There are some reasonable examples in Seattle, I”ll take a photo when I see one and post it. The problem is that this design isn”t consistently used.

Another example of a situation like this would be bus priority at signals. this is where there is another signal indication for the buses, to give them a head start of the stopped traffic. if this would be the same thing for the bike signal, it wouldn”t necessarily create more signals, but rather utilize more of the existing system.

does this make it either more efficient or safe? no and maybe yes. a cyclist still has to stop, and now you”ve increased the amount of green time for that phase, which either makes the time a car has to wait on the other approach longer. in terms of safety, a cyclist now has their own phase, which might create a false sense of security that a car would remained stop and not confuse the cyclist signal for their own. that’’s a might, not a definately.

the only application the above example could be useful would be either on 2nd or 4th in downtown seattle, since those are the only multilane one way streets with parking on both sides, that i”m aware of. this application would be more useful to avoid getting hit by a passenger getting out of a car. this as i understand it is a problem, since most passengers can”t see out of their side mirror, and aren”t paying attention to people coming down the road.

if these existed on 2nd, I”d still ride in the middle of the road.

It shows that bicycles are second class citizens to me. A car that is turning left doesn”t need to wait for another light cycle (they can turn when they have a green light). A bicycle needs to wait for a green to get to the intersection, then wait for the green on 19th when they want to make their left.

And I like that sign. I wouldn”t mind putting something like that up in a few intersections around here.

I started moving into the lane near rolling intersections, and stopped rolling past waiting cars. When stopped or slowing at intersections along with cars, I *always* take the full lane. I haven”t been hit since I started doing that, though I have gotten puzzled looks and occasional yelling from drivers.

I think that Michaal Bluejay’’s bicyclesafe website is really good and covers the basics. Kent links to it from his post.

I would argue that, along with the suggestions in your last parargaph, cyclists need to act like other slow moving vehicles and pull over if a large queue forms behind them. I rarely need to do this, but sometimes if I”m taking the lane during a rush hour, I do.