Originally Posted by
Digital_Cowboy
Doing a search of the document there is no mention of bicycles.
I have some questions about the rumble strips.
- in those areas where they are used are there signs posted before them to warn bicyclists, mopeds, motorcyclists, and scooters that they're coming up?
- what is the city or states responsibility/liability if someone riding a bicycle, moped, motorcycle or scooter gets injured because of them?
- especially considering that logically the ones that are physically cut into the road surface are likely to trap debris that might otherwise get blown off of the road.
- are they as some people have suggested a thinly veiled attempt to keep cyclists off of roads that they have a legal right to be on?
- especially given that most of the laws that are written with the FRAP provision talks about a cyclists position on the road and acknowledges that the shoulder isn't part of the road.
Playing devils advocate for a moment. Given that laws with FRAP specify the road and that the shoulder isn't part of the road why are we riding on the shoulder? Yes, I know that's where some unenlightened drivers think that's where we "belong." But we know better.
Colorado has many, many miles of these stupid things. They started appearing 10 or 15 years ago. When they were initially rolled out, the state put them everywhere. They even milled them into road ways that had no shoulders (not a rarity in our state). Through the efforts of advocacy groups like Bicycle Colorado, we cyclists were able to get guide lines that restricted them to at least 3 feet from the edge of the shoulder. This has helped greatly.
Debris does indeed get trapped because of them but it's not trapped in the milled areas. These tend to get swept out by traffic. The debris gets trapped to the outside of the rumble strip because traffic stays away from that part of the shoulder.
As for injuries, there have indeed been injuries but Colorado has limits on litigation against the state. Roadway 'improvements' are protected from lawsuits unless there is obvious negligence and the amount you can sue for is limited to a very low level.