Comparing Bellingham's Magnolia Street bike lane to Holly Street bike lane. Magnolia might be better, but Holly faces different circumstances.

Simple bike lane along Magnolia Street. Maybe Bellingham should have made the new Holly Street bike lane simply like this?

I'm okay with the new Holly lane, but it does seem to be generating lots of criticism on social media.

Holly is a different kind of street than Magnolia. It carries more traffic. Due to more retailing along Holly, there is quite a bit of activity, along the street, from both parked cars pulling in and out as well as pedestrians darting about.

I'm no traffic engineer, but I think they are trying to slow down both car and bicycle traffic on Holly for safety.

Holly is the type of street that an organization called "Strong Towns" calls a "strode." A strode is the cross between street and road.

Strong Towns defines street as one for slow speeds with lots of activity along it, such as parking, retailing, walking and so forth. A road has more limited access and is designed for faster traffic. Holly is, in a way, the worst of both. It's a major crosstown route for cars, but it's also a congested retail street. This makes it a difficult situation.

Maybe just the simple Magnolia style bike lane is good enough, but who knows. It's a predicament.

I can imagine some folks just frustratingly saying (like the stereotype of Trump supporters) to just go back to all lanes for cars to funnel more traffic through. People might see trying to change this as just a waste of money.

Of course much of making our world greener could be viewed as just spending more money. If it prevents accident, however, it saves money.