Maybe do some important reading before making it obvious you missed my point. This entire post is about the perceived safety of the barriers vs trade off to one lane of traffic. And presumed ridership. When it’s hot, few people ride AND it’s probably more dangerous than riding with no bike lane. But sounds like you should definitely ride a bike more.
I don’t think this is just a perceived improvement. I generally dislike flexposts, but the changes made here were substantial enough to make an actual difference in safety.
Particularly the extra space around the parallel parking near Juiceland is a massive safety improvement since now I don’t have to choose between a door zone or drifting into the car lanes. The Barton Blvd crosswalk is significantly safer for pedestrians too since you only have to cross 1 lane at a time.
Car behavior seems better/slower with only one lane too. I used to go out of my way to avoid that bike lane, but now ride down it almost daily.
And I’ve had few issues biking all summer, even on the hottest days. Mornings are excellent biking weather and my ride home after work isn’t bad after the sun gets lower. I do avoid long midday trips when its 105+, but still manage to use my bicycle for the majority of my trips.
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My hope is that they pave that little section like they did around the botanical gardens, seems like the logical and easy fix, then you have a continuous protected lane.
All in all I’m happy with the changes. I ride and drive equally through this section of road and I don’t see how it’s not measurably safer simply due to the fact that cars are farther from you with some amount of barrier. Everyone has more room.
I’ve noticed little change to the traffic other than what was pointed out about the more continuous stream of cars, which can add a little bit of time turning but I’ll take it. I’ve only seen it backed up at an odd time once. BS can be a backed up nightmare anyway at times, but it won’t be because of the changes.
The protected bike lane on Barton Springs Road is such an improvement! Hopefully the city can make some minor improvements and make it permanent.
One area that is still pretty dangerous for pedestrians and cyclists is the crosswalk at Barton Blvd. and Barton Spring Road. While there is a pedestrian crossing sign and stripes on the road, a lot of drivers can’t or don’t see pedestrians and cyclists until they are physically in the crosswalk, and don’t yield to them. It would be great if the city could install flashing lights there, like they have on other parts of BSR (such as in Zilker and in front of the Palmer Events Center).