What about bike lanes?

First off, let's be clear: there is no 'Right to Bike Lanes'. The mere suggestion that somehow 'there should be bike lanes for bicyclists' has created literal lobbying and influence or activist groups who profit off government interference in favor of bike lanes. Expensive government construction firms count their profits on the upcoming over-sized contracts. Bicycle companies gear up for higher sales. And a general movement that believes that government is 'the way to do things' grows. All are subtle forms of corruption.

My area (San Gabriel, Pasadena, near Los Angeles) just made a huge waste of money and effort, in the name of bicycles. They took a major street (Rosemead Boulevard, State Route 19), and broke it. First, they cut the traffic from two lanes to three, by adding concrete areas to prohibit driving. If the road was originally two lanes, they merely reduced the available parking, which was helpful for residents and businesses. Then, they added a bicycle lane.

The benefit? I have yet to see substantial bicycle traffic on the street. People can still use nearby residential streets and avoid traffic, just as before. It's not quite a direct route, but then again, motorists outnumber bicyclists by a huge factor. Businesses were hit by their road being closed. Thousands of people inconvenienced. All for bike lanes that aren't used very often, and aren't even necessary.

So I would like a world where this decision is based on the people who use that road the most: the residents and businesses on that road. Having this decision come from some California Transportation Board, spurred by Federal Funding to socially engineer more bicycle usage, was a bad decision.

So how does the LA area solve it's transportation problem? For starters, don't put government in charge of the growth plans in the 1920's through 1950's, where the world's best public transportation system (The Red Car) was dismantled, in favor of a freeway system that used to be exalted as one of mankind's great achievements that 'only government could accomplish', but instead has been found to be a terrible transportation system that combines environmental nightmares with unbalanced growth and inconvenience and aggravation to all the people who live here.

/r/AskLibertarians Thread