[SDCBC] Pet peeve: cyclists have "no choice" but to be unsafe/crazy

[Michael Elliott]

Hi Gene,

Have you contacted the city's streets dept. about maybe having some signs 
posted in those two locations? I recently had good luck with the city of 
Carlsbad having them re-locate a bike lane to a safer location and set up 
a signal so it detects bicycles to give them a left signal. I also sent a 
small digital photo to the city of a large temporary "LANE CLOSED" sign 
set directly in the bike lane, forcing cyclists into traffic and requested 
that it be moved off the street, and they did so. I might be lucky, maybe 
Carlsbad is easy to deal with and SD not.

-- 
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
Carlsbad, I ride slow



On 2/25/2008 6:28 AM Gene Carman wrote:

> 
> I wholeheartedly disagree...  While indeed roadways narrow, and often 
> there are signs indicating so, often the narrowing of roads which 
> diminish bike lanes is NOT noted by any signs.  Cyclist riding along may 
> indeed be suddenly thrust into the other traffic without either that 
> traffic understanding why or the cyclist having any warning. 
> 
> Such is the case on at least two bike lanes I ride...  one is Miramar 
> Road, where the bike lane suddenly reverts to a Bike Route without 
> warning and the extra space on the road is gone and cyclists are left 
> with "taking the lane" in 50MPH traffic.  That 50MPH traffic has no idea 
> why cyclists are now "in their lane," when just moments before there was 
> a usable Bike Lane.   In spite of signaling, I have been buzzed by local 
> trash trucks while taking the right most lane in that area on a quiet 
> Saturday morning when there was more than adequate empty space for said 
> trucks to move left.  
> 
> Another area I am aware of is on Camino Ruiz.  While not quite the 
> traffic crush of Miramar road, again, as one heads north near Capricorn 
> way, the Bike Lane disappears; cyclists must take the lane and there is 
> no warning for either motorists or cyclists that this situation is about 
> to occur.  The road DOES NOT NARROW...  no, the curbside space is 
> dedicated to local transit short buses...  cyclists have no choice but 
> to take the lane.  Curbside space could be dedicated to these buses on 
> the less busy perpendicular streets, but no, it is right on the main 
> street. 
> 
> Now bear in mind that when a main traveled lane is about to dissappear, 
> there is usually a sign or arrow, some indicator that traffic must move 
> left.  But in the case of bike lanes, no such warning appears...  thus 
> cyclists must negotiate with fast passing traffic without the usual 
> warning that other traffic would have in similar situations. 
> 
> In the case of Miramar road...  I know the hazard exists, and I am still 
> often caught by surprise.  
> 
> A similar situation also occurs on Genesee going south at Nobel.  Only 
> in this case, I commute it often enough to remember and recall exactly 
> where it occurs.  I take the middle lane in this case, as both the right 
> lane and the bike lane are dropped as Genesee crosses Nobel.  In this 
> situation there is no warning for either motorists nor cyclists.    
> Motorists are often upset by my relative slow progress in the right lane 
> as I go from Nobel to Decoro, well out in the right most lane, to avoid 
> the potential hazard of parked cars along Genesee.  (and this in spite 
> of the 20+MPH that I move in this area).  Their frustration is often 
> expressed in some manner. 
> 
> While Trevor is right that looking ahead is vital to a cyclist's safety, 
> the road changes happen in such a way that one may not have enough road 
> space to negotiate with fast heavy traffic...  which when moving fast, 
> takes longer to respond to cyclists' signals.   
> 
> Even John Forester has noted that a 15MPH difference between cyclist and 
> motorist can make lateral negotiation a bit more difficult.  
> 
> At 09:42 PM 2/24/2008, Trevor Bourget wrote:
>> At 02:18 PM 2/19/2008, Serge Issakov wrote:
>>>
>>>           o Sometimes the bike lane just vanishes and a bicyclist is
>>>             caught in the "gauntlet."  It reminds me of the crazy
>>>             motorcyclists flying in between lanes.  Yet I have no
>>>             choice and am put in a crazy motorcycle type position.
>>
>> Bicyclists who don't notice what's happening in the roadway ahead 
>> aren't paying enough attention. It's one of my issues with traveling 
>> in groups, especially those in which the leaders of the group aren't 
>> informed traffic cyclists. Bike lanes don't "suddenly" disappear. 
>> Roadways narrow, but that is usually even easier to predict by looking 
>> ahead than the random wanderings of an irrelevant stripe of paint.
>>
>> With all due respect, mtorcyclists who share roadway space between 
>> motor vehicles don't do it because they are crazy, and your judgement 
>> of them as being crazy to do it is really not much different than how 
>> motor vehicle operators probably feel about your presence anywhere in 
>> the roadway on a flimsy bicycle.
>>
>> I do both, and the only practical difference in how I drive my 
>> motorcycle is that I am never anywhere near the bike lane except for 
>> making a right turn. Unfortunately this is only partly due to the fact 
>> that I'm usually going faster on a motorcycle. My considered opinion 
>> is that far right is rarely the safest place for a cyclist of either 
>> motored or human-powered kind.
>>
>> -- Trevor
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