Comments on: bike lanes kill

By: MikeOnBike

MikeOnBike — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:15:09 +0000

I”ve yet to see an explanation of how a bike box prevents right hooks. Without bike-specific signals, it might cause more right hooks, as explained by John S. Allen:
http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/stopline.htm
(See last paragraph.)

By: Samuel

Samuel — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 20:43:18 +0000

Portland had six cyclists deaths last year, with at least two due to similar “button hook” collisions. Our city commissioners are putting in what’’s called “bike boxes”, which are designated places for bikes to move into the traffic lanes, at over a dozen intersections. They”ve been effective in Europe, and everyone’’s hoping they”ll enjoy similar success here. Of course, the best tool to prevent these tragedies is awareness and education, but it shouldn”t take death to raise it.

By: John S. Allen

John S. Allen — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:47:45 +0000

Blue lanes have been mentioned in this discussion. So, what does painting bike lanes blue accomplish? If the lane is located so that bicycle traffic conflicts with normal traffic movements, then maybe they make motorists somewhat more attentive and maybe they make both bicyclists and motorists more likely to operate incorrectly, as the Portland study shows. Comments on blue lanes may be found at http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/lanes/amiblue.htm , at http://www.bikexprt.com/massfacil/cambridge/bluelane.htm and at pages linked from http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/links.htm#bluelane

By: Roy E

Roy E — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 18:18:41 +0000

I have been riding my bike to work for the past 15 years now and have had a myriad of close calls. The worst vehicles are trucks, buses, and trailers. You need to be defensive when on the road. I believe in most cases bike lanes are added as an after-thought when roads are designed. You can not trust ICE vehicles when riding a bike.

There’’s nothing more fun than riding to work. I”m excited to get up and go and I get excited to head home.

One can only hope the story of Bryce Lewis may help make cycling safer for the rest of us by raising awareness.

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 20:32:31 +0000

That photo came from local.live.com. They have a BirdsEye view feature that makes it easy to check for bike lanes.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:51:45 +0000

Nice picture. How did you get it? I could not find it through the link. I videotaped this intersection in 2004 as an excellent example of the city painting bike lanes that call for behavior that is contrary to the rules of the road and what bicycle driving instructors teach.
http://www.bikedexter.com click: fatal-intersection .
Please contact me, I would like to discuss some things we could do to follow up with this.

By: David Smith

David Smith — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:09:54 +0000

By: Dennis

Dennis — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 00:05:59 +0000

Richard, I hope you do fill one of the vacancies on the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB). You definately will provide a differing veiwpoint than the bike lane lovers and training wheel backslappers that are presently on this board. They make me want to puke that is why couldn”t and wouldn”t apply to join the board myself.

Alex you GET IT! you Rock! So how do we get cyclists to understand and recognize the danger that bike lanes can lead then to?

coupdegrace

By: AlexWetmore

AlexWetmore — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 23:02:35 +0000

Bradley — I agree with you that it is badly designed bike lanes that kill. However the badly designed ones are the most common ones by far.

There is a lot of unknown about the specifics of this accident and many of the first person accounts disagree with each other. Rather than focussing on a specific accident I wanted to highlight a common type of accident that occurs with bike lanes.

Greg — I”m torn on bike lanes myself. They often do create dangerous situations and riding in the lane is usually the right thing to do. However they also tend to be a “gateway” to vehicular cycling that makes cyclists more comfortable in riding in the streets. This makes them more likely to use their bicycle for transportation.

Thanks for the pointer to the other discussion on this matter. Portland’’s study around the blue lanes looks interesting.

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:27:25 +0000

In the discussion about a later slog post

http://slog.thestranger.com/2007/09/making_biking_safer

there’’s some interesting talk about the Portland study of blue lanes and what that study did (or perhaps did not) discover about their effectiveness.

Short answer is that they might not be much of a solution, either.

I”m beginning to find myself agreeing at least partially with the VC folks. I think bike lanes are dangerous as drivers don”t look for traffic in them and therefore you end up with a lot of left and right hooks. I wonder if they may still have a beneficial role in situations where they essentially mark out a wide lane on a fast street where sharing the lane isn”t practical. I”m also curious if they might be worthwhile as climbing lanes.

In either case, being in a bike lane makes me nervous. And when I see people riding on a bike lane like the one on Dexter (welcome to the door zone!) I”m simply aghast that anyone thought that was a good idea.