Originally Posted by randya
Your understanding of the blue bike lanes is superficial and flawed. 'The stripe' did not create the high level of danger. Conditions for cyclists were much worse at these high traffic volume locations before the bike lanes were striped. The coloration of the bike lanes in these specific locations is a technique borrowed from the dutch and other european countries; all it is meant to do is convey to all road users, cyclists and motorists alike, of the need for caution and awareness at these locations. Several of the bue bike lanes are in locations where the bike lane is correctly positioned to the left of a RTOL, and are meant to serve as cautionary warnings to motorists merging across the properly positioned bike lane to reach the RTOL.
Somewhat inaccurate, your statement. The cyclist who intends to take the left branch should position himself in advance away from the right-turning traffic. Borrowing bikeway technique from the Dutch and other European nations is no recommendation for quality. When the European bicycle program officials appeared on this side of the Atlantic, in Montreal, they admitted that they had no information to support their designs, and, so far as I know, they haven't changed their designs since. We know more about bicycle transportation engineering than they do.