dynodonn 

Temporary or not, bringing certain carelessness to light can make a difference at times, whether we or others may think them as "slight". A "slight" fender bender for a motorist, does not translate the same for a cyclist.
If this road crew is not understanding the type of signage that they should be setting up, that may in turn not speak well for their other forms of work.

choteau

Have ANY of you ever worked on a "road crew" ? I worked for the county road department for 9 years.... When low on seniority, I got to put out signs and stand all day flagging in all weather conditions. Came close to getting hit by vehicles on a regular basis. Thankless job, between an ass of a boss and "entitled" members of the public...

kickstart

I have driven mixers, and pneumatic bulk tankers, sometimes working road projects.

choteau

Shot any oil for chip sealing? After 3 years I had ( got ) to go on the county wide chip sealing crew. Sometimes 12 hours of work, 4 as overtime OR comp time, I always took the comp time=more days away from my "coworkers"....

kickstart

Nope, only concrete for curbs, walls, or walks, and portland for soil stabilization.

choteau

We always heard "Concrete, get it there on time or else" We had a pneumatic tanker show up a couple of times to do a fast refill of the oil spray truck, OIL + AIR = FOAM , the usual was a a tanker and pup, truck with a pto pump.

dynodonn 

Some road crews are seasoned and do awesome work, and some wouldn't make a decent pimple on a mediocre road crew member's ass. Just because someone worked on a road crew, doesn't automatically make them infallible, and not subject to suggestions from the general public.

choteau

I agree, we had a couple that got hired because of who they "knew" not what they knew. One was so bad the whole crew refused to work with him, can you say "Safety Hazard". He tore up equipment, and when we tried to talk to him, he offered to "meet" us after work. Suggestions yelled from a car speeding thru a work zone for the 4rth time in an hour, not really interested in hearing what they have to say.... Had one hit the 24" stop/slow I was holding in my hand, he then yelled and whined to my supervisor that I hit his car with my sign....

dynodonn 

I've learned that suggestions made from a window of a speeding car to a road crew laborer produce very little in the way of results. I've also learned that writing to a DOT or road construction company with a courteous and detailed letter or email, with my name and return address, tends to be more productive.

kickstart

This thread either illustrates that a few municipalities are conically plagued by a poor highway department, or suffer from the attention of some extraordinarily pedantic individuals.

dynodonn 

Another thought, it may be that some municipalities have out sourced a percentage of their road repair to the lowest bidder, not always for the better, and may have a few observant residents of the area willing enough to take the time and energy to make written suggestions on certain discrepancies that they observed during their travels along local roadways.

genec

In defense of ILTB and some others here... I saw a group of clueless cyclists yesterday that gave me the same type of "those mindless buffoons" thought that I had for the road crew...

It was a group of about 10 cyclists, in kit, riding along ahead of me, in a BL on a 50MPH arterial road. They maintained single file just fine... but when it came to making a left turn, they all turned from the bike lane... no hand signal, no merging with traffic where there were gaps, no one lane at a time... no, it was wait until the last minute, then clumsily and confusingly bumble across traffic from the far right side to the left turn lane.

There were several ways to pull this off in a better manner... and they failed to use any of them. They were as clueless as the road crew mentioned in the OP.

kickstart

As a concerned citizen, did you send their cycling club a letter informing them the error of their ways?

genec

No... I didn't even try to follow them... their choice where to make the left was too late for me to even try.

Their action just puts the "clueless" shoe equally on those cyclists.

cellery

At first I thought this was going to be about guys in spandex training on $8k road bikes who don't know the traffic laws. FWIW I would have rather read about that.

genec

See post 37.

njkayaker

Any cyclist for whom this was a problem probably shouldn't be unescorted.

??? Was the right lane closed? Was there a left lane?

No, it illustrates that you are working overtime to find stuff to rant about.

njkayaker

All sorts of conjecture going on here!

genec

50 mph arterial road, with no bike lane... yeah I could see a potential for escorting some bicycle riding folks on that road. The right lane was not closed... the side of the road was being worked on. Both lanes were open. There were no bike lanes to close... cyclists using this road have to take a lane. Perhaps, but since you don't bike in San Diego, you really have no idea of the situation other than your arm chair quarterbacking. What it does show is that the road crew can't tell the difference between a bike lane and merge lanes for cars.

njkayaker

I've actually done a fair amount of riding in San Diego (and area).

If this rant requires people to understand a "situation" peculiar to San Diego, then that's your problem!

And, you'd have to do some work to convince people of the peculiarity of the situation.

San Diego might have more of some types of issues than other places but your implication that other places can' have the same issues is absurd!

Actually, after providing some description of the actual road (a road where many cyclists are going to be in the shoulder), the sign is, very likely, indicating that cyclists using the shoulder have to move into the lane.

That is, it seems the road crew has much more awareness of the situation than you think they do!

So, it's a silly rant that you communicated poorly and that you didn't really understand in the first place!

I-Like-To-Bike

Where do most if not all cyclists on that road, other than you, normally ride; in the lane or on the side of the road where the road crew was working?

genec

No shoulder... these are curbed city streets... shows how much you know.

genec

Well that is the sad part... cyclists ride on sidewalks, in the lane, in the merge areas, where ever they can... there is no consistency, especially on this high speed road where some cyclists also ride in the gutter pan.

The road crew was working at the edge of the road and along side the road doing some pipe work. Their vehicles were parked half on the road and half on the curb, with at least one vehicle parked on the dirt at one of the many "merge islands."

The fact is there is NOT any bike lane on this road... although many miles further west, there are sharrows.

There were cones along the right hand side of the right lane that narrowed the lane a bit, but the right lane was actually still open.

And again as much as this is cluelessness on the part of the road crew... see post 37 for equal cluelessness on the part of a pack of cyclists...

Yeah, no one is perfect... and even fewer seem to be even trying. That is the bottom line.

I-Like-To-Bike

Perhaps you should explain your version of the perfect location for all cyclists should ride on this 50 mph road.
I thought that the Vehicular Cycling Grand Poobah was the only source for the bottom line on "perfect" riding location for all cyclists.

genec

Well let's see... since there is only sidewalk on a small portion of it, (and a sign that warns peds that the sidewalk ends) that pretty much renders the sidewalk useless. There is no shoulder, as it is a curbed street. That pretty much leaves the gutter pan or taking at least part of the lane. Frankly I avoid the street... as there are better ways to get to the locations at either end. There are no businesses along the length I am thinking of... as it just winds from one mesa top to another.

I have ridden it, just to see if it offered any advantages over the other routes that I normally use... It does not... and at least one time I rode it, I was yelled at by driver or passenger to "get in the (non-existent) bike lane." Frankly, I don't like the merge areas I mentioned earlier... they are all high speed type merges... the type of thing that allows motorists to go off of this road with little warning to others. (IE, lots of right hook potential)

There is no bike lane... there are lines away from the curb that are guidlines for the merge areas ahead. There are real islands and painted islands. And lately it seems to always be under construction.