You've heard of physically seperate bikelanes, right? It's when the bikelane-makers put some kind of barrier on the side of a bikelane to make them nice and safe.

A good example would be the Quay to the City lanes from last summer, which is the photo above (when are these going to be permanently installed, already? Wasn't work supposed to start this summer?!?!)

New York has their own version of them ... they're buffered - with a diagonally striped section of road between the bikelane and carlanes... and New Yorkers LOVE them!

Bike lanes that separate bicyclists from motor vehicle traffic are safer and encourage more bicycling, according to a recent survey by Transportation Alternatives. The survey of 147 cyclists was conducted along the 8th Avenue bike lane in Manhattan, one of the few bike paths to integrate both “buffered” and “unbuffered” segments.

Transportation Alternatives found:

• Buffered bike lanes are are perceived as being safer than conventional lanes.
  52% of respondents feel safe in buffered lanes, versus only 21% in conventional bike lanes. Conventional bike lanes are more dangerous than buffered lanes -- 44% of respondents find the conventional lanes dangerous or intolerable, versus only 19% of respondents surveyed on buffered lanes.
  

• Buffered or not, bike lanes encourage more bicycling.
  Seven out of ten cyclists use 8th Avenue more often since the lane was installed.

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