Continuing on from Part 1, let's look at some of the only bikelanes I've seen in Aurora:
Problem 1 - putting bikelanes in subdivisions is fine and dandy (and I suspect it was done so Aurora politicians can say "we care about alternative transportation... we put in X km of bikelanes!", but the fact is that they are NOT needed.
Do you see cars on these streets? Suburbia is so spread out and planned so traffic is all on major roads and not on "residential" streets. Bikelanes are not needed. I biked around this subdivision for half an hour on a Saturday afternoon and did not pass one moving car.
Problem 2 - suburban streets don't actually go anywhere. The big roads do... the ones so hostile to cyclists that there is no option but biking on sidewalks. The little roads though, for the most part, don't go anywhere.... they are a maze of crescents and cul-de-sacs that have only a few entry/exit points to roads that go somewhere.
Problem 3 - Bikelanes in subdivisions really do nothing to battle the auto-centric planning of suburbia. This is a roundabout in the subdivision (a subdivision with token "New Urbanism" planning, like smaller front yards and porches on every house), and although the intent here is to make it look like it's friendly to pedestrians.... it's not. Look at all the pavement.
Just to the right of the above photo is a playground... wouldn't it be safer to SLOW traffic down (instead of just make it turn a bit)? Put in some brick paving... more trees... narrow the roadway.
Bikelanes are useless in suburbia. In addition to the above reasons, there is also a tendency for lots of people to park in these bikelanes (although I couldn't find any when I had the camera)... because there aren't very many cyclists.
You can see all the photos I took in Aurora on Flickr.
Discuss this topic and a lot more on the BikingToronto Forum
