[SDCBC] Joggers in the Bike Lane - WTF

[Kathy Keehan]

Serge, I agree with you about the shared space argument, mostly. 

But I believe that the places that Monderman proposed using the shared space
design ideas are places that we wouldn't put a bike lane, anyway - dense,
residential or commercial spaces with a lot of different street uses. The
shared space paradigm only works in places that truly have the potential for
a large mode share for bicycle and pedestrian traffic and where auto traffic
is expected to be slow, not on thoroughfares without fronting uses. 

Bake Parkway right now is a wide, 4 lane arterial with NO fronting uses on
the street - more like a freeway than like a residential street. I think it
would be a bad idea to use a shared space design on a street like that
without changing the way the land is used along the street. 

Kathy

 

From: sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org [mailto:sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org]
On Behalf Of Serge Issakov
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:58 AM
To: trevorspoke at cox.net
Cc: sdcbc at bikesandiego.org
Subject: Re: [SDCBC] Joggers in the Bike Lane - WTF

 

Good points, Trevor.  Also, if either the jogger or the motorist (or both)
was paying less attention to what was on the other side of the bike lane
stripe because they subconsciously assumed that the stripe would do what it
normally does - keep separated lines of traffic separated - then they would
be paying more attention if the bike lane stripe had not been there, and
perhaps yet another bike lane tragedy (which easily could have involved a
cyclist) could have been avoided.

I believe the concept of shared space
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space>  pioneered by Hans Monderman
applies here:

(more below)

Shared space is a term used to describe an approach to the design,
management and maintenance of public spaces
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space>  which reduces the adverse
effects of conventional traffic engineering
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_engineering> . The shared space
approach is based on the observation that individuals' behaviour
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_behavior>  in traffic
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic>  is more positively affected by the
built environment <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Built_environment>  of the
public space than it is by conventional traffic
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Convention_on_Road_Signs_and_Signals>
control devices (signals, signs, road markings, etc.) and regulations
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rules_of_the_road> .[1]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space#_note-0>  This approach is
considered to have been pioneered by Hans Monderman
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Monderman> .[2]
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space#_note-1> 


The philosophy


Safety, congestion, economic vitality and community severance can be
effectively tackled in streets and other public spaces if they are designed
and managed to allow traffic to be fully integrated with other human
activity, not separated from it. A major characteristic of a street designed
to this philosophy is the absence of traditional road markings, signs,
traffic signals and the distinction between "road" and "pavement
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidewalk> ". User behaviour becomes influenced
and controlled by natural human interactions rather than by artificial
regulation.

There is a tradeoff between traffic throughput and the slower speeds/lesser
throughput implied by shared space, so I'm not a proponent of removing all
stripes, signs and pavement (Wade, to answer your question from a few days
ago: I think fog lines and shoulder stripes have their purpose too - but I'm
wary of riding to the right of them just as I'm wary of riding to the right
of a bike lane stripe), but in the case of bike lane stripes I think
bicyclists (and joggers) are much better off if the outside lane is one big
attention-enhancing "shared space" (a.k.a. Wide Outside Lane, or WOL) rather
than the attention-inhibiting "stripe separated space" (a.k.a. bike lane).
The relatively minor reduction in throughput (caused by motorists perhaps
having to slow a bit because they're being more careful due to the lack of
separating stripe) is a valuable tradeoff, for the increased attention,
lower speed differentials and better safety.

These tragedies are practically unheard of in shared space WOLs, and are all
too common in bike lanes.  I believe this is because everyone (motorists,
bicyclists, peds and joggers) pays more attention in shared space WOLs, and
less attention around bike lanes, and every time yet another person dies in
a bike lane from yet another "inadvertent drift" into an unnoticed occupant
of the bike lane, I am only more convinced that bike lanes cause create more
harm than good for cyclists.

Serge



On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:01 AM, <trevorspoke at cox.net> wrote:

> http://www.ocregister.com/news/bake-parkway-1991108

In California, at least, the law is that peds must use any suitable adjacent
pedestrian facility. Most joggers would reasonably be expected to agree with
each other that the concrete sidewalk is not suitable for jogging.

The jogger was proceeding in the proper direction, facing vehicular traffic.
In California, peds in the bike lane must yield to all vehicular traffic
(for example, cyclists). Being in a bike lane, where the motorist is not
allowed to drive, the ped is forgiven for not yielding to the motorist by
getting out of the roadway.

I hate the use of the word "veer" in news articles, because mostly it is
used as a synonym for "drifted" when in fact it is a much more abrupt change
of position. However, a ped facing motor traffic should be able to hop onto
the curb before being run over, I'd think, unless the driver actually did
perform an extreme and sudden swerve.

-- Trevor



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

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