Bike lanes a mixed blessing for bicyclists

There may be a few bumps on the road to a bike-friendly Boston University campus.

With the recent addition of bicycle lanes to Commonwealth Avenue, student bicyclists said they are learning to ride alongside traffic with varying success.

"One time, I had to avoid a car because he wasn't avoiding me," College of General Studies sophomore Zach Kohn said, describing a vehicle that had swerved into the bike lane.

"The fact that there is somewhere to ride your bike where you're not near cars or people, it's helpful," he said.

When it comes to riding in the bike lanes at the intersection near the BU Bridge, however, "it's a little frightening there," Kohn said.

Although the bike lanes were the result of a "collaboration between Boston University, city of Boston agencies and the state highway department," the Boston Police Department - not the Boston University Police Department - is responsible for the enforcement of traffic laws, including making sure vehicles stay out of bicycle lanes, Boston Transportation Department Director of Policy and Planning Vineet Gupta said.

"The roads are run by the city of Boston," Gupta said. "It's the city's responsibility to maintain [the bike lanes]."

School of Engineering sophomore Michael Schmitt said he has not experienced any problems while using the bike lanes.

"Cars have been basically staying out of the way, so they haven't really been blocking it too much that I've noticed," he said.

Schmitt said he actually finds it easier now to deal with traffic as a result of the bike lanes.

"I don't have to worry about the cars as much, it's really convenient to ride in the bike lanes," he said. "I wish there were more around."

College of Fine Arts senior Lisa Santosa said she has noticed cars intruding on the bike lanes, especially in the central section of campus near the BU Bridge, where the bike lanes abruptly end.

"Cars definitely block them," she said. "It's pretty often you have to go around them, but it's pretty normal. My fear is just getting doored because the bike lane is so close to where cars are parked."

Santosa said that, despite any problems she has encountered, she is happy to see the bike community finally getting recognition in Boston.

"That's where we'd ride even if there wasn't a sanctioned area for it," she said. "It's at least a good direction to be going in."

The bike lanes are part of an initiative by the mayor to make Boston more bike-friendly, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's spokesman Nick Martin said.

"It's a learning process for both cyclists and drivers," he said. "Because the lanes are new, drivers have to get used to not having that extra road space . . . but I think both ends have been receptive so far."

Boston University spokesman Colin Riley said that students need to be patient as drivers adjust to sharing the road with cyclists.

"We want to be a bike-friendly campus," Riley said. "We want to continue to encourage students, staff and faculty to use bikes . . . but this is also a stretch of road with a lot of activity.

"At some point in the future, ideally, I think it will all be improved, but there's still a transition," he said. "It takes a lot of getting used to."