Close call with car; what's the law?

[John in CR]

Whatever the law is in your jurisdiction isn't going to get you out of a coffin. The only way to ride is with the unwritten law...ASSUME YOU ARE INVISIBLE TO EVERYONE! That goes for cars, motorcycle, other bike, and pedestrians. If you truly ride like that you decrease the chances of an accident involving someone else at least 100 fold. Looking ahead and evaluating every intersection and being ready for evasive maneuvers until you are certain to be seen are the best ways to keep you out of the hospital or coffin. "The law" only comes into play after the fact, and it's a big maybe anyway since cyclists are treated like dirt with the benefit of any doubt typically going to the driver. Ride like every car is out to kill you intentionally or accidentally and live to ride another day.

Welcome to the real world, which doesn't cater to cyclists like the Netherlands does....No doubt it will change, but that's in the future, so in the meantime act invisible. Riding your ebike daily without a scratch is the best thing you can do to promote the cause.

John

 

[317537]

You should walk a bike across the pedestrian crossing or at least ride at walking speed. You did state you were riding slowly, but how slow is slowly? Ive seen kids fly across crossings too fast and they give motorists no chance to stop.

Because children ride bikes a lot I teach my children to walk bikes across crossings.

 

[Zoot Katz]

. . . There was a large and active group of cyclists where I worked at this time, and they persistently lobbied the local government about the conditions on this road. They compiled information about how many cyclists actually used the road, number of incidents, etc and just didn't take no for an answer. Eventually, they got the city to commission a traffic study which resulted in the road being re-striped as a genuine two-lane road with bike lanes on each side. I expect this sort of thing will become easier as cities realize it's a cheap buy-in to the green movement.

Too often these cheaply painted lines marginalise cyclists even further.

Intersections are most problematic.

They're regularly painted in door zones and sometimes suddenly end nowhere you want to be on a bicycle.

They amount to sub-standard bicyle ghettos and woe betide the cyclist who rides outside them.

They're a hasty after-thought that garners government dollars.

To be fair, there are a few instances where "bike lanes" do work but, if they must, I prefer the "sharrow" over stripes.

 

[317537]

Intersections are most problematic.

They're regularly painted in door zones and sometimes suddenly end nowhere you want to be on a bicycle.

They amount to sub-standard bicyle ghettos and woe betide the cyclist who rides outside them.

They're a hasty after-thought that garners government dollars.

To be fair, there are a few instances where "bike lanes" do work but, if they must, I prefer the "sharrow" over stripes.

We have the roundabouts here in oz with lots of shrubs and things blocking views of any on comming traffic. So many have complained about the safety issues with no results.

What gets me is how close they put crossing near these uncontrolled interections. Motorists speed up to get onto the roundabout then meet a pedestrian crossing. You think the town planning would be sensible enough to figure out motorists need a chance to stop. What ends up happeneing is the roundabouts end up grid locked and serve no extra conveniance. Motorists now seem to think the middle of roundabouts are a cool a place to hang out whilst waiting for the crossings to clear off.

 

[dogman dan]

I have to agree with Zoot about painted bike lanes. My city just recently took a very busy 4 lane road and made it two lane with a turn lane in the center and bike lanes on the sides. It is better for cars since you now have a place to wait to make a left trun. But only an idiot rides that bike lane since somebody will be right crossing you every 50 yards to turn into a buisness. On either side of this busy road are residential streets that are much safer. But every intersection has a two was stop sign against you, so cars can flow to the busy street. For cyclists, it would have been a lot better to flip the stop signs, and give bikes and cars a way to flow paralell to the busy street without the stop signs. Our city makes a big deal about being bike freindly, trying to attract more retirees to live here. But one of the bike lanes I ride daily, 6 miles long, has not seen a street sweeper in a full year. It's all glass and rocks, boards with nails, hubcaps, etc.

