Why are cycle lanes compulsory?

Victor

seamus wrote:

But do we know that cycling on the road and encountering a junction and cycling on a cycle lane and encountering a junction are different in terms of danger. Certainly, one gives the right-of-way to the cyclist, whereas the other gives the right-of-way to the motorist. In theory, that should mean that the latter is the less dangerous, because the cyclist - the more vunerable road user - is the one who must yield, i.e. he is in control of his own safety. In practice, I'm not sure if it does, since you don't require a licence to cycle, so the notion of yielding seems to be foreign to a lot of cyclists.

What is known is that a majority of cyclist -v- other vehicle accidents happen at junctions.

seamus wrote:

Perhaps more emphasis should be placed on building tracks that are 100% separated from the road, i.e. with over/underpasses at junctions.

I can undersand this in areas with high speed traffic - adjacent to motorways and the like, however anywhere else it will just make motorists forget that cyclists exist (generally and specific to the location).

wideangle

A small air horn might be fun to use to alert the trespassers
I have a air horn on my transport bike 110 dbells in volume when its at full blast...and boy do they take notice.
The cycle lanes down here in cork are only being provided.Lately the council are putting down red patched on all main roads at the traffic lights ...but u still get drivers stopping in these bike only red patches...so I usually pass them out and stop infront of them any way and block their view of the lights so I get the holeshot(take off first).

Civilian_Target

Yeah - I want to get one of those air horns - but was never able to find one, only ever seen them at matches...

Ghost Rider

As for why the Government has made the use of cycle lanes compulsory, I'd say it has little to do with the safety of cyclists (which otherwise seems very low on the priority list) and a lot to do with delimiting the Government's liability in any potential compensation claims. After all, if a roads authority can say to a judge "Well, he shouldn't have been cycling there in the first place, if he'd been acting legally" then I'd imagine the judge would have quite a lot less sympathy for the victim.

Regarding air horns, I've always wondered whether or not other road users would fail to grasp that the incredibly loud noise they've just heard actually came from a bike and that this would seriously limit the effectiveness of the thing. Does anyone here currently use one and, if so, has that ever been the case?

Also, how many blasts do you get from one cannister of compressed air and how do you refill it?

wideangle wrote:

A small air horn might be fun to use to alert the trespassers
I have a air horn on my transport bike 110 dbells in volume when its at full blast...and boy do they take notice.
The cycle lanes down here in cork are only being provided.Lately the council are putting down red patched on all main roads at the traffic lights ...but u still get drivers stopping in these bike only red patches...so I usually pass them out and stop infront of them any way and block their view of the lights so I get the holeshot(take off first).

wideangle

Its a airzound 2 horn I got it from evans cycles..online shop!U pump up a air bottle and there is a release button on the bars!!


sorry for being off topic!!