http://eli-damon.info/documents/factors.pdf
Also, let me know if you have anything to add to the list.
Eli
parallel seams and cracks
rumble strips
surface consistency (i.e. is there a mix surface smoothness--concrete or asphalt (not good to jump from one to the other).
surface disruption (patches, heavy,possibly slippery thermoplastic, etc.)
Alan Forkosh Oakland, CA
afor...@mac.com
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Minimizing lateral moves.
Here’s an example: on the north side of Charlotte, NC, 49 crosses over I-485. This is a half-diamond/half-cloverleaf intersection: all on and off ramps to 485 are on the northwest side of 49. On the east side of 49 is a railroad right of way. Southbound on 49, you have a light before and after the overpass, then a third one shortly after that. 49 has four lanes (two each way), plus various RTO lanes and turn pockets.
Approaching the first light, there is an RTO lane leading to an on ramp, and two through lanes. On a bike, you need to be somewhere in the right through lane. As soon as you get through the intersection, a feeder lane comes in on the right, and the road goes to three southbound lanes across the overpass. For a short distance, across the overpass, that new lane is now the rightmost lane available to through traffic. Under a FRAP law, you’d have to cross that lane and go down the right side of it.
As soon as you get to the end of the overpass, that rightmost lane becomes an RTO lane, feeding the on ramp for 485 eastbound. On a bike, you can no longer use that lane; you need the middle lane again.
So to comply with a FRAP law, you’d be compelled to make a rightward cross right before the overpass starts, and then a leftward one immediately afterwards.
But that’s just silly.
What I do is go just into the rightmost lane after the first light, and go down the left edge of it, just right of the lane divider line. That lets motorists by me on the right, often with two wheels on the generous paved shoulder (an illegal move for them in NC, but at least I’m legal, and nobody cares about their pass because it obviously creates no problem). When the rightmost lane becomes RTO, I just go a little to the left of the line, and I’m in the proper lane for my destination, without having to cross anybody’s path.
I generally take the middle of that lane then, because after the light immediately following the overpass, that lane too becomes RTO, for a next light that follows very promptly.
This strategy is perfectly legal in NC because, Beck Michaels notwithstanding, I am only required to be somewhere in the rightmost lane then available for travel across that overpass.
Good thing.
Mark Ortiz
I know what a merge/diverge is. But what is a union/divide.
BTW, last I checked, images are allowed in BicycleDriving. Perhaps we
should use them more. One picture is worth a thousand words - and avoids
misconceptions.
Bob Shanteau
Freeways often have unions and divides, surface streets less frequently, and when they do a union is often followed shortly thereafter by a merge, and a divide usually precedes a diverge.
I'll try to find some example maps to illustrate each of those scenarios, but I'm a firm believer that a thousand words is worth a picture.
Those terms, by the way, were part of Effective Cycling (Road 2) training materials.
:-)
-- trevor