How to design conflict into cycle lanes: A guide

I hadn't cycled this way in a while, so the resurfaced bit of previously rutted road was a joy. And then came this lane. If anyone asks me again why cyclists don't use facilities created for them at great expense*, I'll point them at this picture, which creates so much conflict in a number of ways. How many ways? Ooh, okay, let's go...

Right, first off, you can see the 'logic', such as it is. There are parked cars either side of the side street. You want to put a bike lane in. You desperately don't want to remove any parking. There aren't parked cars at the junction. You wiggle.

But...

1. Door Zone

Bike lanes beside parking bays. A joyous invitation to be doored. And if you think potential dooring isn't that serious, well it kills people. So it is. And we deliberately put cyclists there.

2. Junction Leavers

Those parked cars then create an issue for anyone pulling out of that junction. They can't see the way clear. They have to pull forward a bit into.... the bike lane. Well done. Slow hand clap.

3. Wiggle it, just a little bit

Because of course the safest way for a cyclist to make their way along a street is to swerve in and out of gaps in parked cars. Yeah. That's like totally safe.

4. Annoying the Motorists

So you avoid riding in the lane, avoid doing the wiggle, just cut straight across. And suddenly you're 'not using the lane my road tax has paid for'. You're putting yourself in the way of motorised traffic 'deliberately' ('deliberately is always used as a euphemism for 'deliberately to get in my way because you want to annoy drivers' way, whereas it's actually 'deliberately to keep myself as safe as possible', but hey, that's not important when you've got to get to the red lights ahead a few seconds earlier). The wiggle reinforces that notion that cyclists must keep left. That they're in the way of traffic. That they're an inconvenience.

Not people trying to get to where they're going, just like you, wanting to arrive safe, with people at home who love them.

So well done traffic planners of Edinburgh, for giving us a lane that makes things more dangerous, that reinforces anti-cyclist mentalities, and that means I'll probably avoid this street from now on.

*aye right, relative to general road costs???