“I can’t support bike lanes.”
Rob Ford, Politician
Advantages & Disadvantages of Bike Lanes
Bike lanes have become increasingly popular over the past years.
Yet, there are still many cities all over the world where there are only insufficient or even no bike lanes at all.
Although there are many advantages of bike lanes, there are also some issues related to them.
In this article, the pros and cons of bicycle lanes are examined.
Audio Lesson
Contents
Advantages of Bike Lanes
- Safety improvement for bikers
- Will encourage using bikes more often
- Dedicated bike lanes may enable you to commute to work by bike
- You have to worry less about injuries
- Makes the use of cars less attractive
- Bikers may interfere less with pedestrians
- Bike lanes may allow you to drive faster
- Good for tourists who want to explore the city
- Better air quality
- Less particle pollution
- Less smog
- May slow down global warming
- Good for our environment
Safety improvement for bikers
One important advantage of bike lanes is that they can greatly improve the overall safety of millions of bikers worldwide.
While it is rather dangerous to drive on the same lanes as cars, dedicated bike lanes make the overall bike experience far less risky.
Therefore, also the number of serious accidents would become much lower by introducing those bike lanes and every city should consider this in order to protect their local population from the high number of accidents that happen every year between cars and bikers.
Will encourage using bikes more often
Since biking will become less risky due to the implementation of bike lanes, chances are that more people will actually use their bicycles since they will simply feel much safer.
In order to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and to meet our climate goals, it is crucial to reduce the number of cars on our streets.
Thus, one important measure to motivate people to use their bikes more often is to set up bike lanes in order to improve the overall safety level of bikers and to make the biking experience more comfortable
Dedicated bike lanes may enable you to commute to work by bike
Also commuting to work by bike will become much more attractive if bake lanes are in place.
On the one hand, your bike commuting times will likely decrease a lot since you will be able to drive faster and you will not have to stop too often.
On the other hand, it will also be much more convenient to commute to work by bike through bike lanes since your overall stress level will be much lower compared to using regular lanes and sharing them with cars which might significantly hurt you sooner or later.
You have to worry less about injuries
In general, the risk of accidents and injuries will be much lower by using bike lanes.
Especially during rush hour, our streets are quite crowded and bikers are at great risk to get hit by a car sooner or later, which can cause all sorts of serious injuries and consequential health damage.
However, by implementing bicycle lanes, municipalities could greatly reduce the risk of bikers.
Moreover, also the overall healthcare costs that are related to accidents of bikers may drop significantly, which may also benefit the government finances quite a lot in the long run.
Makes the use of cars less attractive
Bike lanes will also make it less attractive to use cars in big cities.
First, if people enjoy riding their bikes more, chances are that more people will switch to using bikes instead of using their cars.
Second, if bike lanes are introduced, cars will have less space and the overall stress levels to use a car will increase significantly, which in turn would further increase the motivation to use bikes instead of cars.
Third, it may also become quite hip to use our bikes and leave our cars in the garage.
Hence, there are several reasons why bike lanes make the use of cars less attractive, which is crucial in order to meet our climate goals and to mitigate several serious environmental problems in the long run.
Bikers may interfere less with pedestrians
Another upside of bike lanes is that bikers will interfere less with pedestrians.
Currently, in cities where there are no bike lanes in place, cyclists will often use the sidewalk instead of the car lane since they fear serious accidents with cars.
However, using the sidewalk for biking also implies an increase in the risk of accidents between bikers and pedestrians.
Therefore, implementing bicycle lanes may not only reduce the risk for cyclists, it may also lower the risks for pedestrians to get involved in accidents with bikers.
Bike lanes may allow you to drive faster
Since you have to worry less about potential accidents with cars by using a bike lane, you will be able to ride your bike faster on average. Especially if you are in a hurry and you have to get to an important meeting in time, bike lanes may save you some important minutes in various areas of your daily life.
Good for tourists who want to explore the city
Bike lanes may also help tourists to explore a city.
Many tourists still rely on buses or other means of transport to get around a city.
However, there are several advantages to explore a city by bike and bike lanes greatly increase the incentive for tourists to do so for various reasons.
Thus, in order to improve the overall experience for tourists in a city, introducing bike lanes may be a great way to do so.
