Originally Posted by
Doohickie
Right, but consider the bicycle laws from the point of view of a motorist. Case in point: The OP. To a cyclist managing and negotiating traffic, taking the left lane a light before turning left might reasonably be viewed as preparing to make a legal left turn. A motorist might interpret that law to mean that a cyclist should not take the left lane until closer to the left turn. What's reasonable, safe and legal to you as a cyclist may be interpreted as obstructionist, reckless and therefore illegal to a driver. So if the person writing the ticket, the person behind the bench, and potentially people in the jury are all motorists, how do you think it will go if you get pulled over for taking the left lane too early?
If you read Chipseal's blog, he was quite confident that he was within the law when he was ticketed. Judge and jury decided otherwise.
I'm sorry, but your "logic" is so illogical. Going back and re-reading Florida's bicycle law it doesn't limit how far in advance one can start preparing to make a left hand turn. Now yes, I think that just about everyone would agree that merging over into the left hand lane/left hand turn a mile or more early that yes that would be wrong.
But if the choice is between "waiting until the last 'second'" before merging to the left or moving over into the left through lane/left hand turn lane a block early.
As I've said before there was a case down here (actually up for me) in Clearwater about a cyclist was ticketed for making a legal left turn from the left hand turn lane. The LEO who ticketed him did so for "impeding traffic." When the case was finally heard in court it was dismissed as the cyclist was making a legal left hand turn from within the left hand turn lane, and he was not impeding the flow of traffic by doing so. There also wasn't anything said about when, where, or how he merged over into the left hand turn lane.
Under any and all reasonable interpretations I can come up with of
F.S. 316.2065 or it's FRAP language, there is nothing that says anything about not being able to make a left hand turn the same way as any other vehicle on the road, in fact that
IS one of the exceptions to the FRAP language in
F.S. 316.2065. And given as I am sure we all know, not all blocks are created equal, and some are longer and some are shorter than other blocks. And on one street one (regardless of the type of vehicle one is driving) will have to move over into the left thru lane a block in advance.
As to wait until "right before" the start of the left hand turn lane starts is too late to safely merge over into the left turn lane. And if it is a three-way vs. four-way intersection they may not be able to make a right hand turn in order to be able to use that option and will instead have to travel further down the road that they are on. And it may be several blocks before they are able to reach an area where they can make a U-Turn and come back to the intersection that they had wanted to make a left hand turn.
Whereas if they had merged into the left hand thru lane and than ultimately into the left hand turn lane to prepare for their left turn. They are safe, they are not inconvenienced and the motorists on the road are not inconvenienced (not that they would be for more than maybe a several seconds to a minute or two).
Now than which maneuver makes the most sense to you?
And please I hope that I am wrong, but it sounds as if you are saying that the motorists time is more important than that of the cyclist's. As we
ALL pay for the roads that we use, and as I understand the law, we all have a right to be on using the roads that we all pay for. Yes, some roads we as cyclists (as well as some other modes of transportation) are either limited in our access to them, or are prohibited from using.
That isn't the case in this situation. This situation (as are the ones that I find myself in) in order a cyclist to be safe when making a left hand turn lane needs to start preparing to make said turn as soon as possible.
And given that the impeding traffic ticket case from above was dismissed the judge (who probably is a motorist) who heard this case agreed that the cyclist in question did nothing wrong and that he shouldn't have been cited in the first place.