[SDCBC] Del Mar Blvd/Jimmy Durante Merge.

[Gene Carman]

The same situation also occurs on Miramar road going 
eastbound...  the bike lane just disappears...  there is no warning 
to either cyclists or motorists.

Suddenly one is confronted with narrower road space and 50MPH traffic.

I have notified the city that a "bike lane ends" sign would be nice 
at least 100 yards before it actually ends...

The road engineer called me and said they do not have that sort of 
sign in their inventory...  he was going to look into a Share the 
Road sign as a solution.

I don't recall the engineer's name.

At 03:16 PM 3/23/2008, trevorspoke at cox.net wrote:
>Sorry, seems the memory's dropped a few bits since I last rode the 
>route. I checked it out on Google Street View to refresh my 
>uncertain recollections.
>
>The right lane doesn't end, only the bike lane does. This is called 
>a union, not a merge. Except in this case the bike lane just 
>disappears and the right lane takes its place. This is a traffic 
>engineering debacle, it's like intentionally trying to get a bike 
>run over by a car.
>
>Proper signage for the existing situation:
>1. On the left: "Bike lane ends, merge left" before the union, which 
>will tell cyclists what they should do.
>2. On the right: "Watch for merging traffic" before the union, which 
>will protect against what many will try to do anyway
>On both signs, the yellow warning sign of the union.
>Note that to perform a merge you are required by CA law to signal 
>intent for 100ft before performing a lane change. This is impossible 
>to perform at the location of the union.
>
>Proper traffic engineering total solution:
>Extend the union point by at least 100ft by providing a bike lane 
>between the two lanes. This would likely squeeze the space provided 
>for the bike lane to the right, so cyclists riding up Jimmy Durante 
>ramp southbound would have to share the lane.
>
>Creative "bicycle-friendly" suggestion: traffic sensor in the bike 
>lane triggers a stop light for the right lane, because you can 
>easily see by geometric extension of the bike lane the right lane 
>was stolen from its right of way.
>
>Likely actual solution: a pedestrian crosswalk painted for timid 
>cyclists by ignorant engineers, with a friendly "walk your bike" 
>sign and maybe even a pushbutton. Fortunately it wouldn't be legal 
>to force users of the bike lane to use the crosswalk, so cyclists 
>can still do the proper thing by merging left.
>
>-- Trevor
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