Primrose Video

In the comments to my post on the Primrose bike lane, Bencott said:

…what’s there is completely useless to a cyclist who’s not comfortable commanding their space when the bike lanes get interrupted near the intersection with Central.

I had to smile because Robert had run the video cameras on our way down there. What we captured showed exactly what Ben was talking about. As a bonus, we also captured the problem with shoehorning bike lanes into narrow spaces. Have a look:

More video to come. The week of 11/16 was packed full of video shooting for the Florida Bicycle Association’s Law Enforcement Toolkit (to educate traffic enforcement officers about the laws and safety concerns of cyclists). We got some really great footage. I’m in the process of cataloging the nuggets and contemplating posts.

9 replies
  1. LisaB
    LisaB says:

    Yikes, talk about getting up-close-and-personal. I’m guessing the FedEx truck was 2 feet from you?

    So many lessons for law enforcement in this one clip, starting with enforcement of the 3-foot law!

  2. Kevin Love
    Kevin Love says:

    What a horrible bike lane!!

    The standard for bike lane width in Toronto is two metres. There’s no way that the latter part of that bike lane was anywhere near that width.

    • Keri
      Keri says:

      I think the standard in UK is also 2 meters. The standard here is 5ft from the curb face (that includes the gutter pan, which means 3.5 – 4ft of usable pavement… if it’s clean). And the DOTs are constantly doing “studies” to show they can make them smaller and cyclists won’t know the difference.

      If bike lanes were 2 meters, built where appropriate (few intersection conflicts) and always kept clean, I might not object to them. But we’ll be ice-skating in hell before that happens in this culture. No, it’s the gutter for us.

    • Eric
      Eric says:

      “What a horrible bike lane!!”

      This is what we get. This is why I am complaining.

      When I rode up and down College Avenue running errands yesterday, getting squeezed between the cars opening their doors a few cars in front of me (without even looking!) and the cars passing too close, it was a real wake up call.

  3. Eric
    Eric says:

    That Fedex truck did exactly what the driver thought he ought to do. When the government adds a lane, most drivers would assume that passing in a different lane is a safe maneuver, else why would the government do it?

    Do you think it is wrong to pass a car on I-4? Why would you give it a second thought? And why would you think about passing distance since the government has done the thinking for you and helpfully marked the lane?

    Wait, I know a reason: to get national recognition from a national “safety” organization.

  4. acline
    acline says:

    There’s just no need for a bicycle lane on a narrow road like that. And the video shows exactly the problem with inappropriate lanes: They put the bicyclist in a dangerous position and encourage drivers to pass too close. The only thing this lane lacked was parked cars! 🙂

    • Eric
      Eric says:

      “There’s just no need for a bicycle lane on a narrow road like that.”

      From your mouth to the LAB’s and government’s ear.

  5. Rick
    Rick says:

    Welcome to my world. I use Primrose instead of Bumby as a north/south connector just about everyday. As bad as it is on Primrose, Bumby is worse. I was controlling the lane last week and still got buzzed within INCHES by a man in a landboat. I had some words for that man!

    Most of the time I have a very uneventful ride on Primrose. That said, I wish the bike lane were not there. If you continue south on Primrose past the 408 expressway there is no bike lane, or even an attempt at one. I feel more comfortable taking the lane there than further north since people expect me to use that narrow and sometimes non-exsistent strip of pavement and have yelled at me if I’m not “in my place”.

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