Door Zone Bike Lanes revisited after recent bicyclist fatality, was Fwd: [CABOdir] Fwd: Vigil for Maia

[Jim Baross]

I'm taking some time typing to make the case that many bike advocates are wrong if they support the existence and any new placement of Bike Lanes adjacent to parked vehicles without a clear door-width-sized buffer space between the vehicles and the Bike Lane. There are alternatives that do not encourage bicycling in Door Zones.

Bike Lanes that are located adjacent to parked vehicles tend to encourage, and some State laws seem to require people bicycling to ride within those Bike Lanes even though such placement subjects those people to being Doored by a vehicle's quickly opening door. Very slow-traveling bicyclists may be able to stop in time to avoid being knocked off of their bike, avoiding being bounced into the way of overtaking traffic. A bicyclist traveling at normal speeds or using an eBike traveling at 20 or 28 mph would not be likely to have time or distance to stop or adequately scan, signal, and swerve/merge out of range of a suddenly opening door. Some people may choose to expect that people exiting a vehicle will take the legally required precaution of looking back for oncoming traffic/bicyclists, use their outside mirror, or use the right-arm-reach for the door handle that positions their body in a position better able to look back. But others of us would rather avoid being Doored by others' mistakes.

We who teach "Smart Cycling" and "CyclingSavvy" caution that a safer choice in most cases is to avoid bicycling at normal speeds or bicycling at all in a Door Zone even when a Bike Lane is present. We teach about this as a lawful choice in California and most other States even where laws require bicycling in Bike Lanes. Most of these laws offer exceptions/reasons for lawfully avoiding bicycling in a Bike Lane. For instance in California this exception, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ 21208, "CVC 21208 (3) When reasonably necessary to leave the bicycle lane to avoid debris or other hazardous conditions." A Door Zone is a hazardous area. And because a sudden move out of a Bike Lane is unlikely to be safe or adhere to CVC 21208 section (b), "No person operating a bicycle shall leave a bicycle lane until the movement can be made with reasonable safety and then only after giving an appropriate signal in the manner provided in Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 22100) in the event that any vehicle may be affected by the movement." we recommend scanning, signaling, and merging with "reasonable safety" before entering and riding in a hazardous Door Zone.

Unfortunately, most people - bicyclists and motorists - expect bicyclists to ride in Bike Lanes. Leaving and riding outside of a Bike Lane too often subjects a bicyclist to harassment and even threats of traffic citations. Unfortunately, some amount of assertiveness is needed for a person to choose a lane position that is safer and lawful. Where there is no Bike Lane a bicyclist may choose to ride out of a Door Zone without encumbrance of a Door Zone Bike Lane. When a travel lane is too narrow for side-by-side travel or overtaking by motor vehicles - 14' or less - the bicyclist may choose to ride far enough into that lane to avoid the Door Zone and discourage too close, in-lane passing. The presence of the regulatory sign "[Bikes] May Use Full Lane" and Shared Lane Pavement Markings/Sharrows are often used to remind everyone that bicyclists may be in the right of way lawfully.

Some people may choose to ride in Door Zones; the choice remains. 

We should not be encouraging others to do so by accepting the presence of Door Zone Bike Lanes.

Jim Baross

League and CyclingSavvy Instructor

President, Calif. Assoc. of Bicycling Organizations

---------- Forwarded message about a bicyclists' tragic fatality that was reportedly precipitated by her being Doored ---------

On Tue, Sep 5, 2023 at 17:49 someone wrote to CABOdir:

This really pisses me off. The door zone bike lane that led to this tragedy was advocated for by Bike East Bay many years ago, on the pretext (which I eyewitnessed at one of their meetings) that cyclists feel safer in a door zone bike lane than on a street with no bike lanes whatsoever. Many door zone bike lanes now exist within the coalition's service area, of their own doing and approval years ago.

