[SDCBC] What were they thinking? (Camino del Norte)

[Kathy Keehan]

Not sure why things keep changing out there but it's making life
interesting. 

The Coalition had recommended the original configuration you saw - as soon
as the right turn pocket starts, the bike lane is on the left of it. I'm not
sure what made them decide to change the paint so soon. The new
configuration keeps the bike lane to the right of the right turn lane until
you're almost to the intersection, then has a gap and the bike lane
reappears to the left of the turn lane. I haven't ridden it yet on the bike,
but I'm thinking it will be much more difficult for me to merge across the
right turn only lane toward the bottom rather than at the top, and now the
onus will be on the bicyclist to find a safe moment to merge across rather
than requiring the motorist to yield to the cyclist.  

The eastbound side has an interesting configuration at the beginning of the
right turn lanes, but keeps the bike lane to the left of the right turn only
lanes for the most part. 

Who wants to take a ride this weekend to see them firsthand? I'm available
on Sunday morning for a little jaunt.

Kathy

 

From: sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org [mailto:sdcbc-bounces at bikesandiego.org]
On Behalf Of Derek Hofmann
Sent: Wednesday, April 30, 2008 9:28 PM
To: tobin at broadcom.com
Cc: sdcbc at bikesandiego.org
Subject: Re: [SDCBC] What were they thinking? (Camino del Norte)

 

I think I liked the old w/b configuration better, because it forced drivers
in the right lane to change lanes in order to take the I-15 onramp.
Bicyclists only had to keep going straight to stay in the bicycle lane. The
new configuration allows motorists in the right lane to drive at speed all
the way up to the light and forces bicyclists to change lanes across that
just to get back into the bicycle lane.



On Wed, Apr 30, 2008 at 3:04 PM, <tobin at broadcom.com> wrote:

(update to thread by Tom L circa March 27-29, inland north Co.)

The median work in area of I-15 at CdN is done.  Yesterday, I noticed
a new bike lane has been painted for e/b Camino del Norte just west of
I-15 (Caltrans dominion).

Today, I noticed the bike lane for w/b CdN just east of I-15 has been
reconfigured.  We may never know what they were thinking, but apparently
someone's input has done some good here.

I opine the w/b reconfiguration is an improvement over:

 http://www.tfl.net/MyPhotoAlbums/CaminoDelNorteApproachingI15FromEast/

I find the new e/b configuration, setup as the w/b configuration was
before the reconfiguration (i.e. merge across two high speed traffic
lanes) more scary because of the increased speed differential.  I've only
taken it once, and I am still contemplating how to deal with this new
situation safely.  It is on my every-day commute.

Roy

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-- 
Thanks,

Derek Hofmann
derek.hofmann at gmail.com 

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