Fwd: The Folly of the Fixers
Jim Baross
From: Cycle Sense Team <cyclis...@substack.com>
Date: Thu, Jun 4, 2026, 11:14 AM
Subject: The Folly of the Fixers
To: <jimb...@gmail.com>
This article first appeared on the i am traffic Web site. It is posted here, with added notes a the end to provide a deeper look into what led to the crashes described — John Allen Manufactured conflict, learned helplessness and the human toll of an endless cascade of fixes and failures Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
October 11, 2007 – Tracey Sparling rode up a bike lane and stopped at a red light next to a cement truck in Portland, Oregon. When the light turned green, the truck turned right. The driver never saw her in his blind spot. According to an eyewitness, Tracey never even moved. She screamed as she was run over where she stood. She was 19 years old. Ten days later, in Portland, Brett Jarolimek was riding fast down a steep grade in a bike lane. A garbage truck ahead had slowed, with its right turn signal on, to make a sharp right turn at an intersection where the traffic signal was green. Because Oregon law requires a right-turning driver to yield to bicyclists overtaking them in a bike lane, it would have been natural for Brett to assume that the garbage truck driver was waiting for him to pass. Unfortunately, the truck driver had not seen Brett; he had slowed to negotiate the sharp turn. Brett hit the side of the truck and slid under its wheels. He was 32 years old. The back-to-back tragedies of October 2007 called attention to bike lanes in Portland, specifically the non-standard design and unusual right-of-way law which accompanies it. Even before Brett’s death, the Oregonian ran an article entitled Death Puts Focus on Bike Lanes. Here is an excerpt from that article:
But bike advocates have opposed changes in the law, arguing that drivers need to learn to obey the Oregon statute which says vehicles must yield to any cyclist in a bike lane. The discussion of changing the law and design of Portland bike lanes was short-lived. The bike advocates prevailed, and the focus was shifted to infrastructure solutions. In December 2007, the city passed a resolution to require right-side under-run guards on City trucks. The guards are intended to prevent a right-hooked cyclist from being swept under the truck and run over by the rear wheels. By March of 2008, the city was implementing its proposed infrastructure fix—painting 14 bike boxes which would allow bicyclists to wait in front of motor traffic at red lights. From the Oregonian:
Despite the experimental status of bike boxes, no controls were done to ensure a proper evaluation of this new traffic control device. There was little mention of the fact that bike boxes serve no function when the traffic signal is green. The conditions of the right hook in which Brett Jarolimek was killed would not be changed by a bike box.
In 2010 the City conducted a survey, concluding that the bike boxes made “both cyclists and drivers feel safer” at intersections. Despite the bike boxes, right hook crashes continued to occur. In 2011, the City of Portland added yet another infrastructure “fix”: an illuminated signal to alert motorists to the presence of a bicyclist in the bike lane. From Bike Portland:
On May 17, 2012, Kathryn Rickson was riding through an intersection with a bike box when a tractor trailer turned right and struck her. The light was green and the truck had its turn signal on. Kathryn was taken to the hospital where she later died from her injuries. She was 28 years old. Once again, the bicycling community reacted with more demands for infrastructure improvements, more equipment requirements for trucks and better motorist compliance. The one thing that seems to be off the table is expecting bicyclists to take some ownership over their own safety. By exempting the party most able to prevent the crash, the problem does indeed seem unsolvable. As in 2007, the Oregonian published an article entitled Woman’s Death Throws Spotlight on Right Hook Bicycle Accidents. Here is a quote from that article:
In October 2012, the city submitted a progress report of its bike box experiment to the FHWA. Comparing the four years prior to the bike box installations with the four years since, they found that the number of right hook crashes had actually doubled. Unsurprisingly, the crashes occurred on the green phase. They found that the 85th percentile speed of cyclists was approximately 18mph. At these crash sites the bike lanes leading to the intersection were on a downhill, but the fact that the cyclists were maintaining a high speed suggests a false sense of security, which one might expect from a facility that makes people “feel safer”. So what next? Floated ideas have included a “bike only” green phase, installing more neon signs, banning right turns altogether, requiring all trucks operating in Oregon to install mandatory side guards, changing the pattern of green paint, painting “slow” and “look for right turns” in the bike lanes. According to the Bicycle Transportation Alliance:
Adding additional signal phases increases intersection delay for all users. Increased signal delay inspires more bicyclists to run red lights. In physically separated lanes, bicyclists are no longer able to set up for normal left turns, but instead must make cumbersome two-step turns. How many fixes to the fixes will it take to restore sanity to the system? There is a solution to this problem!Cyclists being run over by turning trucks is a completely preventable tragedy. The solution exists in the fundamental principles of vehicular movement. These principles are the foundation of the rules of the road, which have existed since the early 1900s.
