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Bike lanes in the US can be pretty haphazard, in many cases they're sprinkled discontinuously around the area like a tease

it almost feels more dangerous to merge into and out of motor traffic at every other intersection

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Worse still is having to merge in/out of traffic to avoid parked vehicles. In the state of Oregon, you are legally entitled to the same rights as any other vehicle on the road, but that also means you are legally obligated to move over when possible so faster vehicles can pass. In practice, this means swerving into the lane of car traffic to get around cars parked on the curb, and then moving back into the "bike lane", repeatedly. It's frightening, even if drivers here tend to be very considerate to pedestrians.

There is probably an exception for safety — you don’t have to merge into the rightmost lane if it is not safe. (You’re describing a scenario where it isn’t safe.) I know WA cycling law has such an exception, but I don’t know about OR specifically.

The discontinuity is silliest part. What's the point of a bike lane that just... ends?

Worse still, the fact that few are using the bike lane to nowhere is used as a justification for not building any more of them and completing the network.

It's just incredibly backwards.

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