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The danger is actually the bike lane, because it puts you in the drivers blind spot, that kind of accident is so common it even has a name, it is called right hook (in right driving countries). It is easy to learn to avoid collisions with cars while driving a bicycle, one of the main lessons is do not ride on the bike lane, specially in intersections you should be in front of the other driver not on its side.

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This is only true for poorly designed intersections where an unprotected bike lane abruptly terminates and mixes with traffic. There are many intersection and lane designs that make right hook crashes nearly impossible.

The well designed bike lane does not exist, the whole idea of segregating by type of vehicle is wrong. And this is so because it contradicts the principles of traffic engineering. It is not done for safety but for political reasons.

Do you believe that banning big rigs from city streets is similarly wrong? What about separating walkers from cars with traffic, do we need to ban sidewalks and extend the automobile lanes all the way to the structure facades?

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