Hi Kathy,<br><br>Well, let's see if we can change that "mostly" to "totally" ;)<br><br>I'm not suggesting we put in a whole hog shared space design on this street.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>From the Wikipedia article:<br><br><blockquote style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;" class="gmail_quote">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]<br>
</blockquote><br>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.<br>
<br>Referring to this attention-inhibiting effect of the ROW clarifying stripe as the "shared space effect", the logic goes something like this:<br><br>1) A <b>noticed</b> cyclist (or jogger) up ahead is likely to inhibit a motorist from choosing to attend to a distraction until he passes the cyclist.<br>
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.<br>
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. <br>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).<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>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.<br>
<br>Serge<br><br><br>On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 11:14 AM, Kathy Keehan <<a href="mailto:execdir@sdcbc.org">execdir@sdcbc.org</a>> wrote:<br><br>> Serge, I agree with you about the shared space argument, mostly. <br>> <br>
> 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. <br>
> <br>> 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. <br>
> <br>> Kathy <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> From: <a href="mailto:sdcbc-bounces@bikesandiego.org">sdcbc-bounces@bikesandiego.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:sdcbc-bounces@bikesandiego.org">sdcbc-bounces@bikesandiego.org</a>] On Behalf Of Serge Issakov<br>
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 10:58 AM<br>> To: <a href="mailto:trevorspoke@cox.net">trevorspoke@cox.net</a><br>> Cc: <a href="mailto:sdcbc@bikesandiego.org">sdcbc@bikesandiego.org</a><br>> Subject: Re: [SDCBC] Joggers in the Bike Lane - WTF <br>
> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> I believe the concept of shared space pioneered by Hans Monderman applies here:<br>> <br>> (more below) <br>> <br>> 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] <br>
> <br>> <br>> The philosophy <br>> <br>> 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. <br>
> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> Serge<br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 10:01 AM, <<a href="mailto:trevorspoke@cox.net">trevorspoke@cox.net</a>> wrote: <br>> <br>> <br>> > <a href="http://www.ocregister.com/news/bake-parkway-1991108">http://www.ocregister.com/news/bake-parkway-1991108</a> <br>
> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> 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.<br>
> <br>> -- Trevor <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> <br>> _______________________________________________<br>> <br>> You are subscribed to the SDCBC mailing list as <a href="mailto:serge@issakov.org">serge@issakov.org</a><br>
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