Right of way question

[PedalUma]

New separated but not fully protected bike lanes were just installed on one road in my town. They look great. Very inviting. Yesterday I scoped it out in planning for a group ride that happens the first Friday of every month. On the southbound leg the new bike lane just ends. There is no shoulder, just broken pavement and a two-foot wide sidewalk with high tension power poles in it. The traffic is doing 45 with lots of trucks. There is no warning sign, you are just stuck in the trap. If that happened to a photogenic 11-year-old girl and she were struck by a bus, my town would be in big trouble. Those are just plastic cones, not solid.

 

[BlackHand]

There is no warning sign, you are just stuck in the trap

Be careful what you wish for

 

[Kayakguy]

Be careful what you wish for
View attachment 165411

Is any transportation principle or rule more disrespected than a bike lane?

 

[PedalUma]

It is also where they dig first, for example to install fiber, and sewer lines, water mains, so the pavement is always lumpy and messed up. I will bet that those new 'protected' lanes (that are not really protected because those are only green road cones) will now have zero access for street sweeping, so all the stuff like roofing staples and broken glass will end up there. Big rigs consider bike lanes to be parking. Would they do that in a diamond lane for cars?

 

[Kayakguy]

US lawyers even Sue chops ? Or is that "cop" in chinglish ?

I went to college in Tacoma, way back when. Being very poor, some of used to frequent a chinese restaurant that still had "Office of Price Stabilization" signs left over from WWII (OPS was an attempt to keep inflation under control during the war). You could get a bowl of rice for 10 cents. Not the good old days.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Is any transportation principle or rule more disrespected than a bike lane?

None come to mind. But turn signals are up there.

 

[Slaphappygamer]

Be careful what you wish for
View attachment 165411

This is when the throttle shines.

 

[Catalyzt]

I think all right-of-way rules should follow from the basic principle of "Sails Over Power" -- e.g., if you have more power, (due to a motor, going downhill, being more physically capable, have better visibility, etc.) yield to who or whatever has less power, whether it's another cyclist, a driver who is incredibly stupid, a car that handles poorly or is less capable of handling speed bumps, a dog, duck, reptile, robot, or vegetable.

The traditional New York City version of this principle is that if you are doing something really crazy, yield to someone who is doing something less crazy. If I'm going 40 MPH and popping a wheelie with a pterodactyl clutching my helmet, it's my responsibility to avoid a naked person on acid who is wearing sunglasses at night. We are both behaving irresponsibly, but I'm being more of a lunatic, so it's my responsibility to avoid her, even if it means coming to a full stop, crashing, or having my 'dactyl yank me into the air and off the road.

 

[PDoz]

I think all right-of-way rules should follow from the basic principle of "Sails Over Power" -- e.g., if you have more power, (due to a motor, going downhill, being more physically capable, have better visibility, etc.) yield to who or whatever has less power, whether it's another cyclist, a driver who is incredibly stupid, a car that handles poorly or is less capable of handling speed bumps, a dog, duck, reptile, robot, or vegetable.

The traditional New York City version of this principle is that if you are doing something really crazy, yield to someone who is doing something less crazy. If I'm going 40 MPH and popping a wheelie with a pterodactyl clutching my helmet, it's my responsibility to avoid a naked person on acid who is wearing sunglasses at night. We are both behaving irresponsibly, but I'm being more of a lunatic, so it's my responsibility to avoid her, even if it means coming to a full stop, crashing, or having my 'dactyl yank me into the air and off the road.

Sails over power is due to the reduced directional options for a sailboat - the average sailboat has 45 degrees where they lose drive when tacking upwind. So it's not JUST because we're doing something stupid whilst watching naked people do something even more stupid - my favorite solo sail involves tacking up a channel that's about 2 boat lengths wide. I'm pretty sure Sail doesn't have right of way in a channel, at least all the big power boats with naked females that I stop to watch seem to behave as though they have right of way . I can't say I ever noticed the sunglasses.

Notice the green marker with a red stripe?

 

[Sparky731]

It's a reasonable question - eg we have " trail etiquette " in the mtb world, with uphill rider yielding to downhill ( gotta admit , I'll always stop when I'm the downhill rider, because it's easier to stop so safer) , and lots of other unspoken rules that'd be difficult to prove in court. Like stop for horse riders - they're stupid / unpredictable and it's usually nicer to chat with the rider before the horse decides humans must die....

Your uphill/downhill yield has also been an unexplainable rule for me even though I was able to get his best explanation from grand pubah of the high council of trail hikers several years ago. He agreed it should be reversed for the same reasons you describe. However the rule is so ingrained it cannot be changed — his opinion.

 

[Sparky731]

My guideline rule on the street: The bigger/faster object yields to the smaller/slower object.
AND, bikers yield to everything.

 

[Kayakguy]

Is that the law in your region? I ask because our bike lanes are often shared direction, the start of the lane indicates this but you don't have lines for the entire length. There is seemingly no logical process used by the powers that be when they decide where to put these bike lanes

BTW, you use " he" - I can't se a gender from KG's post . For some reason, I initially had a vision of Karen and my impulse was to stop and block .....then when I looked back at KG's post my visualized biker changed because I'd registered KG choosing to give way . It was a gender obtuse person in lycra stubbornly insisting they were correct.

We do have at least one bike lane that is clearly marked two-way. But that one is the only one I am aware of. It is wide enough to easily accomodate pedalers going opposite directions. Peds with children and dogs like to stand in the middle of it, oblivious to any approaching bike, however.

 

[Nvreloader]

Per the NV state traffic laws,
all bikes must follow the auto laws,
which includes stopping a STOP signs and must ride with the flow of traffic.

 

[Kayakguy]

Per the NV state traffic laws,
all bikes must follow the auto laws,
which includes stopping a STOP signs and must ride with the flow of traffic.

Washington State law now allows bikes to run stop signs (not lights, and of course we don't have the right of way). I now do run stop signs routinely, after checking for auto traffic.

 

[Nvreloader]

Bikes are treated the same as auto's here for all traffic laws, we can use single at any time, if 5 or more autos are behind you, you must pull over at the next safe spot, and let them pass. All traffic/Auto's must with a minimum of 3' of space between each other.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

Many bike lanes around here, nearly all one-way and clearly marked as such. All of the one-ways are in the traffic direction.

When a pedestrian or wrong-way cyclist comes at me in one of these lanes, I stop in the right 2/3 of the lane and force them to take the risk of tangling with traffic. Doubt many of them get the message, but at least I haven't let them force me into traffic.