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

[Serge Issakov]

I understand the context, Gene.  If you're ignoring the bike lane stripe in
the first place, and riding just as you would if the stripe were not there,
then you're not relying on it for anything, so it doesn't matter if it
suddenly ends or not.  What matters is the total width of the outside lane,
and how much it varies.  I've never felt like I needed advanced warning of
that.  Have you?  Thinking about a bike lane as being a lane, and treating
it as such, is what gets you in trouble.  Don't do that.

As far as comparing this to the impact of a freeway lane ending without
warning in 70 mph traffic, that's silly.  At speeds bicyclists generally
travel, lane/road doesn't change fast enough to need any kind of advanced
warning other than just looking ahead.

Serge


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 6:32 PM, Gene Carman <gcarman at san.rr.com> wrote:

>  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.
>
>


-- 
NOTE: Any opinions expressed above are mine and not necessarily shared by
any organization in which I am involved.
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