steve_wmn

I saw a rather mild car-bike accident that I thought I'd write up just to see if my thoughts on the incident make any sense. I was sitting facing east at a red light alongside some cars. On the opposite (westbound) side of the intersection the light turned green and a few cars and 1 cyclist started across. The westbound cars all cleared the intersection, and then the cyclist came across, turning south and heading toward the southbound sidewalk where a bike path along the road starts. So he was heading right at the cars next to me waiting at the red. The first car in line beside me was making all the signs of not noticing the oncoming cyclist, creeping forward and prepping for a right turn on red. The cyclist kept right on going, eventually tapping this guy's front bumper/left front quarter panel with his front wheel at low speed. The car driver then stopped and let the cyclist proceed.

My initial reaction was that the cyclist was crazy for going that far into the car's way. If I was that guy I've have been scanning for eye contact and would've stopped short of hitting or getting in front of this driver. Any thoughts?

supcom

One cyclist's assertiveness is another's game of chicken.

chipcom 

When right-on-red is legal, it is still the responsibility of the person doing so to yield to oncoming traffic. Since the cyclist had the green, he had the ROW. That said, just as cars should not turn left into the right lane of a 4 lane highway, the cyclist should not have been making a beeline for the sidewalk/BL, or should at the very least been paying attention to the traffic waiting at the light and expecting someone to turn, as they did. It's called planning for Murphy's Law, expecting the other guy to do the dumbest thing possible and being prepared if and when they do so.

chicharron

I agree. When riding in city traffic, assume that the cars are going to do somthing totally unpredictable, and just be prepared to react.

Jonathan1987

my friend was hit on his bike this morning before school and the driver was completely at fault and angry at my friend.

sggoodri

When cycling through an intersection, I stay in line with the other vehicles. That way I am where drivers from the other approaches are looking for traffic, and the line I take through the intersection is what they normally expect.

The problem with this location is that the bike path is really a sidewalk. Drivers waiting at an intersection don't expect traffic moving from a travel lane to enter the crosswalk area; they expect traffic to stay in the travel lanes. Drivers are bad enough about not paying attention to crosswalk users who enter the crosswalk normally; entering it at the last second is bound to cause surprises.

It's common for drivers who are turning to need to move laterally immediately after the turn, and this does result in more frustration when other turning drivers think they can turn into the adjacent lane. When I have a left turn arrow I often see right-on-red drivers turn into the lane I will want to use for my following movement to the right, and when I turn right on green I often see drivers turn left into the lane I will want use for my following movement to the left. This happens to me in my car as often as on my bike. All I can do is slow down and merge laterally when I can.

Unfortunately, a sidewalk-style bike path doesn't allow the left-turning cyclist to yield and merge laterally to enter it; it has a narrow curb cut opening at the crosswalk just inches in front of cars that are creeping forward. The result is a right-angle conflict with drivers who aren't expecting one. And while I do think it is worthwhile to try to educate and enforce motorists to be more careful of crosswalk users, the inherent problems of pedestrian junction interactions exacerbated by bicycling speed are why I won't use sidewalk-type paths when cycling.

-Steve Goodridge

webist

Clearly, the cyclist had no "right of way" into and opposing an oncoming lane. His right of way was limited to a left turn in traffic lanes. It wasn't clear to me in your rendition. Did the cyclist intentionally tap the front end of the car? When I am confronted with similar circumstances and actually want to use the Multi-Use Path, I go straight across the intersection and do a U-turn and come up to the MUP in the right lane. Another option I sometimes use is make the left turn and enter the MUP a block away in a less busy intersection without lights. Of course, one could walk the bike and cross ina pedestrian manner as well. That would take a bit longer. i just can's see asserting myself by crossing a crosswalk into oncoming traffic lanes, even for the short distance needed to reach a sidewalk or path entrance. This is especially true when opposing traffic is present.

slvoid

Now this is a situation where a horn, a yell, or a HID light or something would've helped.
It's not always easy noticing a cyclist flying down the block at you. If you can clear a city block in 3-4 seconds, there's really no warning for anyone, even if they scan a block away.

sggoodri

The description implies that the left-turning cyclist had a green left turn only arrow, since the right-turning motorist had a red light.

The cyclist is described as entering the crosswalk, not the oncoming lane. The crosswalk is on the intersection-side of the stop line. The motorist in the oncoming lane on the other side of the stop line is required by law to yield to traffic in the intersection before turning right on red. The intersection includes the crosswalk. Therefore, the motor vehicle driver failed to yield.

However, it's quite common for drivers to creep across the crosswalk while preparing to turn right on red, and it's much less common for a left-turning operator (in this case the cyclist) to swing wide and try to enter the crosswalk from the middle of the intersection. This is why we shouldn't be surprised that the motorist was surprised.

The safer way to make this left turn would be to stay in the traffic stream until through the intersection, and then turn right off of the roadway (if so desired) as a second maneuver. Sidewalk-type bike paths are notoriously bad for encouraging intersection movements by cyclists that will surprise motorists in that they are unlike either normal vehicular or pedestrian interactions.

Helmet Head

Is it really a bike path along the road, or a bike lane?

A portion of the roadway pavement delineated by a painted stripe for cyclist use is a bike lane. A bike path is physically separate from the roadway.

Brian

And just like that, interest in this thread came to an abrupt halt.