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Comment by del82 | Hacker News Reader

Queens Boulevard[0] is like that, with through-traffic lanes and local lanes divided by a barrier, and it's very much not a pleasant experience to walk or bike near it. It's just so wide, loud, and dangerous[1], though there have been some recent fixes to improve safety.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Boulevard

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_Boulevard#Safety_issues...

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A large stretch of Queens Boulevard has a bike lane alongside of its local lanes now. I just biked the length of it the other day, it's actually quite a pleasant urban biking experience in terms of safety (though not in terms of scenery). The lane is wide, separated from traffic, and the intersections with cars are sensibly designed[0].

(In the map view below, the bike lane is the green lane, where the tan painted area is designated for pedestrians. But almost no pedestrians are going to be walking parallel with the road between the local and through lanes. And if they are, they're likely going to be on the actual median instead of in the painted area. So it's safe to bike in the tan paint, and leave the entire green bike lane as a buffer area. This may sound disrespectful to pedestrians, but when I biked the entire length of the bike lane the other day, I didn't see a single pedestrian walking in this area or even on the median.)

[0]: https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7389203,-73.8891268,64m/data...

"Along much of its length (...), the road includes six express lanes (three in each direction) and a three-lane-wide service road on each side."

Sheesh, no wonder it's unpleasant. I'm talking about four express lanes, and a single narrow (just over 8ft, not 11!) service lane on each side.

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