Originally Posted by noisebeam
All good clear sightlines. No or minimal hills. I've smashed thru a tumbleweed or two on my bike during dust storms.
There a places I ride in the city with curves in the road and these areas happen to have NOL, making it the more stressful place I ride.
Al
So if poor sightlines existed, would a BL help you in any way?
Forester addresses this in his critique of BL:
Originally Posted by Forester
The definition of a road along which sight distance is inadequate is that on which motorists travel at speeds at which they cannot control their vehicles within the distance they can see ahead. "The sight distance is likely less than that needed for a motor vehicle operator to either change lane position or slow down to the bicyclist's speed." That is clearly violating the basic speed law. In those locations, "providing for bicycle operation to the right of the designated motor vehicle lane [by] a bike lane or shoulder" is what the manual calls the appropriate corrective action. In other words,for roads on which the majority of vehicles are traveling at unlawful speeds the appropriate measure is not to compel motorists to slow to the lawful speed, but to continue to allow it.
http://www.johnforester.com/Articles...s/biklan03.htm
Of course his solution is to have a cop standing on the corner to correct the actions of the wayward motorist.
My personal experience is that while folks will drive beyond their sight lines (thus happily violating the basic speed law) they will work to remain "between the lines," fearing loss of control of their vehicles.
Folks really have a hard time with sight lines... few motorists today actually are aware of safe braking distances... and this is quite evident on the freeways... so to them... sight lines mean nothing. Compounding this, is the fact that traffic engineers have steadily raised the speed limits on roads and motorists regularly push beyond those posted limits.
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So here is a solution. Get rid of Bike Lanes... Just add wide fog lines 5 feet out on the WOLs on hilly and curvy roads and roads with fast (45+MPH) heavy traffic.
We don't call it a bike lane, and then anybody can ride where ever they want on those roads.
I know where I will be.
