misleadingly subtitled San Diego Union Trib article

[John Eldon]

San Diego pays $7 million to family of cyclist hit by cars on Old Town bike route

San Diego pays $7 million to family of cyclist hit by cars on Old Town b... The case highlights the potential dangers of ‘sharrows,’ marked bike routes that require cars and bicycles to sh...

This tragedy has absolutely nothing to do with sharrows. Separate bike lanes would have made the situation even worse by rendering the cyclist even less visible to the errant motorist. Creating a daylighting no parking zone is indeed the correct response, and at least that was mentioned, but the unfounded rant against sharrows runs counter to our interests, rights, and advocacy.

Best,

John

John A. Eldon

[F Lehnerz]

Yup, even if the parking was completely removed (highly unlikely to happen without a fight and in comment from the State of CA) and replaced with segregation, there would still be issues with sight lines and increased risks of right hooks, left crosses, and conflicts at the four-way stop sign controlled intersections. 

Several of the sharrows on Congress St. are installed incorrectly at the edge of the lane in spots where street parking is prohibited by the presence of red painted curbs. Those spaces work well for a place to temporarily pull to the right edge to release motor traffic to let them pass but otherwise the markings themselves shouldn’t be there. I reported it years ago to GetItDone but doubt they were ever fixed. 

Not sure though per that article whether the collision occurred in that area though with the edge-installed sharrows. It’s awfully congested at times and the sight lines even out in the middle of the lane are limited by the parking. It’s sketchy to even use by car due to other motorists pulling out, often blind, into the street. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 2, 2024, at 14:13, John Eldon <j.e...@sbcglobal.net> wrote:



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[Thomas Reynolds]

Those roads were part of my commute home for many years.

The article was a bit unclear on two things that occurred to me while reading it - 

1) it seems that the plaintiff was the one arguing against sharrows 

2) the SUV may have been backing out rather fast to throw the cyclist into the opposite side of the road.  An alert cyclist would have seen the SUV if it was backing out in a cautious manner.

I never found commuting through Old Town dangerous.  Even before anyone heard of sharrows I'd take the lane when necessary.

Pray for them.

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