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

[Gene Carman]

Your whole commentary is wrong...  it is based on the cyclist knowing 
that the BL is ending...  imagine what would happen if lanes suddenly 
just ended on the freeway without warning...  what then would be the 
result to motorists? That is exactly what happens when bike lanes end 
without warning...

Just to clarify, I am not speaking of the normal end of a BL at an 
intersection, but situations where the BL suddenly ends along with 
the space on the road and the cyclist is left with negotiating for 
space when there was no warning that said space would suddenly end.

Motorists now get a "Lane Ending" sign or arrows indicating that they 
should converge...  Cyclists get no such warnings....  therefore 
there is no way to "start merging long before it ends."  This would 
however be quite possible if there were some warning...  but there is 
not.    Lane ends, no warning.




>But it's the bike lane stripe that is largely responsible for that 
>high speed differential in the first place.
>
>John Forester can correct me if I'm wrong, but I suspect one of the 
>reasons he has recommended for decades that cyclists "ignore bike 
>lane stripes" is because of situations like the ones Gene notes above.
>
>When bike lanes end, motorists in the adjacent lane understandably 
>expect cyclists to yield, and not cut in front of them.  Part of the 
>reason the speed differentials between motorists and the cyclist are 
>so high at the point where the bike lane ends is because of the 
>stripe - which encourages high speed differentials.  If the stripe 
>ends earlier, then the cyclist is effectively IN the motorist's 
>traffic lane earlier and longer, and motorists are more likely to 
>notice and adjust accordingly (slow down, move left) sooner.  Also, 
>this gives the cyclist more time to look back, negotiate, signal, as 
>required, to make his left merge across.  What we're stuck having to 
>do now is, per Forester, ignore the stripe, and start merging left 
>long before it ends, including signaling/negotiating as 
>required.  Otherwise, you pretty much have to pull over and wait for a gap.
>
>In the end, this just highlights yet another reason I try to avoid 
>being in the bike lane in the first place, whenever it's safe and 
>practical to do so.
>
>Serge
>
>--
>NOTE: Any opinions expressed above are mine and not necessarily 
>shared by any organization in which I am involved.
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