THC,
The paragraph you quoted comes from the section "Bike Lanes and Turning Lanes" - that is where RTOL and LTOL are present. In these cases AASTHO shows merging to occur just as the turn lanes begin and mostly entail the motorist merging across the lane and the cyclist maintaining a static hopeful position. Such merging needs to occur before the RTOL begins. No diagram (including the photo in fig.) in AASTHO shows (ending) BL striping for this. The cyclist using the BL must rely fully on the motorist to not turn across their path, no different than a right hook condition.
I also am concerned with the idea that a good engineer knows these are minimums. How are they to know how to make ideal? Is a 12' bike lane better than a 4' one? Is it 'ideal' to end the bike lane stripe 20' or 200' before intersections? I find it curious that so many BL just meet the AASTHO minimum guidelines.
Al