Re: [BicycleDriving] Digest for bicycledriving@googlegroups.com - 1 update in 1 topic

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Sara Reid

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Jul 30, 2022, 9:14:20 PM7/30/22
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On Saturday, July 30, 2022 at 06:11:31 PM CDT, <bicycle...@googlegroups.com> wrote:


F Lehnerz <flehne...@gmail.com>: Jul 30 12:56PM -0700

Hi Folks,
 
I came across the following comment on AzBikeLaw blog (worth the follow, IMO). It’s several years old and the link to the “Staying Safe in Protected Lanes” is now invalid and since it was posted on someone’s Dropbox, it’s not available in the Internet Archive.
 
Google searches turn up empty too.
Does anybody happen to have a copy of this article?
> The column opens with this;
> “One minute, I was cruising down 15th Street in Washington, DC. The next, I was sprawled on the pavement, four cops peering down at me.”…
 
> Annotated article is linked in this CaD!thread.
 
https://azbikelaw.org/cycle-tracks-are-nine-times-safer-than-roads/
 
Thanks,
Frank
 
 
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staying safe in protected lanes.PDF
protected bike lane.jpg

John Schubert

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Jul 30, 2022, 9:23:48 PM7/30/22
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Hi Frank,

I don't have the link you're looking for.

But there is no shortage of reporting on this facility's safety hazards.

The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety called it out for its high crash rate.  This is one report of their work.  There may be others; I didn't do a deep Google search:


Keri Caffrey did a wonderful sendup of this facility here:


Keri has another, more intellectual critique here:


The designer, Bill Schultheiss of Toole Design, is rather dismissive of any safety concerns.

John Schubert

Sara Reid

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Aug 3, 2022, 10:23:06 AM8/3/22
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On Tuesday, August 2, 2022 at 06:11:51 PM CDT, bicycle...@googlegroups.com <bicycle...@googlegroups.com> wrote:


"Frank J. Lehnerz" <flehne...@gmail.com>: Aug 01 05:45PM -0700

Hi Tricia,
 
I don't see these facilities as really being any different from sidewalk
riding except they're the "lipstick on a pig" equivalent with some fancy
paint and posts and been given propoganda terms like "protected bike
lane." The paint sometimes indicates a hazard area (despite often being
green) and sometimes it does not.
 
Here in San Diego we've seen a boom of separated bikeway construction, some
of them two-way including on some grades. tThese are so new most are not
yet in Streetview. Some intersections have bicycle-specific signals (J-Street
and 6th Ave.
<https://www.google.com/maps/@32.70944,-117.1557445,3a,75y,138.53h,81.86t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s2dw4xbvqFHMRAU1x1Mjxcg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192>)
(https://youtu.be/LU5hMbisU5o) and some don't (see image at bottom)
My best guess for why is the cost and the source of the funding as we have
either the City funding them or a local conglomeration called SANDAG who
receives their funding from a county-wide sales tax. Either way the
bureaucrats stay in their positions, the consultants get paid, and the
activist/politicians get their wins.
 
This J-Street two way path has been here since late 2018 or so if I'm
remembering correctly and I checked our state's crash database for any
bicycle crashes and so far none are found. But I highly suspect it's
because crashes in these facilities are not reported as official traffic
crashes due to their status of not being on the roadway as defined by the
state's vehicle code. Much like the issue of dooring crashes not being
considered crashes valid for inclusion in crash databases* this results in
a distortion of the actual amount of crashes occurring. J-Street,
fortunately only has one driveway, and it's for a large hotel but several
intersections. The other separated bikeways in the area have several
midblock driveways, and one of my closest calls *ever* while cycling has
been with a turning motorist entering a parking garage.
 
Frank
*in CA [dooring crashes] actually are counted and compose of between 12-15%
of car-bike crashes in large cities like LA, SF, and SD but this fact is
largely ignored by the advocacy crowd
[image: image]
 
 
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