Midweek Post for February 8, 2023 – The 8 Newest and Best Bike Lanes Built in 2022

The wide-ranging environmental impact of automobiles and other motorized vehicles on the climate is becoming a more significant issue every year. That’s why it’s refreshing to see many places around the United States emphasize getting people onto bikes. And they’re doing this by investing in cycling infrastructure, specifically bike paths and bike lanes.

According to an article on the People For Bikes website, 2022 was a banner year for bike lanes and for cycling infrastructure. While many communities took on bike infrastructure projects in 2022, People For Bikes focuses on 8 of them it deems the most notable. The other major and most important point here is these bike lanes are considered protected.

What is a Protected Bike Lane?

A protected bike lane is more than a bike path. And it is more than a demarcation indicated by some paint, a picture of a bike on the pavement, or a “Share the Road” sign.

A truly protected bike lane won’t ever put a bicyclist in close contact with a moving motorized vehicle. In fact, unless a bike lane has the following characteristics, it’s not really a protected bike lane.

• Separation Between Moving Vehicle Traffic.
• Built exclusively for the use of bikes.
• Runs close to or parallel to a road.

Well, you might say, isn’t the place where I see people on bikes and pedestrians walking a protected bike lane? That is considered a shared path. So, the answer is no, it is not. And if people are walking in a bike lane, they do so to their own detriment. Bike lanes are for bikes only.

The 8 Most Notable New Bike Lanes

There are those who don’t care much for bikes or cyclists. They believe (falsely) that adding bike lanes to a place is an expensive extravagance not to mention a nuisance to car, truck, and bus traffic.

Each of these 8 projects, though, was well-funded, well thought-out, and was built to blend with the current urban landscape and traffic flow patterns. See the People for Bikes article for details about each new bike lane.

1. Marin Boulevard Bikeway, Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ
2. Broad Street, Providence, RI
3. Green Lake Outer Loop, Seattle, WA
4. Hub City Hopper Trail, Spartanburg, SC
5. The 7-Line, Bloomington, IN
6. Naito Parkway, Portland, OR
7. Bigelow Boulevard, Pittsburgh, PA
8. Capital Crescent Surface Trail, Bethesda, MD

Other Car Free Areas for Bikes and Pedestrians

The People for Bikes article notes there are also places in the United States designated as car-free zones. These are areas where the threat and presence of cars have been removed and where they are no longer allowed.

Some of these streets were eventually reclaimed for use by cars or lost because of political measures. However, there is a renewed devotion by city planners to assign more space to car-free access for communities throughout the country. Here are just a few.

• JFK Drive, San Francisco, CA
• Beach Drive, Washington, D.C.
• Culdesac, Tempe, AZ
• Neighborhood Next, San Diego, CA
• 34th Avenue, New York, NY

Last Thoughts

More bike lanes or bike paths in the United States and a focus by city planners to bring them to fruition is a welcomed change. It is a way for us all to not only focus on personal health but to also slowly help heal the environment in which we need to live.