[SDCBC] Joggers in the Bike Lane - WTF

[Serge Issakov]

Hi  Kathy,

Well, let's see if we can change that "mostly" to "totally" ;)

I'm not suggesting we put in a whole hog shared space design on this street.

I'm suggesting we apply some of the principles underlying the shared space
philosophy (i.e., how human attention is inhibited by situations in which
ROW is clear) to the outside edge of  roads to explain why striped bike
lanes are more problematic (in terms of clarifying ROW at the cost of
inhibiting motorist and cyclist attention and care) than wide outside
lanes.  In other words, I'm suggesting that in terms of overtaking collision
risk, cyclists (and joggers) are probably safer in a shared space WOL than
in a stripe separated bike lane.

>From the Wikipedia article:

Another source attributes the following to Monderman: "When you don't
> exactly know who has right of way, you tend to seek eye contact with other
> road users... You automatically reduce your speed, you have contact with
> other people and you take greater care."[5]
>

So in a WOL where the motorist doesn't exactly know where he has right of
way relative to the cyclist up ahead who is occupying some of his lane, it
follow that he tends to take notice, reduce speed, adjust position and
generally take care when passing, while the motorist with an empty lane in
front of him is likely to give less or even no attention to the cyclist up
ahead in the adjacent bike lane separated from the motorist's intended line
of travel by a stripe that clearly demarcates who has ROW where.

Referring to this attention-inhibiting effect of the ROW clarifying stripe
as the "shared space effect", the logic goes something like this:

1) A *noticed* cyclist (or jogger) up ahead is likely to inhibit a motorist
from choosing to attend to a distraction until he passes the cyclist.
2) Because of the shared space effect, a cyclist up ahead in a bike lane is
more likely to be unnoticed than is a cyclist up ahead in a shared space
WOL.  This is probably the most controversial point, but is really just
piggy-backing on Monderman's shared space principle, as well as being
explained by the role of relevance in inattentional blindness.  People are
more likely to be inattentionally blind (the phenomena of looking at
something but not seeing/noticing it) to something that is perceived to be
irrelevant to them - and a cyclist up ahead in a motorist's lane is likely
to be perceived as more relevant than a cyclist up ahead in adjacent
stripe-separated space.
3) A bike lane occupied by an unnoticed cyclist has no more chance to
inhibit a motorist from choosing to attend to a distraction than has an
empty bike lane.
4) To a motorist who has not noticed the cyclist (or jogger) up ahead in the
bike lane, the bike lane is effectively empty, and is as tempting an area to
briefly drift into while the motorist is attending to a distraction as is a
truly unoccupied bike lane (I see briefly distracted motorists briefly drift
into bike lanes and shoulders like this all the time - thankfully they're
almost always unoccupied when that happens).

In short, the key to overtaking safety is to to prevent overtaking drivers
from choosing to attend to a distraction until they've passed you, but then
we have to grab their attention, and that's exactly what the bike lane
stripe inhibits from happening.  It might be helpful to remember that there
is no such thing as a purely inattentive driver.  That is, some drivers are
more distracted than others, but all drivers have to pay at least some
attention every few seconds just to stay on the road.  So the key when we're
up ahead is to grab their attention at least during one of their lucid
moments, and that's what the bike lane stripe inhibits us from achieving,
due to the shared space effect.

It should be noted that in the grand scheme of car-bike crashes overtaking
collisions are relatively rare, and much more attention should be given to
safety with respect to crossing movements.  But the problems created by bike
lanes with respect to crossing movements are less controversial, and my
point here is that if the basis for justifying bike lanes is overtaking
safety, I honestly think even there bike lanes cause more harm than good,
because according to the "shared space effect" the bike lane stripe works to
inhibit attention and care prior to and during overtaking.

Serge


On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Kathy Keehan <execdir at sdcbc.org> wrote:

> 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 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 which reduces the adverse
effects of conventional traffic engineering. The shared space approach is
based on the observation that individuals' behaviour in traffic is more
positively affected by the built environment of the public space than it is
by conventional traffic control devices (signals, signs, road markings,
etc.) and regulations.[1] This approach is considered to have been pioneered
by Hans Monderman.[2]
>
>
> 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". 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.



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