Dutch cyclist's conclusion is inescapably accurate: America doesn't take bicycles seriously

[Gormy Cuss]

28. Bicyclists are not required to stay in bike lanes. In fact it's damn near impossible to do so.

Most dedicated bike lanes do not extend to left turn lanes, for example. Bike lanes turn into shared lanes at every intersection because motor vehicle drivers need to pass through the lanes to execute right turns. When bike lanes are flush with the right side of the road, cyclists often need to leave the lane to go around parked cars. When cyclists are passing other cyclists it's again necessary to leave the bike lane because most lanes aren't wide enough for this maneuver.

The fundamental problem with bicycling in this country is that most areas treat bicyclists like an afterthought. Same for pedestrians. When our roads are engineered to anticipate multi-modal transport there are fewer problems. We know how to do it. We just have had 50+ years of car-centric traffic planning and need to rethink it for road sharing to work well.