Letter: Bike lane lumps can be costly

I ride my bike in Vancouver, so I appreciated it when they painted bike lanes on Columbia.

Then they installed rows of solid gray lumps (dubbed armadillos) next to the bike lanes. They are immovable, hence hazards to bike riders.

Then they attached some sort of reflective striping to the lumps (dubbed zebradillos). I suppose the stripes are to make them more noticeable and to alert bike riders and others to the hazards.

Then they installed white posts before the rows of lumps to further alert folks that the hazards exist. The posts are designed to break away if hit. Soon many here will be broken.

So we have breakaway posts in front of thousands of hazardous lumps that no one I know asked for. The lumps (actually Ziclas) cost $135 each. I stopped counting at 700 on Columbia, so the installation cost about $100,000.

It’s only a matter of time before someone is seriously injured and sues the city.

Maybe I missed something, but it looks like the city has spent and will spend a fair amount of money benefiting no one but the makers of gray lumps and breakaway posts.