-------- Forwarded Message --------

Subject:	Vigil for Maia
Date:	Tue, 5 Sep 2023 20:20:48 -0400 (EDT)

We will be riding from our shop tomorrow (Wednesday 9/6) at 5:30pm and heading over to Lakeshore and Hanover to join a vigil for Maia. Feel free to ride with us or join us at the vigil that evening with flowers and candles as we raise our voices together in solidarity for safer streets. alamedabicycle.com 510-522-0070

Sender notified by Mailtrack

09/08/23, 11:01:16 AM

[Stephen Bingham]

Well put Jim.  What local bike coalitions are bringing this to the attention of local MTA’s?  What’s the response of CalBike?

Steve

 

Stephen Bingham

Co-Director

Sylvia Bingham Fund

www.sylviabinghamfund.org

Coordinator, California Ride of Silence Organizers

Board of Directors, Ride of Silence

Member, Families for Safe Streets/San Francisco

Truck Underride Advocacy TEAM

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[Gary Cziko]

Jim,

You wrote:

I'm taking some time typing to make the case that many bike advocates are wrong if they support the existence and any new placement of Bike Lanes adjacent to parked vehicles without a clear door-width-sized buffer space between the vehicles and the Bike Lane. There are alternatives that do not encourage bicycling in Door Zones.

Hear, Hear!

And a great reason to follow up with the announcement that we have now updated and published the Supplement for California for the CyclingSavvy edition of John S. Allen's Bicycling Street Smarts.

I will make a separate announcement about this later with more details, but in the Supplement can be found a flowchart outlining the exceptions to CVC 21208 which makes it legal for cyclists in California to avoid almost all bike lanes.

The Supplement can be found here in both web and printable PDF version. And appended below is the CVC 21208 flowchart created by Keri Caffrey.

Thanks to John S. Allen, Jim Baross, Clint Sandusky, Peter Van Nuys, and Bil Sellin who along with Keri and me contributed to this project. And to the Orange County Bicycle Coalition which funded the original CyclingSavvy version of the Supplement.

--Gary

[Michael Graff]

I know we've all tried convincing engineers and advocates not to build bike lanes in the door zone, and to redesign the ones that exist. But as long as door zone bike lanes are allowed in the design standards (HDM and MUTCD), they will continue to exist, and more will continue to be added as "better than nothing".

Is there any chance of updating the standards to prohibit new DZBLs? And to require existing ones be redesigned whenever a road is repaved? I think changing the standards might be the only way to stop them.

On Fri, 8 Sept 2023 at 12:08, Jim Baross <jimb...@cox.net> wrote:

We should not be ... accepting the presence of Door Zone Bike Lanes.

[Pete Penseyres]

Carlsbad is attempting to develop meaningful MMLOS criteria for Bikes. As part of a subcommittee, we tried to dump a point system that works fairly well for motorists, but not so well for bikes. After more than a year of back and forth with a consultant, they proposed the idea of Essential Features that, if they are not met, the street segment fails until the feature is satisfied. 

For Door Zone Bike Lanes, I tried to get a 3' door side buffer, but had to settle for 2' in addition to a minimum 5' bike lane. There are several streets in Carlsbad that have been upgraded to include the 2' door side buffer, and more have been approved for painting at the next repave or slurry seal.

There are other Essential Features that are equally important, but this one is a breakthough that should be applied everywhere as part of Complete Streets

Pete Penseyres

League of American Bicyclists Certified Instructor #2020

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.

[clint.sandusky]

JUST STAY OUT OF THE DZBL and control the lane by default, releasing traffic when safe, appropriate and legal!  Riders need to know this!

Clint

CABO, District 8 Rep.

Sent from my Galaxy

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[Stephen Bingham]

Clint, who will be there to arrest the driver who tries to run me off the road?  One concrete thing you could help with is Craig Davis’ effort to get CHP to accept video evidence of reckless drivers, taken w/ cyclists’ cameras.  Check out Cyclist Video Evidence.  I’ve worked w/ Craig for years.  He did get the Golden Gate District of CHP to agree to send warning letters to driver when they receive a video clip but they won’t cite driver.  A real problem since law enforcement is never around when the near miss happens.

