywhere.
I take the Sunnyside & Berteau lanes a few times each week. Overall, I think they are great. The one change I would make is adding traffic diverters (especially on the new Leavitt & Leland Greenways to be made this year). Preventing cut through traffic will make sure that greenways stay calm
Yeah, diverters take the greenway idea to the next level, ensuring that quiet neighborhood streets stay that way. The Wood Street greenway is supposed to the first Chicago greenway getting them, so I'm planning to check out that project once it's complete.
Near where I live in the Twin Cities, the contraflow lanes in neigbhorhood greenway doesn't allow for parking on the side with the contraflow lane. I get that it would be harder to get that type of design because people love their free private vehicle storage. But it would eliminate the problems of the space being too tight or getting doored problem.
I also wasn't here when it was being implemented, the lack parking on the contraflow side could've always existed because of snow plowing or other reasons.
Thanks for watching! Any time you can get some parking removed in favor of bike infrastructure, that's a good thing. That's always tricky to do if the parking is heavily utilized, but it makes for a much more enjoyable ride when you don't have to worry about doors opening a foot away.
just got our first contraflow lane here in lancaster, PA. its technically in the amenity connector category right now because its only one block, but it absolutely rules. very quiet alleyway downtown that was honestly already pretty nice to ride against "traffic" on, but now its codified and official and drivers have reason to expect to see me.
That's great to hear! We all love to see the big projects getting built, but sometimes these small, inexpensive ones can be pretty transformational, too!
I really wish they kept the contraflow lanes on wacker and on clark, seems like they could build those out into really useful lanes for commuters, not just detours.
Yeah, they did seem to be taking a chunk of the street that isn't really utilized by cars anyway. As a whole, Wacker could probably go on a road diet. But I think with some of the further improvements to the Clark and Dearborn bike lanes north of the river, there may eventually be a better way to connect Clark riders to the southbound contraflow sections of Dearborn.
I like legal contraflow cycling when it offers direct connections with little car traffic and relatively few traffic lights.
Heßstraße in Munich is a good example: Cars can't go straight for very long because the one way keeps changing direction. It's parallel to Schellingstraße, which leads to the university, but Heßstraße doesn't have busses, so it doesn't need traffic lights. It's relatively narrow and has cars parked on both sides, so you have to be careful of opening doors, but if you ride towards the middle of the street, it's faster and less stressful than Schellingstraße. The sections with oncoming traffic even feel safer to me because double-parked delivery drivers are more likely to see me coming (and vice versa).
It's not ideal, however: In Germany, children are no longer allowed to cycle on the sidewalk as soon as they turn ten. At that age, I wouldn't have dared to be assertive enough to be safe from car doors.
We've seen some of that in Chicago, with varied one-way sections discouraging drivers from using side streets to avoid traffic on busier streets. One thing I found interesting about your Heßstraße example is that the contraflow is only marked with paint at the start of the block, not for the whole block. Do you think that leads to better sharing of the road versus having the entire block painted?
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr Painting whole blocks doesn't necessarily make it safer.
I like that Munich just puts paints on the intersections, as a reminder. That means I'm free to pick a safe distance from the parked cars. So far, I've only been yelled at once, when a driver wasn't aware that contraflow had been allowed - more than a year after the fact...
It would feel less safe to me if paint forced me to cycle in the middle of the dooring zone. But I don't know if drivers in Chicago are used to cyclists on the streets?
@@pointtopoint-cp6hrThe thing about paint is that it creates expectations. In 6:34 I'd ride close to the double yellow line to be safe. 7:19 looks narrower, so I might even want to ride slightly to the left of the line. I'll move to the right to let vehicles pass, but only once they've seen me and slowed down. Drivers will probably think that I'm not where I'm supposed to be and react negatively.
Yeah, all the neighborhood greenway lanes are unfortunately pretty narrow, without any protection or even buffers. The safest move is generally riding as far out into the lane of traffic as you feel comfortable. Luckily there isn't much traffic on these streets, at least most of the time.
those all seem like good contraflow lanes. my only question is do people generally drive more aware of the contraflow in those areas since its marked? my biggest gripe with riding against the flow of traffic is the danger of people turning off or onto the road you are riding. for most people, unfortunately, driving is a passive act. people dont often look for things they dont expect and when turning often only look in one direction and not both before making their turn. because they arent use to having to looking for things coming from the opposite direction. i just hope that in the lower traffic one way contraflow lanes there is signage to alert drivers to look for oncoming bikes/scooters when turning onto those streets.
