In other words, officials aren't saying the barriers caused the crashes. They're saying that drivers need to pay better attention and avoid an obvious piece of infrastructure.
Why the Barriers Are Doing Their Job
Protected bike lanes rank among the most effective tools governments have for keeping cyclists safe. Painted lanes rely almost entirely on drivers staying where they belong.
Protected ones assume that, every so often, they won't.
As we've noted before, planning for the reality that even well-meaning people slip up is the smartest way to design a road.
Viewed through that lens, a car climbing onto a concrete divider isn't necessarily evidence that the divider failed.
If anything, it suggests the vehicle didn't continue into the bike lane itself.
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One Grant Park resident who witnessed one of the crashes made precisely that point, telling WSB-TV that without the barrier “somebody could have been killed because he was right in the lane.”