 

Steve

 

Stephen Bingham

Co-Director

Sylvia Bingham Fund

www.sylviabinghamfund.org

Coordinator, California Ride of Silence Organizers

Board of Directors, Ride of Silence

Member, Families for Safe Streets/San Francisco

Truck Underride Advocacy TEAM

 

 

 

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[Bill SELLIN]

I think it is a trumped up fear to think anyone is trying to run you off the road. In my experience when I am in the travel look and and visible and consequential I have never felt run off the road. People riding in bike lanes get hit more often ( out of travel lane and not consequential ) and door zones are exceptionally dangerous.

Bill Sellin

714 943-3678

wa...@sellin.com

"Most of the World 

      is either Downhill or Flat...

On Sep 8, 2023, at 9:45 PM, Stephen Bingham <smbi...@earthlink.net> wrote:



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[David Nichols]

Straight from the CA DMV Vehicle Handbook, Section 8: Safe Driving  Know What is At Your Side

Be aware of what is on each side of you. To maintain enough space to
maneuver safely and react to other drivers:

• Do not stay in another driver’s blind spot.
• Avoid driving directly alongside other vehicles.
• Make space for vehicles entering freeways, even if you have the rightof-way. Be ready for rapid changes and watch for signals from other drivers.
• Keep space between your vehicle and parked vehicles.
• Look both ways, even at intersections where traffic has a red light or stop sign.

Even though the law is clear on this that the person opening the door is at fault (CA Vehicle Code Section 22517) it would also seem that the fact that it is printed in the Vehicle Handbook to "Keep space between your vehicle and parked vehicles" would suggest that the state of California is aware of the danger and would also be liable simply for the installation of DZBL. They know its dangerous, they tell us not to do it, yet they facilitate it with DZBL.  There have been multiple lawsuits throughout history (cigarettes, dumping toxic waste, even coffee that was too hot) Question, how many deaths/injuries need to take place before this is tested in a higher court?  

I realize that this is a hardcore approach, but it might also be a way to wake up the state of California as well as the MUTCD and HDM to change their policy, (as suggested earlier by Michael Graff) of installing something that they know to be dangerous.

[Michael Graff]

Just don't paint a DZBL in the first place. Transportation engineers need to know this. 

Is there any other traffic control device where the best advice is ignore it? 

(I've talked to traffic engineers, given them actual examples of people killed by being doored in a bike lane. They basically shrug and point to the design standards. It's infuriating.)

[Stephen Bingham]

You’re lucky Bill.  It’s happening all over the country.  One reason is that drivers are more and more angry at cyclists who blow lights, stop signs etc.  the cycling community has to do much more to get cyclists to obey the law.  They’re putting everyone in danger.  I very much appreciate CyclingSavvy training which encourages cyclists to communicate w/ motor vehicle drivers.  I wish LCI training emphasized that more.

 

Steve

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[Michael Graff]

I remember when I was an "edge" rider, it *seemed* like motorists were trying to run me off the road because they were passing so close. When I learned lane control, they gave me more room. Same motorists, entirely different response. I have no idea what their emotions were, or why. All I did was ride differently, and they magically behaved much better.

[Frank Lehnerz]

Seth Davidson's blog had a procedure on how to file a report too but his site appears to be down.

https://pvcycling.wordpress.com/

[Jim Baross]

It seems to me that those motorists, most people, will give the space we ask for. Asking by lane position. When merging, asking with a scan, signal, and move when acknowledged...more than just "eye contact."

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[Frank Lehnerz]

Yup. They get to say they were just "following standards", which is true. 

San Diego's Brian Genovese said just that a few years ago when Serge and I both asked about getting DZBLs removed from Bird Rock. Genovese also pointed out that various plans called for a bike lane on that road. 

