Riding up to the NE Heights this past weekend (Sunset Canyon…fun!), we came across good ‘ol Burlison Rd., home to some of the first buffered bike lanes in Burque. Having not ridden out there in a while, I was slightly, and strangely, saddened that a new striping job has put the buffer between cars and bikes, instead of between bikes and the curb.

Yes, I know this is “better” (although you’d be surprised how many cyclists don’t like this configuration because closer to the curb means poorer sight line to folks coming out of driveways and higher amounts of debris in the lane), but Burlison was so quaint with its reversed bikes<>curb look. I miss those “Fear the curb! Be very afraid of the curb!” lanes.

And yes, this most pointedly means I am getting too emotionally attached to bicycle infrastructure. I’ve even spent 20 minutes on my hard drive trying to find a photo with the old configuration. No luck so far.

But wait…what about Google Street View! Glory be to Google! Bring on the quaintly wonderfulness of those old quirky lanes:

Wow.

That’s a really lousy lane compared to the new iteration. Nowhere near as good/safe. Pretty dumb overall, in fact. Guess nostalgia is like that. Kinda like watching old Black Sabbath videos from one’s childhood and realizing that, well, you know.

So kudos to the City for improving Burlison, nostalgia and “Fairies Wear Boots” be damned. Let’s take one more look at why nostalgia is overrated.