New 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Partnership Council Members List
I’m going to pass this along without comment. I am concerned, though, because I recognize some names and . . . well . . . If I am wrong, please let me know, but I can’t support things that some of these folks do such as 10,10 & 4.
Debbie Hunt, FDOT, Chair
Jena Brooks, Department of Environmental Protection
Karen Brunelle, Federal Highway Administration
Ken Bryan, Rails to Trails Conservancy
Jesus Gomez, Florida Public Transportation Association
Sue Hann, Florida League of Cities
Thomas Hawkins, Florida League of Cities
Charlie Hood, Department of Education
Joey Hoover, Florida Association of Counties
Richard Hopkins, Department of Health
Julie L. Jones, Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles
Laurie Koburger, Department of Elder Affairs
Mike Lasche, Florida Bicycle Association
Zoe Mansfield, Florida League of Cities
Malisa McCreedy, Pedestrian Representative
Patricia Northey, Florida Association of Counties
Jo Penrose, Department of Community Affairs
Bob Rackleff, Metropolitan Planning Organization Advisory Council
Max Rothman, Transportation Disadvantaged Representative
Cyndi Stevenson, Florida Association of Counties
You are not wrong. One in particular is hell-bent on a 10-10-4 conversion for a US highway with heavy truck traffic (not in Orlando). Said individual was dismissive when offered well-reasoned arguments for why that would be bad for cyclists. With friends like that…
And a 10/10/4 would now be even worse, no thanks to your mandatory bike lane use law.
what is 10 10 4?
Eddie, it’s a conversion from a 4 lane road with two 12ft lanes in each direction to two narrow 10ft lanes and a narrow 4ft bike lane. Since a truck/bus/landscape trailer is 9ft wide (minus mirrors) and a human is roughly 2ft wide (even experienced cyclists need a few feet of travel space), and the gutter seam extends 12-18 inches into the bike lane… well, you can probably do the math to come up with the passing clearance a cyclist gets from the largest vehicles. Even many smaller vehicles will not move over in a narrow lane when there is traffic in the adjacent lane. The result would be less than 3 feet of clearance from most vehicles. Here’s an illustration (this is a 5-lane with slightly more space because I drew it for a specific road where Orlando wanted to do this. And it’s slightly wider because they were taking an extra few feet from the chicken lane):
If you click on the image, you’ll see a larger version. I adapted this from a project I’m working on with Dan Gutierrez. The exclusion zone model is his work. The red trapezoid shape indicates the part of the roadway a cyclist should avoid when approaching intersections — riding within that area leaves a cyclist vulnerable to right hook, left cross and drive-out crashes. The zone expands lengthwise as a cyclist’s speed increases. Imagine a commercial strip highway with numerous consecutive driveways and intersections, the red trapezoids for each intersection begin to connect and overlap. Thus adding a bike lane to a complex road like this places cyclists in exactly the part of the road they need to avoid.
ten ten four could be a radio confirmation with a stutter, but in this context, I think it means two ten foot traffic lanes with a four foot bike lane.
got it. I have found that bike lanes are comfortable midblock, because I don’t have to assert myself. the lane markings have done that for me. but whenever I get near an intersection, all the conflicts and safety concerns make them more of a hindrance than a help.
I also have found that for me, one of the best things I can do to avoid conflicts and increase my comfort, is to not bother filtering. passing on the right creates all kinds of conflicts and then if you take the lane, you basically just butted in line. not in all traffic patterns, but here in key west, with our low speed, narrow, two directional streets.
playing leap frog with cars is not near as fun as just cruising along.
Filtering is hard to give up, because so much of traffic culture is about trying to get ahead of the other guy.
but giving up filtering it something that has added the most peace to my riding experience.
Eddie,
What you describe is why I prefer a wide lane to a bike lane. That allows me to choose when to move over and facilitate passing based on existing conditions.
Agreed about filtering forward. It took me a while, and a lot of close calls to get my head around giving that up. It’s a strong impulse. But, yeah, it’s made my riding more peaceful and relaxing as well to stay in the queue.