Better air quality
Moreover, since the introduction of bike lanes may also lower the need to use our cars, the overall air quality in cities would likely improve significantly.
In turn, the risk for serious health problems related to bad air quality would be reduced significantly, which would also imply a higher overall life expectancy.
Therefore, also from an air quality and health perspective, bike lanes should be a great way to go.
Less particle pollution
Since there will be fewer emissions from cars that use fossil fuels, the level of particle pollution will also be decreased significantly.
Particle pollution can be extremely harmful to our health since those fine particles can end up in our lungs and can cause serious diseases like asthma or even lung cancer.
Thus, in order to avoid those issues, introducing bike lanes and reducing the need to use our cars would also significantly help in this regard.
Less smog
Smog is another big issue that is due to the excessive use of our cars.
Especially during rush hour, many people use their cars in the same period of time and clouds of smog often form over big cities.
This is not only quite unpleasant since it lowers the visibility on our streets, it also lowers our overall quality of life since people usually do not enjoy living in the middle of clouds of smog.
Since we can reduce emissions from cars by implementing bike lanes, we can also reduce the smog problem to a certain extent due to that.
May slow down global warming
Due to a decreasing need for the use of our cars through the implementation of bike lanes, also our overall greenhouse gas emissions could be lowered significantly.
In turn, also climate change could be slowed down to a certain extent.
Since global warming is one of the biggest environmental problems humanity faces today, it is crucial that we take every measure we can in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on a global scale.
Good for our environment
In general, the introduction of bike lanes is pretty good for our environment since our overall emission levels can be lowered and we can also lower our reliance on the use of fossil energy sources.
Therefore, through the implementation of bicycle lanes, municipalities all over the world could set a framework so that everyone of us could improve our ecological footprint in our daily lives.
Disadvantages of Bicycle Lanes
- Less space for cars
- Increasing imprudence of bikers
- The attention of car drivers may also decrease
- Car drivers may get annoyed
- More traffic jams
- Longer commuting times for cars
- May be unnecessary in some regions
- Only minority of people uses bicycles
- Lawsuits to prevent bike lanes
- Extent subject to the discretion of policymakers
- Plenty of planning required
- Bike lanes can be costly
- May also be used by motorbikes
- Improper design may do more harm than good
Less space for cars
Although bicycle lanes can have several advantages, there are also some problems related to the use of bike lanes.
One downside of bike lanes is that there will be less space for cars on our streets.
For people who rely on cars for commuting, their stress levels will likely increase and also the chances for car accidents may increase.
Therefore, while bike lanes may lower stress levels for cyclists, they might increase stress levels for car drivers.
Increasing imprudence of bikers
The implementation of bike lanes may also give cyclists a wrong sense of security.
People tend to get imprudent quite often and an increasing level of imprudence due to the introduction of bike lanes may lead to a state where there will actually be even more bike accidents than less.
Therefore, while the concept of bike lanes may be meant to reduce the risk for accidents between cars and bikes, it may even increase the risk for those accidents if bikers become imprudent.
The attention of car drivers may also decrease
Not only the attention towards the traffic and the risks of bikers may decrease, also car drivers may become less aware of the potential risks that they might pose on cyclists.
For instance, if a bike lane ends, a biker may switch from the bike lane to the normal lane and if car drivers are not aware of this fact, chances are that there will be numerous serious accidents in the long run.
Car drivers may get annoyed
Dedicated bike lanes may also be quite annoying for car owners.
While many car drivers may be stuck in traffic, cyclists may use bike lanes and will be much faster than cars quite often.
Therefore, the overall frustration levels of car owners may increase significantly, which may turn into an increasing level of aggression.
More traffic jams
In general, since there will be less space left for cars due to the implementation of bicycle lanes, there will also be a higher risk of traffic jams.
Especially in big cities where traffic jams already are a big problem, introducing those bike lanes would further exacerbate the traffic jam issues.
Therefore, bike lanes may become a big problem in regions where many people rely on their cars to get from A to B.
Longer commuting times for cars
Especially during rush hour, many people will use their cars to get to work and back.
However, at these times of the day, car drivers get often stuck in traffic.
