New Bike Lanes - Panic

Today was a rest day for me, meaning I did not work out and I did not go to work because it's a holiday.  I did leave my house to meet my new trainers and spent some time on the re-paved and re-striped Park Ave.

Park Ave and Portland Ave are parallel one way streets in Minneapolis.  Both have just been re-paved and re-striped taking them from three car lanes and a bike line on the LEFT side of each street, changing it to two car lanes a buffer lane and a bike lane on the RIGHT side of the street.  They also lowered the speed limit, but I expect people will continue zipping along at 45mph.  Here's a picture from Councilman Robert Lilligren's facebook page:

One of the comments on his page says the road is going to be more dangerous because drivers have basically no clue how to take a right turn around the bike lane.  I already saw one driver just basically get in the bike lane with his/her car, way earlier than was needed to take a right.  I think it's the buffer lane that confuses people.  We have eight billion other streets with a bike lane and parking on the right and drivers can figure those out just fine. 

For now, I'm happy the work was done.  Those are both really big roads for bikes and it sucks to be cycling and have cars passing too close going too fast (and for drivers who want to get over but don't have the time or space to do so).  We'll see if the drivers and cyclists can figure out how to co-exist and make right turns in this new situation.