Originally Posted by
sggoodri
The same situation could happen with a pedestrian walking in a crosswalk. A left-turning driver facing a circular green is watching oncoming traffic, sees a gap in the oncoming lane, accelerates, and then hits the brakes when he notices a pedestrian in the crosswalk. Or hits the pedestrian. The driver's error in this case is not confirming that both the travel lane and the crosswalk to be crossed will be clear of traffic..
True & correct, but typically pedestrians travel much slower than cyclists and one can see a 'same direction' pedestrian crossing well before they get to the side of the street that will be turned onto, or more likely the pedestrian will not be on the far side of the street until left turning traffic has had time to clear. The path design including light timing/signal phasing is also 'at fault' - if cyclists are going to be approaching from behind a turning driver on their left side the signal timing to allow the left turn to clear intersection needs to accommodate that.