For bike lanes to function properly, they have to be reserved for cyclists, scooter riders, or anyone else traveling about the speed of a bicycle.
They obviously don’t work when cars park in them, forcing cyclists to exit the lane and ride in traffic where cars are typically traveling much faster. This leads to unsafe conditions for cyclists and possible congestion for drivers. A lose-lose.
However, this doesn’t stop drivers from using bike lanes, even ones that are separated from car-traffic with plastic bollards.
Yesterday, more than 70 bike-pedestrian advocates at Bike Pittsburgh set out to count just how many drivers parked in popular bike lanes throughout Pittsburgh.
Bike Pittsburgh staff and volunteers tracked parking scofflaws using How’s My Driving, a Washington, D.C.-based app designed to report bad driving behavior, including moving violations, road rage, and alleged summary offenses.
They covered Downtown’s Penn Avenue protected lane and the counter-flow lane on Third Avenue; the Allegheny Circle protected bike lane in the North Side; and a section of the Forbes Avenue lanes in Oakland, from the Cathedral of Learning to Carnegie Mellon University.
Bike Pittsburgh counted 123 cars that stopped in the these bike lanes either from 7-9 a.m., 12-1 p.m. or 4-6 p.m.
Evening rush hour was the worst time for clogged bike lanes, with 50 cars parked in those select bike lanes over the two-hour span. About two dozen cars stopped in the Forbes Avenue bike lane in Oakland, which is one of the newer constructed bike lanes in the city.
“Everyday, people illegally park in the bike lanes, causing people riding bicycles to enter into moving traffic,” says Erok Boerer, Bike Pittsburgh advocacy director, in a press release. “We’re trying to understand the extent of this problem and advocate for solutions.”
Boerer was stationed on Third Avenue during the evening rush hour and, yesterday, City Paper spoke to him about the project.
He said when cars and trucks block lanes, especially protected lanes and lanes that go the opposite direction of vehicle traffic, it just “mucks up the works” and it’s extra dangerous for cyclists since drivers “aren’t expecting them to enter traffic.”
Yesterday, about 35 vehicles were stopped in Third Avenue counter-flow lane, which has parking spaces on the other side of the street for most of its stretch.
The Penn Avenue protected lane saw about 18 vehicles stopped in its path. This lane regularly sees hundreds, and, sometimes, more than 1,000 cyclists a day, with heavy spikes during commute times.
The Pittsburgh Parking Authority has reminded drivers several times that parking in the bike lanes is illegal and will be enforced, and Boerer is hopeful this initiative will help parking enforcers figure out the best and most efficient places to catch scofflaws.
“[The big part] is where to invest the money,” said Boerer. “Hopefully we get a better sense of where the city needs to invest.”
This article appears in Oct 16-22, 2019.
It would be interesting to use the same app to report incidents of bicyclists who dont stop, weave between traffic or otherwise break the law. I have a feeling the count would be higher of bicyclists. Doesnt make these vehicular drivers right either, but if we look to address one of the problems lets enforce the moving violations of the bikes. Moving violations tend to be more dangerous than parking violations.
Concerned Citizen: Do you honestly think your life has ever been threatened by a cyclist while protected in a metal vehicle weighing over a ton? Don’t try to equate what you deem “moving violations” of a bicycle to the damage a car/truck/SUV can cause. The goal is preventing death of fellow humans, plain and simple–and targeting the few selfish drivers who park in bike lanes is low-hanging fruit to do so.
Not that I don’t agree with the idea that people shouldn’t park their car in the bike lane because I fully support BikePGH’s vision for a safer, more equitable Pittsburgh for everybody. But, the article is misleading it’s readers by saying that there were 123 cars parked in bike lanes while only specifying that the method was collection by volunteers and BikePGH staff. What we don’t know is if there was any double counting of vehicles and how long a car had to be in the bike lane to be considered “parked” (A drop-off could be less than 20 seconds). These two really important considerations could drastically change the accuracy of the reporting specifically in the direction of over-counting and the distribution of length of time cars are parked in the bike lane. I would need to have these facts to consider believing the article fully, which is disappointing because anytime a publication reports they should pride themselves on the accuracy and clarity of the facts they are trying to convey to their reader. Articles like this tend to degrade trust and bolster accusations of bias against the publication, as well as delegitimize the cause for which they are trying to advocate. I hope next time City Paper will do better to present all the facts so that their readers can be fully informed.
Concerned citizen: they’ve done this study and have found that a pretty similar percentage of all road users are scofflaws. So if we are tracking moving violations via bike, we also need to see those by car- which are obviously more dangerous because of weight and speed (just physics). I drive 30-50 miles around the city every day and see way more automobile drivers doing dumb, illegal, and dangerous things than I see cyclists. AND as someone who has been hit while stopped at a red light and passed while stopping at both stop signs and red lights (yeah, cars run those… a lot), safety on a bike is a little more complicated than just “follow the law by the letter”. It wouldnt be, though, if drivers followed the laws by the letter…