Advocacy & Safety - How to handle bad intersection

Please please please don't turn this thread into an argument about bike lanes. This is a question about a specific intersection which happens to have a bike lane. The intersection should be redesigned but that is another topic.

http://www.kemenel.org/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=532&g2_serialNumber=2

The question is, should the cyclist take the purple line or the blue line up to the stop light?

I hope this illustration drawn with limited software and even more limited abilities conveys the situation. Although in my opinion lane width should not be an issue, the width of the left lane is NOT wide enough to share. The ENTIRE width of the right lane (from center line to curb) is plenty wide enough to share but as you can see, there is a lot going on in that space.

My preference has been the blue line, which gets me honked at a lot. Last night in the thick of rush hour traffic I had the choice of stopping and waiting for traffic to clear, or taking the purple line. I took the purple. This is coincidentally after a heated debate where I was advocating blue line and someone else purple line. I hate to admit it, but the purple line wasn't so bad.

Hmm. By the looks of the photo , there appears that there is right turn lane before the actual intersection, so there isn't much chance of being right hooked once you're at the light. I would take the left until I have passed the turn-off and then drift to the purple to the light.

Can you post the address of the intersection? Maybe we can see an aerial photo ( via Google) and see the distances, etc

Without seeing the actual intersection and the traffic of the area, I would be inclined to take the BLUE line. I feel that even though the right ramp is before the light, people might be just as likely to try and right hook you there, maybe even more so than if it was at the light. I agree with octopus.

Can you get a satellite image of the intersection in question?

I've got something similar on my commute home, only sans-bike lane. What I do is to take the whole lane--the blue line in your diagram--to prevent cars from right-hooking me as I go straight. Once I've gotten out of the right-hook-danger-zone and gotten up to the light, I pull back over to the right and allow cars to pass.

The intersection is Grindstone Pkwy and Rock Quarry, Columbia MO. ha--looks like there's a cylist in the bike lane in the satellite image. It is the north side, or westbound, Grindstone at issue.
http://www.kemenel.org/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=535&g2_serialNumber=2

I realized I drew it heading east instead of west. Otherwise the illustration matches your description.

Please please please don't turn this thread into an argument about bike lanes. This is a question about a specific intersection which happens to have a bike lane. The intersection should be redesigned but that is another topic.

http://www.kemenel.org/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=532&g2_serialNumber=2

The question is, should the cyclist take the purple line or the blue line up to the stop light?

I hope this illustration drawn with limited software and even more limited abilities conveys the situation. Although in my opinion lane width should not be an issue, the width of the left lane is NOT wide enough to share. The ENTIRE width of the right lane (from center line to curb) is plenty wide enough to share but as you can see, there is a lot going on in that space.

My preference has been the blue line, which gets me honked at a lot. Last night in the thick of rush hour traffic I had the choice of stopping and waiting for traffic to clear, or taking the purple line. I took the purple. This is coincidentally after a heated debate where I was advocating blue line and someone else purple line. I hate to admit it, but the purple line wasn't so bad.
While lane layout (but not whether or not there is a bike lane stripe - the presence of which is usually left best ignored with respect to determining appropriate lateral position) is a factor in the decision of where you should ride, it's far from the whole picture. There are usually many dynamic factors that should be considered, including your speed (which can vary based on the wind velocity and direction, not to mention what kind of bike you're on and how you're feeling) the presence and speed of other traffic, roadway surface condition, etc. The purple line might be appropriate one time, the blue line the next, and something else the next time.
If you're getting honked at regularly, then there is probably (but not necessarily) a good reason for it.

Assuming you're in the bike lane while you're still 500' back, as I approached the right turn cut-off, I would look back and evaluate the situation. Unless it was clear that all the traffic behind me was clearly going straight (which may never be the case), I would negotiate (if necessary) to move left, and then move left to a position near the blue line. Once I was at the right-turn cut-off (just past the last point where I could still be right hooked), if there was faster traffic wanting to pass me, I would look back over my right shoulder and move aside (to about your purple line) to let them do so.

Appropriate lane positioning is a dynamic process, and depends on many factors that vary each time you ride. Don't get stuck thinking there is one particular static position where you should always ride independent of traffic conditions and the like.

you're giving some straightforward and candid recommendations.
Thanks.

blue line if can merge
purple trying to merge

I don't see a RTOL lane in your diagram and it also appears that there is a left lane that is marked as a through or left turn lane in your diagram.
I attempted to draw the RTOL. I don't remember whether it is a separate left turn and left straight-through or if it is one, from the satellite it looks like separate, but it doesn't matter for this situation.

I'd take the purple line with my left arm pointing out left, and looking back behind me
and constantly turning my head front and to the back to continually scan ahead and behind so
I can assess traffic, and respond to whatever happens

*
if a car is coming up behind me I will make eye contact and stare them down hard,
they always yield when I do this (so far)

*
if they keep coming at me after me looking, or they aren't paying attention, I will
navigate to the nearest and least dangerous area where ever that may be

I really hate to say this, but...

I'm with Helmet Head.

Although, depending on traffic I might dispense with moving left at all and just stay on the purple line... if the vast majority of traffic was going straight and depending on speed.

I really hate to say this, but...

I'm with Helmet Head.

Although, depending on traffic I might dispense with moving left at all and just stay on the purple line... if the vast majority of traffic was going straight and depending on speed.
No need for the "although" since I too might "dispense with moving left at all and just stay on the purple line", which is what I meant when I wrote: "Unless it was clear that all the traffic behind me was clearly going straight (which may never be the case), I would negotiate (if necessary) to move ..."

If it was clear that all the traffic behind me was clearly going straight, then I would not merge left, and, thus "just stay on the purple line".

The difference being that I decide based mostly on the speed of the traffic going straight through... you say you'd decide based on the total absence of right turning vehicles.

I worry less about right turning vehicles because they should already be slowing down to make their turn... Then again, most intersections similar to that that I travel through are on rural highways... 50 mph+ speed limit.

I concur pretty much with everyone else, i.e., blue line before the diverge, purple line after it. If you guys think this are bad for bicyclists, I can attest they are twice as tough on pedestrians.