[SDCBC] A good opinion piece in Voice of San Diego this morning about Per...

[Trevor Bourget]

At 12:09 PM 6/25/2008, estberg at sandiego.edu wrote:
>I used to ride that route everyday when i commuted downtown from 
>North Park. That was 10 years ago, but I assume the situation hasn't 
>changed. My solution was to cut over to the left of the inside lane 
>before the on ramps and let the through traffic pass me on the 
>right. A few drivers were annoyed, but that was their problem. I 
>felt much safer.
>
>Jerry Estberg (escaped to Port Angeles)

This is exactly the technique that I would recommend from looking at 
Google street view. The trick would be getting back to the right side 
of the lane before the immediately subsequent underpass, so I might 
ride in the left side of the lane, not at the actual lane stripe.

Generally speaking I stay to the left of all lanes marked for mixed 
use. For example, I've lately been purposely riding Pomerado/Miramar 
westbound all the way through to Genesee and then turning north to go 
to I-5 into Sorrento Valley. At various points I have one, two, or 
three lanes to my right. The most egregious design is at I-805 
intersection, where bike lane disappears and road narrows 
simultaneously (not "coincidentally"), then the NB ramp diverges, 
then SB ramp diverges, then SB ramp merges, then several lanes of 
high-volume right turning vehicles exist for several blocks.

Grade separation seems to be working even for advanced motor traffic 
issues as seen around I-5/I-805. There may be a few places in the 
county where such a bike ramp would be an appropriate investment for 
an experiment.

Generally I find that the problem is not with hurrying motorists, but 
with greedy/selfish motorists. Those who intentionally wait until the 
last second to make their illegal (no 100-foot signal, etc)  lane 
change often seem the most annoyed to find me in between them and the 
lane they're trying to get to. I suggest that the redesign should 
encourage earlier choice of lane based on destination, followed by 
physical barricades preventing late changes. Probably at least 300 
feet are needed in case of Pershing/I-5 due to curves and average speed.

I will be contacting Caltrans about Mira Mesa Blvd EB at I-15 to 
suggest at least solid lane stripes under the I-15, since they 
adamantly refuse to increase lighting under the bridge. If the 
stripes don't fix the lane-changing behavior I observe, I'll take it 
up another notch as described above.

-- Trevor