 

[317537]

I have to agree with Zoot about painted bike lanes. My city just recently took a very busy 4 lane road and made it two lane with a turn lane in the center and bike lanes on the sides. It is better for cars since you now have a place to wait to make a left trun. But only an idiot rides that bike lane since somebody will be right crossing you every 50 yards to turn into a buisness. On either side of this busy road are residential streets that are much safer. But every intersection has a two was stop sign against you, so cars can flow to the busy street. For cyclists, it would have been a lot better to flip the stop signs, and give bikes and cars a way to flow paralell to the busy street without the stop signs. Our city makes a big deal about being bike freindly, trying to attract more retirees to live here. But one of the bike lanes I ride daily, 6 miles long, has not seen a street sweeper in a full year. It's all glass and rocks, boards with nails, hubcaps, etc.

Oh yeah I hope they dont do that here. You know they get about 10 ft past you and pull infront of you and brake and turn. The way things are going soon they will have to be comitted to bike friendly.

We just had a news report of people losing their homes to rising sea water levels. Its getting very serious. Looks like Ebikes are going to get popular pretty soon. I'm not sure I'm going to enjoy this.

 

[rhitee05]

I think you're all correct about some of the issues associated with striped-off bike lanes in general. I the situation I was referring to, most of the improvement was just clearly defining the road as two lanes with a center turn lane and not the kinda-four-lane road it was (referred to as "leisure lanes"). That keeps the car traffic pattern more predictable and a lot safer for everyone concerned. There are only a few driveways and one T-intersection on this stretch of road, and good visibility where there are cars pulling in/out, so that's not such an issue.

One problem I saw a lot, particularly in Cambridge, MA was the painted bike lanes right alongside the parallel parking for cars. That's just asking to get doored, but the cyclists get somewhat penned-in by drivers who expect them to stay in their lane. That really sets up a bad situation for cyclists, since we legally have full rights to take a lane of traffic for ourselves, but drivers expect them to stay out of their way and in the bike lane. It'd be nice if there was some thought put in to make sure that the bike lane is actually a safe place for bikers to be.

 

[dogman dan]

Exactly, the previous striped for 4 lanes but narrow was actually safer feeling to me since you simply took a lane. Now you are expected to stay right, and take it like a dog when they right cross you. Moot point for me anyway, I just take one of many better alternate routes. The great thing about an ebike with 20 miles + range is the ease of taking the longer, safer way to your destination. I've been avoiding that street driving a car for 30 years anyway. It's a great example though, of govt doing something they think helps, but doesn't.

Harping one last time, the safest way to ride is to be predictable to cars, and visible, while assuming they are going to never see you.

 

[jag]

Years ago I biked in London (UK). The city government had adored many streets with painted bike lanes. Just like many of you point out, the down town bike lanes weren't particularly safe or useful. The most annoying thing in London was that cars woudl invariably block the designated bike lane by illegally parking across it.

That said, I have seen bike lanes that work. Along a multi lane highway painted lanes help the cars stay where they belong. A wide painted bike lane lowers the number of close brushby situations arising from cars unknowingly drifting left and right as they drive.

Here in Edmonton bikes get to ride in some bus lanes. However in the down town locations with frequent turnoffs they don't help much. As others pointed out, we bicyclists get cut off by right turners far to often. At least cars don't illegally park in the bus lane here. (Or the Edmontonians are just generally more law abiding when parking)

 

[jag]

The great thing about an ebike with 20 miles + range is the ease of taking the longer, safer way to your destination.

I find too that anytime I'm biking 10+km, I'll pick an efficient, safe route that will get me in approximately the right direction for the long leg, then for the final approach zigzag whatever roads are available to the destination.

This suggests that there should be a number of fast bike routes making efficient travel possible in the major directions, then it is ok to rely on available street structure for the shorter pieces.

City centers can be safe and pleasant to bike. Down-towns were built for multi-modal transportation a century or more ago. However now some have been taken over by cars to the detriment of other users. In particular, cars that just transit through without stopping because it is the shortest path. Here the same approach taken in some residential neighborhoods can be taken. Make routes through the downtown area more circuteous, and people without business there will choose routes outside downtown.