Bike Lane Trash

If you live in a “progressive” city you probably have at least one lane of traffic that is dedicated as a “no killing bikers” zone. Which is a pretty grand idea, because we love it when we are not killed. While most of us here at Bike Smut are pretty experienced, bike lanes can offer some comfort in a bustling city especially in a high speed zone with lots of traffic. Still we generally prefer to “take the lane” over riding in just a rigidly defined space. We can see the benefits for new bikers to feel more at ease in the “no killing bikers” zone, but tragically it all too often becomes a “double parking” zone or a “car door opening in your path” zone.

Those behaviors, while frustrating, are somewhat forgivable. Car doors do need to open SOMETIMES and although getting the doorprize award by jumping out into the traffic of an unwitting biker is pretty obnoxious there is something even more distasteful about leaving your refuse in a place designed to keep vulnerable people safe.

Thankfully our friends in LA have devised a cleaver stickering scheme, to let the businesses know that their actions could have real ramifications (like ram-you-off-the-road-and-into-a-pile-of-garbage-cans-ifcaions).

This is a vast improvement over our previous attempts to communicate these ideas with the offenders.

Oh, and of course there is New York’s plucky reply.

Happy tails!