Not here in Nawbany, but out in the wider world: "Protected bike lanes save lives."

I'd like to have a buck for every time I've endured a "conversation" like this.

Autocentric Artie: (anguished scream) How can THEY take lanes away from cars for bikes? I never see any bikes here!

Me: You don't see bikes because it isn't safe to ride them on high-speed streets. Make streets safe and they will come.

AA: Streets are for cars, not bikes! All bicyclists do is break the law! How am I supposed to drive to the gym?

Me: You know, you're an entitled, coddled, auto-centric half-wit.

AA: Why, thanks very much. Cars get me off, you know. They're better than porn.

At this point the chat usually ends, but let's not forget the moral of the story, as proven every day the whole world over: How did the human race ever manage to survive before internal combustion engines?

Why Protected Bike Lanes Save Lives, by David Dudley (City Lab)

A new study shows how cities with separated cycling infrastructure saw big safety improvements and higher ridership numbers.

Several weeks ago, painted lines and flexible plastic lane dividers began materializing on Maryland Avenue, one of the major north-south arteries that connect downtown Baltimore to the residential neighborhoods above the city. The resulting 2.6-mile route is called a cycle track, one of the city’s first examples of fully protected bike infrastructure. This new two-lane bike highway eliminated a lane of automobile traffic and 15 parking spaces, to the disgruntlement of many motorists who used the rowhouse-lined thoroughfare as a means of bolting downtown. But it’s a been something of a godsend to bikers, especially those (like me) weary of juking through traffic on a narrow, bus-intensive city streets ...