This is what Abe Bandegan, one of the engineers for the City of Encinitas wrote a few years ago on a Facebook group about cycling safety issues in Encinitas. 

Both of these people are licensed Professional Engineers. File a complaint with the State Board against their license and against other PEs who continue to defend door zone bike lanes after being presented with evidence as to why they are a horrible idea. In the short term, it will likely do little other than make recipients of such complaints lose a few nights of sleep, but it will be on their record. 

Maggie O, a retired Caltrans engineer who actually thought all this stuff through like a engineer wrote a few years ago, "Cities and Counties get away with installing DZBLs because they are immune from lawsuits if they follow the minimum standard. But the minimum standard is a DZBL.  When I worked there, I tried for years to get the minimum width increased, to no avail."

This is all a repeat from discussions in the past. 

[Stephen Bingham]

Jim, the operative word in your email is “most.”

[Bob Shanteau]

Stephen,

I recall that when I gave a presentation on bicycle detection at a meeting of the Transportation Agency for Monterey County's Bicycle Advisory Committee some years ago, several people, including the representative from Velo Club Monterey, dismissed my work by saying they didn't stop at red lights. I got much the same response at a booth demonstrating how loop detection works during the Sea Otter Classic the same year as well as to the article that Dan Gutierrez and I wrote on the car lane paradigm some years later. That's when I realized that bicyclists in general and bicycle advocates in particular are simply not interested in what I have learned in 50 years of bicycle traffic engineering. Bicyclists want the "freedom" to ignore traffic laws, stay out of the way of cars and not to interact with motorists as drivers. And enforcement officers and traffic engineers are happy to oblige them.

Bob Shanteau

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[Gary Cziko]

Here at 00:04 you see what can happen if you ride the left edge of a door-zone bike lane, as Dave Snyder says smart cyclists know to do to be safe (better in the video).

And here at 00:46 what happens when you communicate to other road users to "change lanes to pass" by controlling the lane (same bus and operator).

Venice Boulevard, Los Angeles.

--Gary

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[Jim Baross]

Stephen:

I'll modify my statement below from "most" to "most all except the very few road-hog bullies to whom I choose to challenge by my assertive, conspicuous, careful, and lawful riding positioning."

Yes, I would be proud to have a similar statement on my gravestone. Though I hope never to have earned my death from challenging bullies, BUT I WILL CONTINUE TO ASSERT OUR RIGHT TO DO SO.

You're welcome.

[Scott Mace]

On Twitter, the infamous Warren Wells AICP asked me if I thought the rise in the number of annual bicyclist fatalities is an education crisis.

I responded that it was a deregulation-of-motorists crisis.

Scott Mace

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[Michael Graff]

What kind of deregulation do you mean?

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[Scott Mace]

This kind:

TransUnion Insurance Research Highlights Link Between 13% Decrease in Traffic Enforcement and 22% Rise in Driving Fatalities

https://www.globenewswire.com/en/news-release/2023/06/22/2692846/0/en/TransUnion-Insurance-Research-Highlights-Link-Between-13-Decrease-in-Traffic-Enforcement-and-22-Rise-in-Driving-Fatalities.html

Scott Mace

[Jim Baross]

Some bicyclists act as Bob described below. It is sad and unprofessional to act as though that should be the expected behavior. 

Some of us have realized that our safety and effective transportation in the public realm are enhanced when everyone follows the same rules/expectations.

A red traffic signal light means everyone facing that signal isn't to enter that intersection until the light changes... unless the signal is "inoperative" or we are directed to by an appropriate authority/cop... or we are in a State that allows us to.

Jim Baross

Board Member, League of American Bicyclists

President, Calif. Assoc. of Bicycling Organizations

Board Member, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition

On Sat, Sep 9, 2023 at 4:40 PM Bob Shanteau <rms...@gmail.com> wrote: