[YankeeFan]

Is it just me, or is the Bicycle lane on 5th making it quite a dangerous street to drive down? So many drivers are using those Bike lanes for easy double parking. I honestly see over 10 double parked cars for every 1 bike rider. Obviously this is forcing way too many cars to cross the yellow lines and drive on the wrong side of a two-way street. It’s just a matter of time until we have some serious head to head collisions.

Someone really needs to do something about this, but I don’t think taking away the bike lanes is the answer. It is important to allow the option of traveling by bike for those who choose it, especially since bikes not pollute the environment….. Perhaps we need to have more cops on 5th ave ticketing for double parking?

[Idlewild]

The bike lanes have been null since they went into place.
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[vanilla]

OP - exactly the reason i don't bike down 5th ave. totally sucks. i wish something would change !!!

[joncane]

Amen. http://www.iparkedinabikelane.org/

[Peanuts]

The 5th Avenue bike lanes are a joke...and it's not just cars double parked...but also the trucks making deliveries.
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[thatsmyspare]

i usually bike on 6th, even though there are no bike lanes there is less traffic and less double parking, 5th and 7th have the worst double parking

[Teckla]

I rise down 5th on my bike, and I can't tell you how many times I get yelled at by drivers PARKED in "my" lane. I'm not an angry rider, more cautious than anything, but seriously, the livery drivers who hang out in the bike lane are slowly turning me into an angry, door-kicking bike anarchist. (Basically like all my friends)

[Trainsmoke DeLeon]

Man is this a pet peeve. I also often opt for 6th despite the presence of bike lanes on 5th for this same reason. Bloomberg has clearly made an effort to add some bike friendliness to the city, but if cars are allowed to double park in the bike lanes it often makes things more dangerous all around. I'd like to see more ticketing for that offense.

Once while eating dinner outside on 2nd ave. in Manhattan I watched a cop car continuously circle the block and every time it came around it pulled over a car who was driving in the bike lane. More of that please.
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[Drano]

[katbka]

They should put bike lanes on one-way streets. I always bike on 6th avenue going down, and PPW going up, nether has bike lanes....

Biking on 5th ave is a sure way to get killed.

[alex244]

This problem is not just a problem for 5th ave, it is all over the city. A city accessible to bikers cannot be an approach on the part of one department - painting lanes is NOT enough. It must be a coordinated inter-agency effort to get the standard of living to improve. We will all benefit from it.

The city definitely has to realize that simply drawing bike lines on the roads does not equal full cooperation of everyone using the roads. This means there should be some enforcement of worst offenders. There should also be a public campaign to teach pedestrians, drivers and bikers how to share the roads. Realistically everyone is going to need to occasionally break these laws but do it in a safe manner! If the purpose of the bike lanes is to a be visual guide for bikers then great - the shiny new lanes are very nice. But if they are meant to be safe passageways then the city is failing.

Aggressive drivers are the biggest problem. Drivers must understand that hitting a biker is not the same as hitting a car and must take the same precautions as they do with pedestrians. Every biker should wear a helmet, but that leaves a lot of room for injury in case of a collision!!! A 3 ton car vs 190 lbs biker -- there is no real debate about who is going to lose. The enforcement agencies need a source of revenue and should crack down on worst offenders - if you ask any biker where the worst problems are, they will tell you these occur at the same intersections over and over. Rather making money from waiting on meters to expire - how about cracking down on people who cut off bikers illegally? How about posting signs about the dangers of going into bike lines sporadically, as well as the fines?

Pedestrians too can be a big problem. Yes, you - the person who decides to wait for the don't walk signal to change in the middle of the road, past all the parked cars. In order for everyone to be safe everyone must understand that we can all be a danger to each other and do our best to stick to the conventions we have setup as a society. You look both ways before you cross the street. You drive on the right side of the road. And many others!!

This city is a great innovator. So why not use that? Mr. Bloomberg, you use satellites to track traffic patterns, how about tracking biking traffic? We can send pictures from our camera phones to 911 and 311 cases. How about you advertise that fact to bikers and actually fix the problems where they exist.