bruce19

They've Invented An Ingenious New Type Of Intersection That Could Save Lives

Tony Marley

It can't hurt.

BlazingPedals

Different yes, but I'm not too sure about the "safer" part. It moves the bikes out of the car driver's line of sight during right turns. Plus it forces the bikes to take a circuitous route through (every?) intersection. As the article said, maybe it'll appeal to the frightened-of-cars beginner though.

kevindsingleton 

How do the bikes turn left? Do they have to go all the way around the intersection, risking contact with automobiles coming from more directions?

A million dollars for four concrete islands? I'm in the wrong line of work!

FBinNY 

The left turn issue isn't much different than for any other bicycle side path if you think about it, which is another point against side paths in general.

I think this design may have some utility at busy intersections where there are large numbers of right turning cars, but at $1M per, may not make much sense. Care will also have to be taken o make sure the islands leave enough turning radius for long trucks and buses, so the entire intersection may end up using more real estate than otherwise.

The irony of all this effort to cater to the so-called interested but concerned is that once they start riding, many will come to dislike the new features that were made for them.

Drew Eckhardt 

That would be more dangerous than regular intersections unless you made bicycles stop while cars are moving, prohibited right turns at red lights, and only allowed left turns on green arrows.

It makes a cyclist going straight more vulnerable to a right or left hook due to increased separation between cyclists and where drivers are looking.

avidone1

I like it

JohnDThompson 

Looks interesting, but considering that many people already feel the cost of just painting bike lanes on the road is too much investment in bike infrastructure, I have my doubts it will catch on anytime soon.

cyccommute 

My thoughts exactly. The problem with this kind of intersection and "protected" lanes is that they may make the beginner feel safer (they aren't really) but those of us who aren't beginners are relegated to the same protected lanes that put us out of view of cars. Denver has recently installed some protected lanes that are impassable when it snows. First the city doesn't have plows for the protected lanes and the snow off the main street gets shoved onto the lane.

One of the lanes is a "floating lane" where the bicycles are between the curb and parked cars where the cars "float" about 8 feet away from the curb. Business owners along this lane shove snow off their sidewalks onto the lane. Snow also gets piled up on the lane at intersections where crossing is dicey at best. And most of the lanes have been installed on the north side of buildings rather than on the exposed south side of the buildings. Snow that gets shoved into the lane soon becomes ice that lingers for a very long time.

Finally, all of the lanes that I've seen in Denver so far have deep flaws that are unrelated to snow. One of the lanes has been installed on the left side of the left travel lane. Bicyclists are normally on the left side of traffic...it renders even high mobile helmet mirrors almost useless. The "floating lane" has several intersection crossings where the rider is hidden behind cars at their most vulnerable point which is crossing an intersection.

The "Dutch lanes" linked to above aren't all that great in use. I've ridden something similar in The Netherlands a couple of years ago. The bike lane was tied to round-abouts and the bicyclists were forced to swing way out past the travel lane, cross 2 to 4 lanes of traffic including cars turning off the round-about. I'm not a huge fan of round-abouts for bicycles anyway but having to move outside the travel lane puts the cyclists out of mind to the motorist. I eventually just started riding through the round-about like a car and felt much better...even if I did get "Nee! Nee! Nee!" yelled at me by other cyclists.

FBinNY 

One of the dangers of comparing accident data and designs from Denmark or the Netherlands to our own is that possibly the largest factor isn't considered. IMO- the biggest contributor to the relative dangers is whether drivers are used to and expecting bicycles or not. Where drivers see bicycles every day on every road, they grow more attentive to them, see them sooner, and adjust their driving habits accordingly.

Slash5

Left turns don't make much sense - from the looks of the photograph in the article you cross the street in the pedestrian cross walk, then ride against the oncoming bicycle traffic across the cross street and then continue down the cross street. If you had a green light when you wanted to make the left you would have to wait through 2 lights to make the left.

cyccommute 

Very true. The most frightening ride I've ever done was riding from the Nashville airport to the Natchez Trace trailhead. People in Nashville simply did not know how to act around a bicycle. It's the only time I've ever ridden sidewalks in a major city. I felt like I was totally invisible.

fietsbob

Difference: there is a big % of the voting public riding bicycles Daily, in NL.

One of the towns I Visited in NL, the Houses were all on a indirect series of streets out the front,

But Take your Bike Out The back Gate and the bike paths were straight through.

kevindsingleton 

They should have just built the bicycle underpass, and we'd all be yelling about how cool it was!

fietsbob

there is a bike overpass-roundabout there.