Introducing bike lanes would make the problem even worse since there would be less space for cars and people would have to spend more time for commuting to work and back, which might result in problems in case you have important meetings at work in the morning or have to pick up your kids in the evening.
May be unnecessary in some regions
Even though the introduction of bicycle lanes may be beneficial in some areas where traffic accidents between cyclists and cars are quite common, it might not be necessary to implement those bike lanes in areas where bikes and cars will not pose too big of an issue for each other.
Thus, it is crucial for politicians to evaluate whether bike lanes make sense in the respective municipality or not.
Only minority of people uses bicycles
In many areas around the globe, only a quite small fraction of the general public uses their bikes to get around.
Therefore, especially in areas where people do not like to use their bikes to get around due to various reasons that are not security-related, for instance if people are simply too lazy, introducing bike lanes might not make too much sense since people would still not use their bikes too often.
Lawsuits to prevent bike lanes
Some people may even sue politicians who want to introduce bike lanes.
This is often the case for car lovers who fear to lose their privileges and want to prevent the implementation of bike lanes at all costs.
Thus, in regions where cars are the priority of people, the implementation of bike lanes may be rather difficult due to political and legal reasons.
Extent subject to the discretion of policymakers
In the end, whether bike lanes are introduced or not is often subject to a high level of discretions regarding the preferences of politicians.
Bike lanes might not even make sense in some areas, yet politicians might decide to implement those bike lanes for various reasons.
Hence, even though the implementation of bike lanes may make sense in some regions of our planet at all, they might still be constructed due to personal goals and preferences.
Plenty of planning required
In order not to harm car drivers too much, it is crucial that there is extensive planning regarding the introduction of bike lanes since it can vastly alter the traffic dynamics.
Hence, the implementation of bike lanes may also take plenty of time since the planning processes can be quite extensive and demanding.
Bike lanes can be costly
Apart from the significant planning efforts related to bike lanes, also the actual construction of those lanes can be quite labor-intensive.
In turn, the implementation of bike lanes can be quite costly and municipalities and cities have to decide whether those costs can be justified or not.
May also be used by motorbikes
Even though bike lanes are actually meant to be used by cyclists, they are often also used by motorbikes.
Especially in times of heavy traffic, it can save you plenty of time to use bicycle lanes for your motorbike since you can skip traffic jams.
However, this might pose serious dangers to cyclists since collisions between cyclists and motorbikes become more likely.
Improper design may do more harm than good
Since it changes the dynamics of our traffic, the implementation of bike lanes is not trivial and requires plenty of planning and knowledge.
Thus, if those lanes are implemented in an improper manner, chances are that the introduction of those lanes may do more harm than good over the long run.
Top 10 Bike Lane Pros & Cons – Summary List
| Bike Lane Pros | Bike Lane Cons |
|---|---|
| Safety improvements | Less parking spots |
| Can reduce stress levels for bikers | More traffic jams |
| Bike lanes can improve incentives to ride bikes | Less space for cars |
| Less greenhouse gas emissions | Higher stress levels for car drivers |
| Less air pollution | Longer commuting times for cars |
| Less particle pollution | Unnecessary in some regions |
| Better overall air quality | High levels of planning efforts necessary |
| Less risk for injuries and accidents | Significant costs |
| Faster commuting by bicycle | May do more harm than good |
| Use of cars will become more attractive | Imprudence may increase |
Are Bike Lanes Necessary?
As we can see from the previous discussion, there are several pros and cons related to bicycle lanes.
Even though it may make sense to implement bike lanes in many regions of our planet where there are plenty of accidents between cyclists and cars, there might also be regions on our planets where it doesn’t make sense to implement bike lanes.
Therefore, municipalities all over the world should carefully evaluate all the pros and cons of bike lanes in order to make profound political decisions.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bike_lane
https://www.vox.com/2015/6/30/8861327/bike-lanes-history
About the author
My name is Andreas and my mission is to educate people of all ages about our environmental problems and how everyone can make a contribution to mitigate these issues.
As I went to university and got my Master’s degree in Economics, I did plenty of research in the field of Development Economics.
After finishing university, I traveled around the world. From this time on, I wanted to make a contribution to ensure a livable future for the next generations in every part of our beautiful planet.
Wanna make a contribution to save our environment? Share it!
