Originally Posted by genec
The flaw in your comments is that if the motorist "has already moved near the right-hand curb," there would be no room for a cyclist to come up on the right. And the laws of California support just that, in that those laws tell the motorist to merge into the bike lane, and a merge requires ensuring that the way is clear before joining that flow.
While the cyclist should indeed move left in such situation, at the same time the motorist should look, then merge right.
That last sentence included two "should" conditions which are often overlooked by both motorists and cyclists.
Regardless of what the law says, bike lanes to the right of right-or-straight lanes at any approach to any place where a right turn is authorized are
inherently flawed because appropriate behavior by either right-turning motorists or through cyclists is not consistent with the rules of the road that normally apply.
Even if the stripe goes from solid to dashed (which it almost never does at midblock intersections with driveway, alleys, etc.),
drivers do not normally enter demarcated space that is too narrow to accomodate the width of a standard width car. Note how I worded that: it is just as true for motorcyclists as it is for semi-truck drivers, because it is not based on the width of the vehicle the driver happens to be driving, but on the width of a "standard width car". There is no other situation on the road where drivers (of cars, trucks or motorcycles) are expected to drive in space demarcated by painted stripes that is that narrow. It is
inherently bad engineering to expect them to make an exception in this case.
Exceptions are bad things, and particulary prone to misuse. Indeed, even in states like CA where the law requires right turners to merge into the bike lane, drivers rarely do. Compliance at street intersections where the stripe is dashed is marginal at best. Compliance at midblock intersections where the stripe is solid is even worse. In other states, as you know, like OR and AZ, they punt and legally
forbid right turners from entering that space. Reasonable people can disagree on which approach is worse, but there is denying that they are both very bad because they create conditions and situations on the road that are exceptional to normal vehicular flow at intersection approaches. Combine this with the fact that bike lanes to the right of right-or-straight lanes encourage through cyclists to go straight across intersections from the right edge of the road, which is also behavior that is exceptional to normal vehicular flow at intersection approaches. Frankly, I'm amazed more cyclists are not regularly right hooked.