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1. While bike paths are a relatively safe way of commuting or just exercise the idea of “Bike Lanes” are still a dangerous idea on busy streets. Painting white lines in the street and designating that lane for bikes only offers a false sense of safety to riders. I know from experience as a youth growing up in Los Angeles and having drivers of parked cars opening their doors in front of me as I passed. Not only did I hit the doors but was thrown to the ground. On one occasion I remember a MCL bus had to stop quickly or I would have been ran over. This is still a problem in Los Angeles. Instead of bikes I have seen the results of buses hitting the left front doors of autos when the doors were opened into their path. In San Francisco the only major street where I have seen a lot of bike riders are Market and there is no parking allowed on that street until one passes Castro St. Banning parking on major streets in the Los Angeles area is impossible except in rare area’s of downtown. But what were seeing is these nice white lines being painted adjacent to the parked cars lane offering this false sense of security to bike riders. All the laws in the world can be and have been enacted but drivers of auto’s and trucks still open their doors without looking. It’s not going to be the minor injury that will kill bike riders in most cases but other vehicles legally traveling in the adjacent traffic lane running the bike rider over after they fall outside of the nice white bike lane lines.

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