Waymo says can't avoid bike lanes because riders want to be dropped off in them

Scope of the Issue

• Waymo’s robotaxis in cities like SF and (prospectively) London reportedly pull into bike lanes for pickups/drop-offs, framed as “normal practice” that matches customer expectations and common taxi/rideshare behavior.
• Some commenters stress this isn’t unique to AVs: human taxis, Uber/Lyft, delivery trucks, and even police routinely block bike lanes, often without consequences.
• Others argue AVs make a qualitatively different choice: a centralized system deliberately programmed to break or stretch local rules.

Legality, Responsibility, and Enforcement

• In several jurisdictions, driving/parking in bike lanes is illegal except when “unavoidable”; rules and exceptions (e.g., for taxis or right turns) differ by place and are sometimes ambiguous.
• Many argue that “customers expect it” is not a legal defense; if an individual driver said they “can’t” follow traffic laws, they’d lose their license.
• Proposals: heavy fines scaled to company value, point systems that could suspend fleets, citizen bounty programs, and using AVs’ own logs/video as evidence.
• Counterpoint: cities often create rules that are impossible to fully follow (no space for loading, no realistic pickup zones) and then selectively enforce them, so blaming only Waymo is seen as incomplete.

Safety and Design Trade-offs

• Blocking a bike lane forces cyclists to merge into car traffic, increasing risk; however, stopping in the car lane raises dooring risk into the bike lane and angers drivers.
• There is debate over which is safer; some cyclists say they’d rather go around a stopped car, others see that maneuver as a major hazard.
• A specific “dooring” injury involving a Waymo passenger is cited; others describe Waymo’s cyclist-detection warnings and (sometimes) door locking as a partial mitigation.
• Right-turn laws that require cars to merge into bike lanes (to avoid right hooks) are frequently ignored by human drivers; some suspect AVs follow these better.

Bike Infrastructure and Urban Planning

• Many see painted curbside bike lanes as fundamentally flawed “painted gutters”: easily blocked, door-zone-prone, and unsafe at intersections.
• Strong support for physically separated or raised bike lanes with clear loading/drop-off bays; examples from the Netherlands and some US cities are cited.
• Others note drawbacks of curbed lanes (visibility at turns, trash cans, trapped cyclists behind blockages) and emphasize that design details matter.
• Broader view: the real fix is less car dependence, better transit, and coherent loading/pickup planning, not just tweaking AV behavior.

Autonomous Vehicles vs Human Drivers

• Some cyclists say being near Waymos feels markedly safer than being near human drivers: better stopping, yielding, and predictability.
• Others argue that the bar for AVs should be much higher than “no worse than humans,” especially given the scale and centralized control.
• There is concern that as AVs chase “efficiency” and customer satisfaction, their behavior is becoming more aggressive (late merges, clever lane use) rather than ultra-conservative.

Cyclist, Driver, and Pedestrian Behavior

• Long subthread on who breaks laws more: cyclists or drivers.
  • Some cite research (linked articles) suggesting motorists violate rules more frequently than cyclists.
  • Others offer strong anecdotal claims of “lawless” cyclists (red-light running, wrong-way riding, sidewalk use) and similarly widespread driver misconduct (speeding, phone use, rolling stops).
• Multiple people stress that even if cyclists misbehave, cars pose vastly greater lethal risk; lawbreaking by less-dangerous users is not symmetric with multi-ton vehicles.

Frustration, Politics, and Expectations

• Several argue that if AVs claim to improve safety, they must lead on compliance rather than mirror bad local norms.
• Others think the real lever is political: enforce existing rules on all vehicles and build proper infrastructure; AV behavior will follow.
• The thread reflects broader fatigue with car-centric design, skepticism about corporate motives, and, in some cases, extreme reactions (talk of vandalizing AVs or removing bike lanes altogether).