There are some cycle paths around my way that I would use, but the entry to them is not entirely obvious (particularly in the dark) and once you have missed the first entrance, you can't get on them.
It would be good if their were a few points where the kerb dropped and you could join if you missed the first one.
Most urban cycle lanes (particularly the ones painted on the road) are poorly thought out and more dangerous to use than just sticking on the road (IMO).
"I was quizzed by a portly chap on as to why i wasnt on the cycle path. I asked him why he wasnt on a bike"
some cycle lanes are great - i use several miles on my commute every day.
there are a few i won't use as they add more danger when you need to interact with the traffic. eg. local one to me is on the left hand side of a wideish single carrigeway though road. I need to turn right (has a filter lane) over the brow of a hill so i need to avoid the cycle lane completely.
there are a load of new ones near me which avoid a dangerous roundabout. (good) however they spit you back in the traffic on the wrong side of the road without enough visibility. I just continue up the pavement for 100m until there is a safer option to rejoin the traffic.
I just tell car drivers I'm making sure I get value for money from my "road tax"
Count yourself lucky, here in Sweden there was a recent case where a car driver drove into a cyclist and the cyclist got convicted because he was riding on the road when there was a cycle lane available 
Zero common sense here in the Swedish courts/law sometimes, like you wouldn't believe 
Other motorised road users suffer penis envy. No it's true. Most of the time riding in a city on a bike is faster and will beat a car journey. It's slightly more socially (legalities aside) acceptable for us to nip on the pavement, ride out of a bike lane, run the red light, undertake, squeeze through cars on a dual carriageway. A car cant do those things as its way less socially acceptable for them to do them. Car drivers want to be the quickest to get to their destination. So do bike riders.
I know there's a website that does clothing labelled, fasterbybike or quickerbybike which seems a good slogan but when I browsed the site they seemed to want to promote very legal riding which I don't always do and didn't want to sully the guys website if I was running reds! If you find anybody doing cycle gear with slogans that are better suited, post it up!
lifer - thats much better than this - there is not enough room for a car and a bike at the islands - so you geta painted line and a sign trelling acar drivers not to overtake bikes at the islands - lethal
My problem with them is that it encourages people to switch off and just follow the cycle lane, don't check when rejoining the road and I've seen a few near misses (mostly kids, it's a school run route) - but I think it also removes the cyclist from the mind of the drivers, if you know what I mean. I don't use them and just move over into the middle of the lane in plenty of time to make sure no one can try and squeeze through. Horses for courses though!
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