My neighbor is a city traffic engineer. I told him we need real protected bike lanes but he says drivers don’t like it when they hit concrete barriers and damage their cars so cyclists are left with plastic sticks and paint for protection. mass.streetsblog.org/2021/01/26/b...

I'm hoping the guy said this with a wry cynicism and not stone-cold "these-are-the-facts".

If drivers don’t like it when they hit concrete barriers and damage their cars, then maybe drivers should avoid hitting concrete barriers and damaging their cars. Just a thought.

Have they tried NOT running into stuff?

Physical separation is an important aspect of vulnerable user safety in roadway design. Flexible delineators may be a decision for visibility when considering turn radius needs for commercial vehicles, fire rescue access to hydrants, or maint. / snow plow storage needs. Talk with your local admins.

I wonder about the GHG tradeoffs here. Anyone know of calculations of ghg intensity of physical barriers and how many avoided car trips would be required for breakeven on emissions? I know it's not all about Ghgs, but it is somewhat.

Cyclists and other vulnerable road users don't like it when they get hit by steel, glass, and rubber but I guess that's neither here nor there...

You should tell him that we don't like it when drivers hit us and damage our bones and organs.

They don’t HAVE to hit concrete barriers when driving! Ideally they would hit no things or people with their car but here we are 🤦🏻‍♀️

Drivers should simply not hit things and people if they don’t want to damage their cars.

Did you ask him whether these drivers had ever considered not hitting the concrete barriers? I don't like hitting concrete barriers and damaging my car, and that's how I solved that little problem.