Protected Bike Lane Infographic - Ah, Lubbock Bike Geek Happiness

If you show up around here very often, you know there are three things that make me very happy - bicycles, infographics, and Vanguard Citicars. Lucky for me, people like to make infographics about bicycles. (I just did an image search for a Citicar infographic and found no such creature, but I did find a bunch of Mesquite Hugger images. The Mesquite Hugger staff is feeling somewhat internet famous.)

(Back to our story) Green Living Ideas inadvertantly sent me a little love today when they posted an infographic about protected bike lanes. I get pretty excited about those too.

See the whole thing here

Protected bike lanes are a dream for me. Generally speaking, "protected" and "bicycle" are two words that don't fit together in Lubbock, but we do have a protected bike lane in Lubbock on Flint Avenue near Texas Tech. (There may be others somewhere, but this bike commuter has not encountered them.)

Here is half of it. (Thank you, Google Maps!)

Here is the other half of it.

Here is an aerial view of the entire "protected" portion of the Flint bike lane.

(BTW, I am so snagging excited to see those solar panels on that roof! You have to jump through some serious City of Lubbock zoning hoops and spend some serious money to have a solar system inside the Lubbock city limits. Bravo, you eco-rebel!)

 

[Sidebar note to Lubbock mayoral candidates - more protected bike lanes and allowing grid-tied solar in town would have this blogger voting and spreading the word for your campaign. Dan, Victor, Todd, how about it?]

 

I shared the Radwagon $500 drawing with a co-worker this week. He got quite excited about the Radwagon (cargo bike) and went home to share the good news with his wife and to start the campaign to invest that amount of money on a bike. Her response was quick, loud, and emotional. "Are you crazy? You can't ride a bike in Lubbock! You would die!" It's a prevalent attitude here. We have car-centric road system. Our population is terrified to ride. It's so strange to live in fear in middle-class suburbia, but we do and should.

 

Yep, that infographic makes me happy!

 

Want to learn more about protected bike lanes?

 

Check out the  Bike5 blog or check out People for Bikes' Green Lane Project.

 

Want to learn more about Lubbock bike lanes - check out this Mesquite Hugger post: Lubbock on a Bike No Love from the Mayor

 

May we find ways to make the world safer and healthier for all (and may we not be impacted by the price of oil).

Gratuitous Citicar pic!