Where bike lanes are concerned, we take the good with the bad. We know that bike lanes have their shortcomings, but these slivers of roadside can also be a thing of beauty. If they’re done right, they can help make drivers more aware of cyclists’ presence on the roads and leave more room for bike wheels than a thin crevice of concrete between speeding cars and the curb. Even if the safety they create is merely illusive, we’re glad when city planners consider cyclists’ presence on the roads. That said, many of the bike lanes we see are downright dangerous. They end abruptly, collect roadside debris, and are often ignored by drivers.
See the video from SlateV, on “The Stupidest Bike Lane in America,” a stretch down the side of a Westwood, L.A., CA road that’s a total of 275 feet long. The entire length of the lane is less than a block and ends without any signage or markings.
Check out the video after the jump.
photo via flickr by sfbike.
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Sounds good to me but it seems to me there’s a whole lotta brakin’ goin’ on to stop a full load of cars being towed by that one engine. Why not add a few cars equipped with that system to boot?
Of course in Japan and Europe they already have electrified their system. Have they figured out how to return all that energy to the grid?
^^^^ That’s what I want to know also… Have they figured out how to return the braking energy back to the grid instead of to an inefficient battery? This is fantastic technology either way though, and a huge step in the right direction.
It would make much more sense for American railroads to electrify their lines. Then they could be powered by 100% renewable energy. But even diesel trains are far more efficient than trucks…
According to an article by Thomas Friedman several months ago in the New York Times, GE’s transportation division is actually one of the few companies exporting to China! And their trains, which are much more energy-efficient than their Chinese counterparts, are one of the main reasons for that.