Good question. In general, the green paint in most of the contraflow lanes helps make drivers aware that bikes could be present. That being said, it's fair to say that many drivers aren't expecting contraflow since it's still pretty rare. And the intersections are where bikers need to be especially cautious, for the exact reason you mentioned. A car approaching from a cross street will see the one-way sign and might not look in the direction of the contraflow bike until the car is halfway into the intersection.
There's only one unprotected contraflow bike lane I know of here in NYC (not including two way bike lanes) and I hate it, because when it is inevitably blocked you have to go into oncoming traffic and no car driver expects this. It is far less comfortable than merging into traffic going the same direction. Plus the contraflow lane doesn't connect to the main bike artery on one side of it, so many bikers go in the wrong direction for a block or two instead of going an extra block to where traffic is going the right direction. Luckily I think it's only temporary while they have construction in the area. Union St over the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn
You bring up a good point about vehicles parking in the bike lane, and I agree it's more of a challenge with a contraflow lane than a normal lane. I'm not sure what the ideal solution is, short of moving the lane over between the parked cars and the curb. Any ideas?
I wish more people used Open Street Map. You can edit the map when things change, and it is run like Wikipedia, for the public good, not for profit.
True, there are better options. I just like to pull up Google Maps because that's going to be the default choice for most people.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hrAround here OSM is much better than Google for bicycle infrastructure. My neighbourhood has lots of short "cut throughs" for bikes and pedestrians. Google doesn't show them for bike trips. The OSM version of my ride to work is about 1/3 shorter than Google suggests.
But yeah, most people are going to pull up Google.
Those contra-flow lanes with parking on both sides bother me so much. In Toronto most have parking only on the side opposite the bike lane, which I think would make a huge difference in how safe and pleasant it is to ride on - there's more space to get around delivery vans and such, and almost no chance of getting doored.
Yeah, that's the ideal scenario, sacrificing some vehicle parking for more bikeways. Unfortunately, most residents on side streets and business owner on commercial streets are very hesitant to want to give up that precious street parking.
Great video!
Thanks for watching!
Hello from Canada!
I feel as if all of those lanes seem unsafe. I think that it was just the camera angles.
Also, painting lanes on those quiet streets actually made me feel unsafe, because it seemed to absolve the other direction of traffic of any responsibility. In other words, the counter flow has its own lane, so as long cyclists stay in their own lane, then "we" can drive as fast as "we" want.
Compare that to some of Vancouver's narrowest streets: they are so narrow, and still have curbside parking on both sides, that travelling in either direction by car is a real challenge. Cars naturally go slow, and they must pull over to let on coming traffic pass before continuing. Without any signage, drivers use common sense to organize themselves. The natural slow down of the drivers makes it feel very safe for cyclists and pedestrians to use the street, and not just the sidewalk.
If the streets are so wide, then the city should consider angular parking instead of parallel parking to temporarily use up more space, and to slow the cars down.
Thanks for watching, and for the thoughtful comment! You raise an interesting point about the impact of various bike lane improvements on driver psychology. In my experience, vehicles often encroach on bike lanes whether normal or contraflow, regardless of whether any bikes are present. In some cases, it does feel safer to be riding on a road that's too narrow for a bike lane, where you just ride in front of the vehicle and they wait for a gap in oncoming traffic. Various traffic calming tools can also help (speed humps, roundabounts, curb bump-outs, etc.). I've seen road diets applied to overly wide and underused streets, but it would be great to see more of those same techniques used on residential side streets as well.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hrYou're welcome. Thanks for the reply.
I think that speed humps and narrowing lanes would get my support for the 2 best average strategies for most streets.
I wish, though, that they would put spaces in the humps for cyclists to pass through, but are too far apart for the car to avoid at least some of the hump.
