Controlling your lane can change your life

Cyclists who hug the edge of the road continuously face hazards. Everything bad is on the far right – debris, bad pavement, drain grates, and gutter seams. But worse, this position invites close passing and makes a cyclist invisible or irrelevant to crossing and turning drivers.

Moving left makes so many problems go away, it can change a cyclist’s whole perspective of the safety and viability of using a bicycle for transportation. PLAY ANIMATION

There’s more than one way to turn left

The thought of making a left turn from a multi-lane road is one of the things that makes people think vehicular cycling requires speed and athletic prowess. It seems like it would be a really difficult thing to do. But most of the time it’s actually really easy, and you have options. This animation shows a standard left turn, plus the jug-handle, box and pedestrian options. PLAY ANIMATION

Beware the pedestrian options in Orlando. We are the worst city in America for pedestrian safety. The only time that relates to cyclists is when we act like pedestrians.

Common Crashes: The Left Cross

This is the first of a series of animations that will expand the most common bike v car crashes. Most of these crashes are the legal fault of the motorist, but it is in the cyclist’s interest to prevent them. This one shows why the left cross crash happens and what you can do to discourage it.

These animations will focus on roadway cyclists only. Sidewalk cyclists face this crash more often than roadway cyclists because they are less visible and relevant to motorists. PLAY ANIMATION

Group Riding

Changing lanes with a group requires communication between front and rear riders. Most group riders do this incorrectly, simply moving across lanes from the front. The problem with that is the front riders cannot negotiate with overtaking motorists and often cannot see how far back motorists are from the rear riders. They risk trapping a motorist in the lane where they want to move. PLAY ANIMATION

New animation added 9/13/2010: Shows why bike lanes and shoulders create a hazardous situation for groups. PLAY ANIMATION

How Bike Lanes Manufacture Conflict

This is a look at how adding a bike lane made things worse on a street that was already a good bike route.

Bike lanes have become an orthodoxy in promoting and accommodating cycling. It’s time to reexamine public policy. Collective experiences, observations and a thorough understanding of what causes crashes all point in the same direction.

• Bike lanes manufacture conflict at intersections.
• Bike lanes collect debris which would not collect in a wide or narrow lane
• Bike lanes encourage motorists to pass without slowing or moving to the left (In studies that have demonstrated this, the fact of closer passing was masked by the authors reframing it as less “encroachment” into the other lane. IOW, they don’t move over! Here are 2 examples: Bicycle Facilities Added and Red Shoulders).

PLAY ANIMATION

It’s not a mystery why pedestrians cross mid-block

We are left with an environment built intentionally to encourage high-speed auto travel, and that effectively eliminates the pedestrian right-of-way at all but signalized intersections.  Pedestrians are left with the choice of greatly extending their walk distances to cross at a signal, or negotiating their way across a number of lanes of high-speed traffic.

Even if they hike to a signal, a crosswalk not respected by motorists is of little use to a pedestrian.  As anyone who has crossed at a signalized intersection in this area knows, and as the animation shows, even the well-marked crosswalks with pedestrian signals are routinely violated by area motorists. PLAY ANIMATION