Bicycles and Road Design

[jjakucyk]

2 light cycles without a green light?  The problem is that the light ISN'T cycling. 

[realjd]

My only complaint is that they still don't properly address the dangers of striping a bike lane next to parallel parking. If the bike lane is between cars and traffic, bike riders must ride in what is known as the "door zone". What happens is someone opens a car door without checking to see if a bike rider is behind them, the bike is thrown toward the car and the rider is thrown into traffic. Very dangerous. And some of their example pictures even show this!

If an idiot opens the door and you run into it, you get one free punch

Assuming you aren't squashed under a bus or something. It's not so much the act of hitting the door that's the problem but the tendency for that type of accident to throw the rider into the traffic lane.

2 light cycles without a green light?  The problem is that the light ISN'T cycling. 

It may still be cycling just not triggering a needed protected left.

[jjakucyk]

That's not how it works realjd, unless you see the door opening from a bit of a distance.  The way the door opens, you smash right into it, going through the window frame and usually busting the door, its hinges, your bike, and yourself.  If you were riding against traffic, then an opening door would tend to deflect you to the side and might push the door closed again, but that's not how it usually happens. 

[texaskdog]

Traffic signals are more of a time-of-day issue.  When approaching an intersection from a side street with no traffic (like at night or early in the morning), bikes in many cases can't trip the induction loops.  Sometimes the sensitivity can be changed, but if they're buried under the top layer of pavement then cyclists can't see where to align themselves to be over the wire.  Also, with more and more bikes having carbon fiber components, there's just not enough metal for the loop to detect.  I'm not sure if the loops can detect aluminum or titanium.  Trying to hit a ped button (if there even is one) can be very difficult too if it's not well positioned.

One of the new Virginia laws that went into effect on July 1 dealt with this. It is now legal for bikes, motorcycles, and mopeds, to run a red light after waiting either 2 minutes or 2 light cycles without a green light. This seems like far too long if you ask me, so I'll still just run it when I get an open chance like I always have if there's no car to trip the sensor, but it's still progress.

In austin you wait 2 minutes in one cycle

[realjd]

That's not how it works realjd, unless you see the door opening from a bit of a distance.  The way the door opens, you smash right into it, going through the window frame and usually busting the door, its hinges, your bike, and yourself.  If you were riding against traffic, then an opening door would tend to deflect you to the side and might push the door closed again, but that's not how it usually happens. 

Only if you hit it head on. Due to the width of bike lanes, you'll more often hit it with your right handle bar, spinning your bike and tossing you to the left. Or you'll instinctively swerve to avoid it and move into the path of a vehicle.

Look at how many of these were "tossed into traffic":
http://bicyclesafe.com/doorprize.html

[J N Winkler]

Only if you hit it head on. Due to the width of bike lanes, you'll more often hit it with your right handle bar, spinning your bike and tossing you to the left. Or you'll instinctively swerve to avoid it and move into the path of a vehicle.

I think this is the more common scenario for dooring incidents--certainly it is what happened to me the one time I was doored (though it was the left handlebar because I was then in a country where traffic circulates on the left).

As a general rule, I think cycle lanes adjacent to on-street parking are one of those situations where it is better not to provide the facility at all than to provide striping which attracts tort liability as an attractive nuisance.  There is also a tendency among even experienced and confident cyclists to underestimate the width of the door zone.  My personal rule of thumb, when going past on-street parking, is simply to merge into the vehicular traffic lane and keep going until I am past the on-street parking.

It astonishes me how parsimonious soi-disant cycling meccas like Berkeley are with bans on on-street parking even on established cycle routes.  Except for the hundred-yard length of on-street parking where I was doored, pretty much my entire commuting route in the years I was cycling had curbside double yellow.