Hot take: Are the new bike lanes on Peachtree making traffic worse or actually helping?

I was stuck on Peachtree last Thursday trying to get through Midtown and I counted 12 cyclists in the new protected lanes while cars were bumper to bumper for 3 blocks. One guy on a bike even waved at me while I was sitting there for 10 minutes. It made me wonder if those lanes are just shifting the problem instead of fixing it. I looked up the city's traffic study from last quarter and it said car travel times increased 15% since the lanes went in, but bike commuter numbers went up 40%. So which side wins here? Local business owners near 10th Street say they lost customers because people can't park, but the cycling folks argue it's safer for everyone. Has anyone else noticed a difference driving through there lately?

3 comments

3 Comments

webb.hannah9d ago

Ugh, I was stuck behind a bike on that exact stretch last week, it's just ridiculous.

gracej999d ago

Does it feel like roads are getting more and more cluttered with stuff we didn't used to deal with, like bikes and scooters and those little electric skateboards? I've noticed that every time I drive through town now, there's something slowing things down that just wasn't there a few years ago. It's like the whole infrastructure is trying to fit in too many different types of traffic on lanes that were built just for cars.

white.keith9d ago

That 15% car time increase with a 40% bike bump is interesting but here's the thing nobody's really talking about: @gracej99 mentioned roads being cluttered, but the real clutter I see is delivery trucks double parked in the bike lane on Peachtree near Ponce every afternoon around 2pm. I watched a FedEx truck block the entire protected lane last Tuesday, forcing three cyclists into the car lane which then stopped everything for another two blocks. The city's study probably doesn't count that kind of mess. Until they actually enforce the no parking rules in those lanes, we're just paying for fancy curbs that get ignored.