Smile, you’re on bike lane camera!
OK, require me to ride in the bike lane but please go ahead and park there whenever you like.
Yes, not only are cyclists required to use whatever badly designed and bizarre installation supposedly passes for ‘cycling facilities’, we’ve also got to put up with the lane being used as a parking lot.
Slovenian cyclist pirano has had enough and has decided to do something about it:
A few weeks ago while riding my bike on the clearly marked bike paths along Ljubljana’s congested streets, I came up with an idea on how to deal with these self-absorbed bike lane-parking morons, and it finally sprung to life this evening in the form of a flickr group whose sole purpose is to cast more attention on these attention-seeking self-absorbed bike lane-parking morons. I decided to call it Self-Absorbed Bike Lane-Parking Morons.
It’s probably right up there with idiotdriver and other protest actions for effectiveness (i.e. not very), but why not? It might just make a few selfish bastards stop and think.
Well, I can hope, can’t I?
[Photo by Mark D Hudson on Flickr]
More on related topics
- The sadness of car parking
- 100% Secure Bike Parking
- Where did I park the bike?
- IdiotDriver.com.au – will it work?
- Turn-and-look: some data
- Posted by Treadly and Me at 12:48 pm
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Just a minor point of clarification — the “if practicable” clause in the bikelane legislation effectively renders it advisory rather than mandatory — meaning that if boneheads park or smash bottles in the bike lane, I’m well within my rights not to use it. I have to say that I’ve taken advantage of this clause in plain view of the police on many occasions without ever being so much as questioned about it.
It’s a shame more cyclists aren’t aware of that. I would have thought a heap of cyclists refraining from using the substandard “faclilities” would have drawn far more attention to the problem than a few websites which are likely to be known only to a few cyclists.
Indeed. Which is why I doubt the real effectiveness of something like this, and rate it more of an amusing diversion for irritated cyclists than a deterrent for thoughtless motorists.
But there is a serious side: changing lanes involves a small amount of extra risk regardless of the vehicle you’re piloting. And anything that forces you to change lanes increases that risk.
That said, a competent cyclist should generally be able to manage a smooth lane change in traffic. But as we’ve discussed before bike lanes can lull the less experienced cyclist into a false sense of security—and then there might be a problem.