On an unrelated note: bike lanes can be too appealing. I remember walking on a sidewalk, and then changing over to a bike lane. It dawned on me how wrong this was, but it took me a while to figure it out. If I understand correctly, the path was so appealing and inviting, that I decided to try it. 😀
You have my vote for modified speed humps. Similar modifications can be made on curb bump outs. I saw one recently that allowed the bike lane to run up and over the curb rather than than bikes toward the vehicle lane. Obviously, you need to watch out for pedestrians, but it felt safer than most bump out situations.
I may have to get some footage for a future video.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hrActually, yes, you are right about the bike path going up the sidewalk. We had those recently installed about a month ago at a stroad intersection.
When I drive past those, I feel much safer about the cyclists, and if I were to cycle, then I think that it would encourage me to look both ways.
Whenever I ride my bike on the street, I've always preferred riding in the oncoming lane because then I could actually see traffic coming towards me instead of hoping I don't get hit from behind.
Of course this is on streets with low traffic and not viable on streets with a lot of traffic but in that case I'd rather ride on the sidewalk than in the street or the dangerous bike lanes where I live.
You're absolutely right. Being visible is definitely the key, and riding away from parked cars gives you the best chance to be seen. In most cities, sidewalks aren't really an option. Most have their own traffic, and even if they don't, riding a bike on them is generally only permitted for children.
I haven't finished the video but I think an important factor to consider is the expectations on the road. If folks know and expect cyclists to bike counter to the flow, then there should be fewer conflicts, people already expect cars to (usually) stop or slow down at stop signs.
One time I was making a right hand turn from a shopping center onto a busy road. There was an adequate gap for me to take the turn so I looked ahead to double check that the way was clear, only to have a cyclist yell at me to stop as he passed the front of my car in the bike lane going against traffic. If I were a less rational driver, I may have booked it to get up to speed in the lane I wanted to use, but doing so would have resulted in a bicyclist being hit by my car.
Only through my due diligence did I prevent myself from forcing someone to be a victim. Nobody expects folks to ride the "wrong" way in my city, it is not at all common and there are no indicators to even suggest that being a possibility.
Thanks for the thoughtful comment! As a person on a bike, being in a place where drivers expect you to be is critical. I'm constantly thinking about this whenever I'm on a busier street where a driver's vision might filter out anything not car-sized. One other consideration is how recent a bike lane was installed, whether contraflow or conventional. Eventually, drivers get used to the new traffic pattern, but at first, it's better for bikers to be extra cautious and not assume a driver sees you.
In Paris, the vast majority of one way streets is for cyclists open in both directions. Most drivers expect to see oncoming cyclists, because it's the rule, not the exception.
Thanks for watching! Sounds like Paris has it figured out. When bike infrastructure is commonplace and expected, it makes safer streets for everyone.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr there are many streets in Paris that are too narrow to allow for two way separated bicycle paths and often even a single separated bicycle lane wouldn't fit, yet many of them allow cyclist going both ways. Paris introduced a general speed limit of 30km/h everywhere (unless marked otherwise) which is really great! Some of the streets have also become mixed zones where pedestrian can walk on the streets thereby slowing down cars even more. Slowing down car traffic with infrastructure measures is here probably about as important as separating it.
4:03 Is that some kind of inflatable island? Might be too big for one of those surfboard racks :-D
Ha! I hadn't really paid attention, but it looks like an inflatable raft. I might have deflated it for easier transport, but that dad's making it work fully inflated!
When I was a kid (in the 90's) a bike safety officer came into our class and told us to always ride against traffic.
That's really interesting! I'm actually impressed that a role like bike safety officer actually existed back in the 90s. Back then, it wasn't even very common to see bikers wearing helmets!
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr they also had a program where you could register your bike with the cops in case it got stolen. It was just a sticker with a serial number.
I think it was just one officers pet project.
I keep looking at the footpath (side walk) with no one walking on them in your video. They made riding on footpaths legal in my city 5 years ago. A much better solution.
Thanks for watching! I think my video clips may be somewhat deceiving. Most sidewalks in Chicago see a lot of usage, and if you were riding on them, you'd be frequently dodging pedestrians. Plus, many blocks are as short as 1/16 of a mile, meaning you have a lot of crosswalks to contend with. Ultimately, you couldn't safely ride on the sidewalk here much faster than a brisk walking pace.
