Placing thru bike lanes to the right of right turning vehicles is a human factors fail. Duping bicyclists with green paint is another human factors fail by making them feel safe and infallible precisely when they should not feel safe and instead should be “on task” and think. This double whammy results in collisions.

The danger of smaller vehicles operating inside the turn circle of larger vehicles is well known, which is why yellow stickers/signs instructing the drivers of sedans not to do so are on the back of large trucks. The same issue is even more hazardous when trying to pass on the right. Here is one of the slides we use to teach transportation professionals about the hazards of right hook turns and how they occur:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3432277977070&l=e16eb69d45

Oregon is a strange state because their traffic laws literally require both motorists and cyclists to act in ways that create the lethal conflict we are discussing.

For the right hook boxes (what I’m now calling the ones in Portland), they don’t serve the riders who can control a travel lane to avoid the hook (though such safe behavior is sadly illegal in Oregon), and for those who lack the traffic skills necessary to avoid the conflict, it forces and encourages them into right hook turns on the green phase, since such bike lanes at the edge at intersections are mandatory cyclist use by Oregon law, and motorists must turn across them instead of entering them as they are required to do so in the rest of the US.

The purpose of requiring motorists to merge into a bike lane to make right turns is specifically to preclude cyclists from passing on the right by virtue of the turning vehicle blocking such a line of travel; thus forcing the cyclist to either pass on the left in a safe divergent line of travel, or wait behind until the motorist completes their turn.

It’s truly sad that Oregon law and facilities designs create lethal manufactured conflicts.

without the motor vehicle the bicycle is rarely deadly… without the bicycle the motor vehicle still kills tens of thousands a year…

now what was that thing you were advising us against?

Nowhere in the world has this argument been persuasive. In the UK, “cow catchers” are installed on trucks which are guards between the wheels so that when the truck sweeps right, in theory, the guard pushes the cyclist away . . .

My advice to anyone that will listen is, “Do not pass on the right.” and “Do not ride up past a line (or queue) of cars or trucks on the right” because it causes nothing but trouble. I don’t care if it is legal or not.

Instead, queue up with the rest of the vehicles of which, by state law, you are one of. Some people get upset with that advice. “Where is the advantage to riding a bicycle if one can’t get ahead of the traffic?”, they say. In my mind, there is no advantage. Riding a bicycle and how it rests the mind is the only advantage needed, although it is not as restful in heavy traffic.

the best thing to fix this problem is by holding the truck driver responsible for their actions… a small fine or community service won’t send a message to people to look where they’re going… charges of manslaughter and the threat of life in prison for taking another person’s like in a careless way is the best way to prevent future incidents…

don’t foster fear, instead foster education and enforcement by those doing the killing…