Sunday, September 25, 2011
"I could just squeeze you to death!"
"PM, why do you hate bike lanes?"
Here's one reason. The reality of bicycle lane installations (because it's always a political decision and never an engineering solution) is that they almost always involve placing them within door zones in urban environments.
It is of no small irony that the so-called "safe passing" laws that are being pushed past state legislatures without much thought, make it legal (by specifically omitting cyclists from the "safe passing" requirement) for a cyclist to pass a vehicle within 3'... well inside the door zones of motor vehicles.
By the way, the AASHTO recommendation for Shared Lane Markings ("sharrows", or SLMs) places them within the door zone of parked motor vehicles, and states that the SLM indicates the recommended lateral placement of the bicyclist... directly in the door zone of anything other than a FIAT 500 or Mini Cooper.
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4 comments:
Irony noted.
The AASHTO standard specifies a minimum. Sure, that minimum needs to be increased, but the best way to deal with that until it can be changed is to have good advisors for the government bodies that are handling the local standards. For us in Texas, the best thing to point out it that the AASHTO minimum is developed for areas where duallies aren't so common. Using the width of a dually including an open door as a local standard makes for pretty good sharrow placement.
Getting bike lanes placed that far out would be nearly impossible, but I'm hoping to steer our city council in the direction of using actual bike lanes only for specific situations rather than as the catch-all solution they're being used for in most places.
@KD5NRH "I'm hoping to steer our city council"
Did you miss this PM gem: :"The reality of bicycle lane installations (because it's always a political decision and never an engineering solution) ..."
The really bad news is that the new AASHTO Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities is being written by (IIRC) Toole Design, and will incorporate and approve all of the "innovative" practices we are seeing.
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