5:52 Weird that the bike lane is on the left on this Greenway - seems counterintuitive and therefore rather unsafe to me. According to the arrow, it's not meant to be contraflow, so why was this design chosen?
Thanks for watching! I'll admit that is a rather odd design choice. This is the Roscoe Greenway, which travels west from the lakefront, and at the first couple intersections, putting the lane on the left/south side limits the number of times the lane crosses traffic. So I think that was the rationale, but I agree the unusual design does probably make it slightly less safe than a normal lane.
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr You're welcome! Thanks for explaining the thought process.
Biking the wrong way on one way streets in both Amsterdam and Buffalo feel so right.
When this ideas was introduced in Germany in the late 1990s, it was originally only a test for one year with many people very sceptic - but it stuck and today it's becoming rare to have them not opened for cyclists. The only limitations are a 30 km/h speed limit and a minimum road width (remaining with parked cars) of 3,5 Meters… and a city, that's willing to allow it.
Thanks for the comment, and thanks to Germany and other European countries for giving these lanes a try decades ago! I'm hoping that someday, the US can return the favor and develop some bike infrastructure ideas that later get copied around the world.
Love how they place bike lines right next to gutter.
It's not so bad except when there's lots of pedestrian traffic. Even then, I'd say it's preferrable to being in between moving vehicles and parked ones.
Much of the newer protected bike lanes on Milwaukee Ave (one of the busiest in town) were constructed right on top of bad pavement. I watched crews install the pollards, etc. No changes two or three years later...
One small benefit. It is better to be doored by a car facing you than by a car you approach from behind. :-(
Yes, if there's a "good" way to get doored, this is probably it.
if you must use wrong way , use the sidewalk is less dangerus specialy in iterseticon since car don t expet to see bike ther and will look only back , when crossing , and you get a smaller fine if cop see you , you must wach out for people exiting the building specialty kids , since the come out running and ther head is at handlebar higth ,
came from youtube homepage for mobile recommend
Thanks for watching!
if you SEE me Going Against Traffic' i Have a Good Reason for That...
Hey, well there's no better reason than checking out a new contraflow lane in your neighborhood! That's the best reason of all!
@@pointtopoint-cp6hr - i Rather Have Clean air' you can Choke if you Want to' but i Rather Breathe...
Mixed feelings.
I see how counter-flow lanes seem to solve some problems.
But they break a poweful convention that's ingrained in us about how traffic flows. Video repeats about the need to be attentive. Reality is that bicyclists and drivers will be distracted or daydreaming, and will fall back on intuitive sense of where vehicles should be.
Example: a printer my company produced had a counter-intuitive procedure. We stuck on bright Warning labels .... which were almost universally ignored.
Lesson is to work with human intuition.
(There is one counter-flow section I sometimes bike on ... and it always feels wrong.,)
Thanks for watching, and you make some excellent points. The protected lanes downtown actually feel like bike paths because bikes are separated well enough from vehicle traffic. The unprotected neighborhood greenway lanes are the ones that feel the most counterintuitive to me, but at least those are on quiet streets without much traffic. As street designers learn from each new type of bike lane, hopefully future iterations become more intuitive and natural.
Ride slower?! That's not how you get Strava kudos.
Ha! While it's true that slowing down won't lead you to Strava glory, if you're goal is to maximize safety and minimize stress, then sometimes slow is the way to go.
I'm so sick and tired of these green bike lanes (if you can even call them that). They're not safe at all. They're just cheap, but no car or truck driver actually cares about a simple line on the street. I want actual bike paths that are physically separated from the road, where cars can't get to.
Thanks for watching! You're 100% right that physical separation should be the goal, whether that means a barrier-protected bike lane, or a fully separated Dutch-style cycle path. Many lanes in Chicago that were originally paint only are now getting physical protection, so there is some hope that the bright green lanes of today become more substantial bike infrastructure in the future.
I always bike opposite traffic.
With the high amount of illegals driving recklessly it is safer to see them coming.
If an illegal hits you he will always flee the scene.