The street that connects my neighborhood to Indianapolis has a bottleneck. For about a quarter miles, it goes from four lanes down to two. Two narrow lanes, no shoulder, heavy traffic. My neighbors and I call this charming little stretch “Death Alley.” 

A few weeks ago, the city started repaving the road, and I heard they were going to put in a bike lane. Cool, I thought. Now the people of my town can bike right into Indy. And maybe we’re all becoming a little more progressive and environmentally friendly, and a little less dependent on oil and cars. It felt like a small leap toward a good future. 

But when they started paving the road, it didn’t look any wider. And so far there’s no sign of a separate bike lane to run parallel to the road, like the one they built up on 71st street. What I did see—what just appeared today—are signs that say “Bicycle May Use Full Lane.” 

The bottleneck hasn’t changed. Traffic certainly won’t change. The Department of Public Works basically put up a sign that says, Welcome to Death Alley! so that someone at City Hall can get credit for building another bike lane. 

Oh, they’re also spray-painting a picture of a bike on the road, which is a good facsimile of what your bike will look like once it’s been flattened by an F150. 

If this was merely stupid, I’d shake my head and get over it. But this is beyond irresponsible; it’s reckless. You want credit, DPW? I’ll tell you what you’ll get credit for: The fatality that will happen when someone gets suckered in by your signs and attempts to ride through that bottleneck during rush hour. Their blood will be on your hands. 

Stop spray-painting pictures of bikes on the roads and start following the best practices of bike lane building. Either do it right or don’t do it at all.