The simple elegance of this system is that it places drivers’ focus forward — on the road ahead. If each driver follows these rules—focuses on the road ahead, and yields to traffic ahead—the system works and is safe for all users. When users are channelized by the type of vehicle they operate, rather than speed or destination, new conflicts arise. These conflicts represent new weaknesses, where the system is prone to failure. The simple solution for bicyclists is to not pass other vehicles—especially ones with large blind spots—on the right. The cause of the problem is a facility design that encourages bicyclists to break a fundamental rule of vehicular movement. The cause of that facility design is a mindset that bicyclists should a) keep right and b) use the advantage of their narrow profile to pass slower traffic. No amount of engineering or legal punishment will compensate when one type of user is encouraged or compelled to violate the rules of vehicular movement. Requiring other drivers to increase their scanning range beyond the normal forward bias and into their blind spots is setting them up for failure. Training and encouraging bicyclists to improve their vantage and conspicuity through effective roadway positioning sets all users up for success. The diagrams below shows the operational characteristics of a truck, along with the areas on which a driver needs to focus when making a right turn.
1) Crosswalk — Pedestrians have a walk signal so the driver must scan for pedestrians in or approaching the crosswalk. 2) Oncoming lane — In order to keep the trailer from offtracking the near-side curb, the cab must cross into the oncoming lane. The driver must scan for cars in or approaching the intersection. 3) Off-track — The driver must ensure his trailer wheels do not roll over the curb, where they could strike a pedestrian. Pedestrians with mobility and vision impairments are particularly vulnerable because they may not be able to escape.
4) Point of Failure — Requiring the truck driver to scan behind (an area mostly obscured by blind spots) for vehicles passing on the right decreases the attention he or she has to give to the other three critical areas. The bicyclist, on the other hand, has the ability to see the truck clearly ahead and simply not pass it. By offering the illusion to the bicyclist that he or she has no responsibility for preventing this crash, the burden of safety is increased for other users. Such an unbalanced system is prone to failure. Let us never forget that in the point of failure is also a member of our community whose life will be altered forever for having unintentionally killed someone who he or she had no way of seeing. We have an obligation to safeguard ALL road users. By trying to unnaturally rig the system to benefit bicyclists, we not only fail bicyclists, we fail everyone. EndnotesBike Portland article identifying locations of Tracey Sparling and Brett Jarolimek crashes. Street views of W 14th approaching NW Burnside. Tracey Sparling came from this direction. September, 2007 with bike lane to the right of RT and through lane to the left of a loading zone, puppy tracks from bike lane across the intersection; June 2009, now with bike box; July 2015, exit from loading zone has been blocked off with orange flexposts. November, 2015, single white flexpost; September, 2017, four flexposts; September, 2024, flexposts damaged. Interstate and Greeley, location of Brett Jarolimek fatality in 2007; in 2009 with temporary barrier; 2011-present: right turn has been permanently blocked off. DA’s report in Jarolimek crash indicates that he could not stop in time but misses the point that he did not know how to use the brakes for a quick stop; describes sight line concerns but assigns no fault based on the location of the bike lane. Another right hook occurred at the same intersection two weeks later. SW 3rd and Madison, location of May 11, 2012 Kathryn Rickson fatality: September, 2011, with a bike lane leading to a bike box; September, 2019 with bike lane to the left of a bus lane, and right turns prohibited except for bicyclists. Truck driver photo from Kathryn Rickson crash is by Jodi Kabana. First appeared here, scroll down. News story here. Video of a bike ride through this location in 2008, avoiding the right-hook risk. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Cyclist Vision is free today. But if you enjoyed this post, you can tell Cyclist Vision that their writing is valuable by pledging a future subscription. You won't be charged unless they enable payments.
© 2026 Cycle Sense Team
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Paul Wendt
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Scott Mace
It's going to resolve itself after a lot of preventable deaths, and multimillion dollar wrongful death judgements against cities, judgements that will eventually strip away the personal immunity that the engineers designing this stuff currently enjoy.
Scott Mace
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Pete van Nuys
Scott, I hope you're right. 'till then we can all enjoy riding
with our friends and loved ones safely as we know how.
I feel like George Carlin-- I sit back and just watch the
stupidity unfold before me, steer around it, or pick an alternate
route.
Pete
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Pete van Nuys
Oh, I forgot:
Bill Sellin fwd'd the story of the Chicago PE who got snuffed by a
door in a DZBL. He was in charge of designing bike infra for the
city. Now they'll move all the parked cars out where nobody can
see us approach the intersections, where the pavement is never
swept, and we'll have to deal with peds every block.
I'm sure his ghost will look down approvingly.
Pete
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