Originally Posted by
High Roller
Right you are. And bike lanes:
4) Position the cyclist where cross-traffic collisions are more likely, due to diminished sightlines and reduced cyclist conspicuity. Motorists don’t always look that far over to the side of the road.
5) Create an illusion of safety resulting in inattention blindness for both motorists and cyclists.
6) Encourage closer passes by overtaking motorists, a cruel irony since it is the unwarranted fear of overtaking collisions that has popularized these facilities.
7) Add costs to roadway construction and maintenance, money that would be better spent on education and enforcement for motorists and cyclists alike.
8) Reinforce motorists’ prejudices that cyclists do not belong on the road and provide vindication for the harassment of cyclists who are traveling on the roadway in a safe and lawful manner.
9) Help the motoring establishment keep cyclists out of the way, even if cyclists are made less safe in the process.
10) Earn federal highway transportations subsidies for states and local highway districts .
Are there actual, peer-reviewed studies that show an increase in cross-traffic collisions with a BL? Like everything bike oriented, it's actually notoriously hard to study because the BL tends to attract more (and less skilled) riders to the road. I seem to remember how some study showed a slight increase in relative safety with a BL; however, it may well be true that BL's actually do more for cars than bikes. Here's why.
If a bike is in the middle of a well-designed BL, and cars are passing, all the cars have to do is stay within the car lane, and there shouldn't be a problem. OTOH, if the BL weren't there, the cars may well have to slow down and work out a pass. Such would slow car traffic some.
When it comes to inattentive motorists, there is the counterargument that the existence of BLs would actually make them consider the existence of bikes anywhere. "Hey, what's that??"
I fully support educational efforts. IIRC at the end of quite a few BLs, there is a yellow or fluorescent green "Share the Road" sign (W11-1) which should get the point across. Let's face it. We'll never get the large volumes of cyclists that exist in places like Davis without building BLs on the major streets. It may not be right, but it's the truth.