I'm not sure what the actual term for these are, but in Lakeview along Broadway in front of Starbucks, there is strange elevated green strip and alittle further north on the opposite side another one roughly the same length at street level. 

I find that on a street as narrow, intensely trafficked as Broadway, these two present something of a danger to both cars & cyclists given you must swerve too quickly into them - and then you're immediately out back on super-busy Broadway. More than often I, like the rest of the traffic, am going so fast that I skip them alltogether, riding along the street for there's no time to quick switch.

How/who/why decided for them?