Yeah WDI, that's my point I guess. afaik one can set CW to record a new take to a new track automatically, so why bother with take lanes - I mean I have not used that function either as I just insert a new track and arm it for a re-record, but I think you get what I am saying.
 
As I wrote I will give it a try as the consensus seems to be they are useful, albeit flawed.

Karl explains a comping method here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=teGGxrYGvO8 that gives some rationale to using lanes instead of tracks

Thanks Scook

I find them very useful for what I do - I definitely like them better than the old layers.  However, there could be some modifications; but, right now I work within the parameters...

I find it easier to copy a track, and then delete the audio on the new track. I will usually use these two tracks until I'm happy and then edit and bounce. I'm sure the take lanes idea will be improved with X2b or X3.  

WDI
Take lanes are for comping, meaning creating a composite from multiple takes. For instance a singer might try 4 takes of a vocal track. Then you would select the best parts from the 4 takes to create the composite. Take lanes and the tools they provide should make this an extremely easy process. If using take lanes is not easier than using 4 different tracks for comping there is something wrong with take lanes.

What's odd about the most common need for Lanes is the one thing they simply don't do well, which is comping. Recording onto new Lanes for multiple takes is easy and works fairly well. However, the actual act of comping reveals more problems than I've ever had with Sonar. It failed horribly for me in this respect. Lots of doing things 2-3 times to get it right, simply because of weirdness.

I use them all the time when I'm practicing. I use them less often when I'm recording others.

They are extremely, extremely useful and a dream come true. They feed into the holy grail of a "zero commitment, total retention, total choice" workflow -- keep everything, be forced to use nothing, and choose anything.  

I agree with tayzonday!  I find take lanes very useful.. I use them all of the time.. I have never had any issues using them.. I prefer keeping takes on a single track, so that I do not have to copy all of my Pro-Channel and Plugins into different tracks... But to each their own.. But as for myself, I love the take lanes especially on difficult/problem areas where 6+ takes are required.. I set the loop function and hit record and voila, a 1 measure count-in and Im ready to go.. ~ Love it.

Recording with Take Lanes on a single vocal or guitar line, for example is a dream; no arguments there. It's after that is done and you need to start "comping" the takes into one.
 
Try building a new single Take Lane from a collection of others by dragging little bits from other Take Lanes, such as a Vocal comp. If you're not doing that, to try and widdle down the number of Lanes you have, you may not see an issue. However, Take Lanes can eat up a LOT of real-estate if you have more than 20 Lanes. Cut and Paste parts of a Lane to another Lane and see what happens.
 
Everyone's needs are different, which is great that at least 80% of their needs can all be met in one way or another. However, no matter how many people have an error-free experience, I can say that I've routinely had issues with Take Lanes, and for me, they're useful, but not very. Again, the idea is awesome! But when it breaks, you're less likely to continue using broken code.