At a quarter past eight on a weekday morning, the protected bike lane on Harbor Avenue in Riverton looks less like a quiet cycling path and more like a second road. Riders on city bikes, cargo bikes and electric scooters move in a steady stream, and at the busiest junctions they wait two or three light cycles to get through.
In the video, our reporter rides the four-kilometer corridor from the central station to the university district during the morning peak and talks to commuters, a traffic engineer and a delivery rider about what has changed. The city’s own counters back up what viewers can see: bike and scooter trips on the route have almost doubled since last fall, while car traffic on the parallel lanes has fallen by around 12 percent.
A network built for fewer riders
The lane was designed only four years ago for about 3,000 trips a day. It now regularly handles more than 7,000. Planners say the problem is not just the numbers but the mix of speeds, as fast electric bikes overtake parents with child seats and scooters weave between them.
We built the first lanes for the city we had, not for the one that showed up.
Lena Hartwig, traffic engineer at Riverton city hall
Commuters interviewed in the video describe near misses at intersections and crowding at the narrow bridge over the river, where the lane shrinks to a single file. Several said they had switched from the car or the bus during the past year, mostly to save money and time.
It is faster than driving, but some mornings it feels like a race.
Tomas Varga, accountant and daily commuter
What the city plans next
City hall says it will widen the busiest section next spring and add a separate lane for faster vehicles on two key junctions. A proposal to remove parking spaces along Harbor Avenue to make room is due before the city council next month and is expected to be contested by local shop owners.
The transport ministry is also reviewing national rules for electric scooters, including speed limits on shared lanes. Planners in Port Alden and Elmbridge are watching closely, as both cities report similar growth on their own routes.
For now, the advice from city engineers is simple: leave a few minutes earlier, keep right unless overtaking and use a bell, not a shout.
Comments 3
Widening is fine, but the scooters need their own speed limit before someone gets hurt.
The bridge section is the worst part of my commute. Glad someone finally filmed it at eight in the morning.
I sold my second car last year because of this lane. More of them, please.