Bicycles Allowed Full Lane - Change Lanes to Pass

[randya]

I originally posted this to a local list, but I'm reposting my message here in its entirety to encourage bicycle advocates everywhere to contact their local Department of Transportation and encourage them to follow San Francisco's lead on the two following items: 'Change Lanes to Pass' safety signage, and bicycle stencil 'Shared Lane Markings'

(1) San Francisco DPT has come up with bicycle safety signage for arterial roads with narrow lanes that say "Bikes Allowed Full Lane - Change Lanes to Pass". The SF signs are much more directly worded than the ambiguous signs that PDOT has posted, which say "Narrow Lanes - Bikes in Lane". You can see the Portland version on SE Hawthorne Boulevard - they're better than nothing, but PDOT could certainly follow San Francisco's example, and create a less ambiguous version of this sign for arterial streets with narrow lanes, which would do more to improve safety for cyclists. In case you're wondering, the enabling statute in California, CVC 21202, is worded almost identically to the Oregon statute, ORS 814.430.

http://www.bicycle.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/Article_BAUFL_Sign.pdf

(2) Also see item 18 on page 27 of the following SF DPT guidance document, written by locally-based Alta Planning and Design. It is a design for shared lane markings indicating lane position for bicycles, currently in use in San Francisco CA, Gainesville FL, Denver CO and Paris, France.

http://www.bicycle.sfgov.org/site/uploadedfiles/dpt/bike/SF_Design_Guidelines-final_format_9_29.pdf

Any of you advocates out there, I encourage you to contact Rob Birchfield, the City of Portland Traffic Engineer, and request that PDOT follow San Francisco's lead on these two items.

-Randy

[PdxMark]

I like those signs. In the right situations, they'd make clear the rights that cyclists have in asserting use of the street. In some places, like downtown Portland, the signs would be almost superfluous because most riders and drivers already accept that reality.

Personally, I'm not sure that Hawthorne is one of the places that it makes sense to ride that way or to use the sign. The speed, traffic volume, incline (heading east), and availability of a parallel bike route a couple blocks away all make Hawthorne a poor place for bikes to pick a fight over lane usage... but that's just me.

[John E]

Given the number of motorists who do not realize that we do have the right to take any lane which is too narrow to share safely, I strongly advocate this sort of signage.

[randya]

Personally, I'm not sure that Hawthorne is one of the places that it makes sense to ride that way or to use the sign. The speed, traffic volume, incline (heading east), and availability of a parallel bike route a couple blocks away all make Hawthorne a poor place for bikes to pick a fight over lane usage... but that's just me.

SE Hawthorne is identified in the city's bike master plan as a bike route. The lanes are a substandard 9.5' in width, with parking adjacent, in which situation cyclists are legally allowed to take the full lane, no matter what speed they are travelling. The cycling community's proposal (which the Hawthorne Blvd. Business Association and PDOT rejected in favor of the signs that are now present) was to stripe an eastbound uphill-only bike lane on the steepest portion of the hill, in the parking lane where parking volumes were lowest, between approximately SE 23rd and SE 27th. I thought this was and still is an eminently reasonable compromise, but the HBBA and PDOT unfortunately did not.

IMO, the SF DPT signs send a MUCH CLEARER message to motorists that the wimpy PDOT signs do.