Originally posted by Erick L
Bike lanes only provide a comfort zone (more room) to ride but that's about it. You still have to worry about turning cars. The evil lanes, in my view, are those where the bike traffic has to go in both directions on a single side if the street. This means part of the bike traffic goes against the car traffic. This is baaaaaad!
Agreed. I tend to avoid those at virtually all costs - even if it means taking a completely different route. However, I'm also beginning th question the wisdom of bike lanes generally. Sure, there are times when they are useful, but this incident shows that often they are just as much of a hindrance as a help.
Having said that, I'm not sure there was much that could have been done to prevent this accident with or without a bike lane. It seems to me that there are just two possible options here (and I'm not totally sure that either would have worked here):
1. Ride wider of the kerb, even if it means riding outside the bike lane to do so.
2. (my preferred option of the two). Spin a higher cadence with a lower gear. One of the most common causes for the right or left hook is that the motorist often underestimates the speed the cyclist is travelling. If you're spinning the cranks faster, they might see this and assume you're going faster than they would otherwise.