Motorists and bus users often complain that people cycling don’t use cycle lanes or cycle paths, below are just some of the reasons why most of these lanes and paths are best avoided some or all of the time.

The reasons often can’t be clearly spotted from inside cars or buses. Sometimes many cyclists don’t even know of the risk or act too slowly — a classic example is people cycling too close to car doors on busy roads and getting hit when a driver or passenger swings the door open without looking. So, even when some cyclists use the cycle lane, it does not mean other are wrong for advoiding it.

Random parking in cycle lane

Larger-scale parking in cycle lanes

Often around events, or weekend mass, or just sometimes outside shops…

Loading in cycle lanes

Cars driving in cycle lanes

Car doors

Many cycle lanes are placed in the “door zone” between parked cars and traffic — if you have children or teenagers get your children to practice opening the door with their hand further from the door, which helps with turning around and looking first before opening the door.

Turning right

This somehow comes as a surprise to some motorists, but people cycling need to turn right and to do so they usually need to cross traffic lanes…

Bus stops

Yes, the bus stop pictured here is in the cycle lane. There’s a design to avoid this, which is standard in the Netherlands, but not so here…

Narrow cycle lanes

Narrow often hardly allow for the space taken up by a bicycle’s handlebars, nevermind if a careless car driver or a truck is passing…

Construction signs

All too often unnecessarily placed in cycle lanes or paths when there’s a grass margin, large footpath or sign posts which such signs could be placed without blocking any road users…

Dead ends

Because there’s only a cycle lane on one side of the road!

And it’s not bi-directional! I’ve been in cars when the driver has asked why isn’t the person cycling in the cycle lane here…

Shared space and blind spots

It’s not busy now but the footpath and cycle paths combine here on a blind corner and slope, which has a pedestrian crossing in it!…

Glass lanes

Sometimes glass from bus stops, sometimes from car crashes or sometimes from glass bottles –all can be found on cycle lanes but motorists and people in buses can’t see these things….

Dangerous ending points

Where motorists are directed into your path just as the cycle lane ends…

Just painted on footpaths

This isn’t designed for cycling and it allows for cars turning at speed across the minor road crossing…

Confusing shared footpath designs

Which people walk in even where the cycling only part re-starts…

Bollards

Are known to be a cause of death to older people cycling in the Netherlands… It does not help when they are black when cycling in dark and on pointlessly small sections of shared footpaths…

It’s a contra-flow lane

You only use it in one direction… Some motorists seem fully unaware of contra-flow cycle lane and that people cycling with the flow of the general traffic must by law use the general traffic lanes…

It can’t fit!

The cycle lane and a car can’t fit between the edge of the road and the centre line…

Traffic lights in the way

Mixes bicycles with people walking and waiting to cross the road…

Put off-road and into danger

Only put off-road to be put back on it at a dangerous slip road turn …

Yield

Even to small side roads…

Poor transitions

This is the equivalent of a car having to drive up onto a footpath over a high kerb… Just to travel in a straight line…

Blind spots and poor surfacing

Two-way the size of one-way!

This is a cycle lane!?

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