Bike lanes next to parked cars

My ride to work includes a few stretches as per the above example (not taken by me). Narrow, busy roads with sections of bike lane running alongside parked cars. No prizes for spotting the potential hazard, which came to fruition on me a few weeks ago.

Riding down the middle of the lane would hold up the traffic and I expect result in much abuse from drivers who would expect me to be in the bike lane, as per the hundreds of other riders at that time in the morning.

Any thoughts on riding in these areas?

STAY THE **** AWAY FROM TEH DOOR

i dont give a **** about the cars behind me.

a local fast fella got doored at xmas. touch and go with death , induced coma and alot of surgery. Hes back on a bike now but is struging physically and i imagine mentally to get back to speed.

Its stupid placement of bike lanes by non cyclists that causes that.

it’s not your fault that most cycle lanes* are badly designed.

rule of thumb: don’t ride in them.

(*your photo doesn’t show a ‘cycle lane’ it shows a ‘danger! – door’ zone)

I agree with trail_rat. I try and ride at least a metre from parked cars. I wouldn’t ride past a parked car in that lane.

OK, sorry the photo is a bad example and as I said in the OP, not taken by me. The lane(s) I’m talking about have the same positioning and a bike symbol painted in them.

NO WAY IN THE WORLD would I ride in a bike lane laid out like that photo. As others have said, the door zone is a danger area to be avoided at all times if possible.

i have an almost identical stretch on my commute – i don’t ride in it, i ride in the road – pretty much where the outer white line is.

I tend to ride on the white line, which here would be about 9inches wide of nice smooth low rolling resistance surface. Plenty of space to move in to let cars pass, or move out a bit for doors.

That door is a 3dr car with it wide open. Most normal people wouldn’t open such a door all the way.

Shared used pavements with a lick of dulux up the middle scare me more. 1. it’s kids being dropped off at school opening doors on the pavement side (so don’t look), and 2. they’re often/usually much narrower overall. Nearly witnessed such a spack the other day, as passenger just flicked door wide open. Right in front of a family with 3 kids, and me following. And the only place to swerve is a lamppost.

That door is a 3dr car with it wide open. Most normal people wouldn’t open such a door all the way.

you better hope so!

That door is a 3dr car with it wide open. Most normal people wouldn’t open such a door all the way.

My own rule for road cycling is to treat every situation as a worst-case scenario so personally I wouldn’t be making any such assumptions.

Agree with you about shared use pavements generally being a bad idea though!

I have a lane like that on my commute, the only difference is even if I wanted to use it, it is always obstructed by some seriously bad parking.

Ah, the comment about shared use pavements and passengers opening doors brings back a memory.

I’m cycling along a cycle lane on the road. Passing car driver wants to stop at the side of the road to let a passenger out. His bright idea was to pull up by the white line between the cycle lane and the main carriageway so that I could carry on in the cycle lane to his left just as his passenger opened the door into it 😯

I’d worked out what he was doing and went round the other side of him, but I’m still amazed that anyone could think that was a good idea. I may rant about people stopping in cycle lanes but in that situation it would have been a hell of a lot dangerous than what he actually did.

Almost all cycling infrastructure in my area is like this, nothing more than a massive waste of paint that frequently puts cyclists in dangerous situations. They should get rid of the lot of it, ASLs and all.

hitting an opening car door the non-closey way is one of my biggest fears when riding on the road. if you avoid it you’re swerving into traffic, you can’t roll over the top of it like a car bonnet/ roof and it has some very point bits at face height.
I concentrate as much on parked cars as moving ones and ride a car door length into the road.
are you sure it’s a bike lane and not a car-door danger zone which is badly advertised?

whilst out on Gran Canaria a guy got doored. he had stopped to buy some haribos for his mates. rode off to catch them up and some tit swung open a door on him. his bar got caught on the door skinning his hand and somersaulting him over the bars.

doctors said that if he didn’t have a big squishy bag of haribos in his back pocket he’d be paralyzed.

always scream at the GF to get away from parked cars when out riding together.

if he didn’t have a big squishy bag of haribos in his back pocket he’d be paralyzed

😀 yeah, right.

Round by me they just park in the bike lane so you couldn’t ride in it even if you wanted to!

Exactly what you are worrying about happened to me. Cycling along, not particularily fast, minding my own business. Whack!

3 door BMW convertable with the biggest doors know to man ‘kicked’ open (i.e. he used his foot to opne it as its so blimmin massive and heavy you cant use your arm when the car is leaning towards the gutter). No time to react. Wheel in to door, me through the window (no frame as was convertible), me on the floor surrounded by glass, door bent back to the wing, lots of glass embeded in my face and hands.

No lasting damage, but am now petrified of parked cars. I check every parked car through the window to see if anyone is in it, or look in the wing mirror to see if there is anyone there. If that doesnt work, I slow right down.

Riding the distance of a BMW car door away from a parked car is not practicle. I would have oncoming cars in my face, they are that wide.

doctors said that if he didn’t have a big squishy bag of haribos in his back pocket he’d be paralyzed.

Be careful saying stuff like that – you’ll have people calling for compulsory Haribo-carrying 😉

There’s one on my way home which I now avoid.

It’s a bike lane between the pavement and residents parked cars. The road is one-way and I used the bike lane heading against the traffic flow. Door opening, wing mirrors sticking out into the lane, cars parking up and drifting into the lane etc etc just got too hairy.

Streetview linky

Bike lane on left between the solid white line and the pavement.

I have been hit once – it was in a cycle lane
Waste of time

hjghg5
Can you be sure the passenger hadn’t seen your evasive manoeuvre before opening the door?

Riding the distance of a BMW car door away from a parked car is not practicle. I would have oncoming cars in my face, they are that wide.

Then the cars can get out of the way, ride how you would drive. Do not give cars options, Do not give cars room to squeeze past. I am not saying block cars deliberately, but if you are riding a narrow road between two rows of parked cars go down the middle If you want to give way to oncoming traffic do so, but if you don’t then don’t. If you get beeped then report them to the police for inappropriate use of horn. Police won’t do anything but it is on file for future reference.

Be careful saying stuff like that – you’ll have people calling for compulsory Haribo-carrying

I thought it* was 😯

*jelly babies not haribo, though, I’m not some pervert

:reports mrmo: so it’s on file for future reference

Most normal people wouldn’t open such a door all the way.

Clarify “normal people” please? People are not normal by definition – they’re all mentalists.

ive been hit also – was in a cycle lane in an urban clearway (ie shouldnt be parked there anyway)

presume everyones an idiot and youll survive longer …. the paranoia tick is normal 😉