Arguments for/against bike lanes? What are the arguments for and against bike lanes? Can anyone summarize the best reasons they're good for and bad for cyclists and automobile drivers? 

For example, Are there some environments particularly suited for bike lanes? Are there some types of locales that would be particularly suited for them, where they wouldn't cause resentment?
AGAINST

One of my primary issues with bike lanes is that motorists tend to think that you have to stay in that lane.  So when you have to move right because of debris, garbage cans or parked cars in the lane it further annoys ill-informed drivers.

Additionally, drivers come to expect you to be out of traffic, riding on the shoulder, and will squeeze by you closer.

Many bike lanes are placed immediately to the left (traffic-side, may be right depending on the country) of the parking area, so if you remain in the bike lane you are in the "door zone".

Bike lanes tend to increase confusion and conflict at intersections, either forcing the cars to cross the lanes in an awkward manner, or enticing cyclists to filter to the front of the lane and possibly blocking turning actions by motorists. Bike lanes encourage passing on the right, which can be a very dangerous action for the cyclist.

Finally - by law in most places every lane is a bike lane... there is no possible way for designated bike lanes and routes to be marked to every destination I would like to visit, and by law when I am in the lane I am traffic, I'm not blocking traffic. (sorry, I get a little militant about bike lanes, especially when they are the primary focus of improved cycling infrastructure rather than wider roads with calmer traffic.)

FOR

As someone with some experience teaching workshops for new bike commuters, I find that the existence of convenient bike lanes and multi-use paths makes taking those first trips easier.  Novice commuters feel more comfortable riding on a marked bike lane, even if they don't realize that they may be marginally less safe in a bike lane at the far right edge of the roadway, generally a riskier position.

There are some places, like one particularly popular area in Salt Lake City, where rather than position a lane demarcated with white lines to the side of the travel lane, the DOT painted a wide green lane with bike icons almost in the middle of the right-most travel lane and erected signs that read "Bicycles Allowed Full Use of Lane."   This is not a bike lane, but a hybrid or shared-lane, and  I love it because it reinforces the fact that bikes are traffic, and roads must be shared.