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Old 10-01-12, 09:06 PM
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B. Carfree
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Unless the motorists are traveling very slowly and are much more passive than they are here (true enough in NL), then this design requires a cyclist to keep his/her head on a swivel and becomes a very dangerous game of dodge-car.

In our current standard, the only issues are:
1. right turning motorists must be able to see the cyclists they are overtaking on their way to the right turn lane. In the event that the cyclists is going faster than the motorists, the cyclist must adjust to the turning motorist that he/she is overtaking. These are standard maneuvers for traffic regardless of mode, so they are second nature.
2. Left turning cyclists must change lanes. Again, this doesn't require any special knowledge or skills. The only safety issue here has to do with extremely fast moving traffic, which is still and issue in the Dutch model.

In the Dutch model, cyclists going straight must contend with right-turning traffic. In our system, where motorists do not stop at their limit line, the cyclist must deal with motorists who are coming up from behind, hence the head-on-a-swivel complaint.

Really, if motorists are properly trained and will follow the law, then the designs don't really matter. If motorists are narcissistic scofflaws, then there are no designs that will guarantee reasonable safety for road users. I've lived where the modal share of cycling was much higher than any Dutch city, and the key was traffic law enforcement with zero tolerance. The infrastructure is irrelevant when motorists don't feel any sense of entitlement.
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