Taking Back the Streets: Cyclist Memorials

It is ridiculous that cyclists anywhere should die from cars. But it is really incomprehensible that cyclists should die in cities, towns or villages, where car speeds should be so low that any car crash into a bike should be bad luck and injury and not death. Spain is an anti-bike country. The country laws are pro-bike, but in practice the infrastructure is anti-bike. I don't really know of any bike lanes in Spain; especially not in Madrid. Bikes in Madrid share the road with cars, and I consider that an extreme adventure sport considering the traffic chaos in the city. As dangerous as canoeing down the Niagara Falls. Bike deaths are way too frequent in Spain. And this is just bikes. Pedestrians are also frequently killed by cars in cities, towns and villages in Spain. This country is addicted to cars, which seem to get bigger every year, speed and a disregard to traffic laws and courtesy. It is depressing to hear that some of these unacceptable car-related negatives are found in a country such as Canada in such a progressive city as Toronto.

If they aren't already, they should take photos of all the memorials, and compile.

They should send the updated list (with photos, of course) to the mayor and other city officials every time someone is severely injured or killed. We don't have nearly as many deaths in Chicago as it sounds like Toronto has, and I'm willing to bet we have several times more cyclists.

Have your mayor call ours. Ol' Dick Daley'll give 'im an earfull!

See also http://ghostcycle.org/ A site that brings together photos of locations where bikes are hit with Google Maps. It's a case study in the Net Squared series on social change orgs using new web tools. http://netsquared.org/casestudy

Bike lanes would not have prevented these fatalities. Basically, the dump truck "right hooked" the bicyclist. It's unclear whether the bicyclist rode into the trucks blind spot or the truck passed the bicyclist and then turned. In any case, it's hard to see how a bike lane would prevent such behavior.

There is also the Ride of Silence (http://www.rideofsilence.org/main.php)

May 17th 7pm. In many cities. Check the site to see if one is in your area.

I managed a shop in Austin for 6 years, have been in the hospital myself (and am permanantly titanium fortified) because of being hit, and recently lost a(nother) good customer to a hit and run. I think it may be time to start a ghostbike project in Austin...

Pete,

You'd be surprised what a white stripe on the road can do. First, it leads drivers to give a reasonable berth, which makes it easier to see bikes in your mirror.
Second, the presence of the lane, combined with the occasional presence of a cyclist, reinforces awareness.

That doesn't help cyclists who ride like a messenger, but it gives courteous cyclists like myself a better chance.

My town has more miles of painted bike lanes than any city its size, and that's lead to a much safer environment for riders.

it's amazing to see how mistreated riders are. Even in a small town of 20,000 cyclists are hit by cars all the time. In an area that heavily promotes it's recreation (i'm in the rocky mountains) it's pretty disheartening to see things like this happenening. Our city put in the effort to put in a bike bath the runs through town, but half the time there are cars parked on it.

Carl - I WOULD be surprised to find out that a white stripe makes much of a difference. If you know of any before and after studies showing a safety change, where the only change made to a street was restripping to include a bike lane, please let me know. I would be very interested as I do a lot of work in the bicycle safety field and have never seen such a study. I'll send you my email address if you need it.

The earlier bike lane designs, where the stripe was painted solid to the intersection, actually seemed to increase right hooks. Bicyclists would use the bike lane to quickly pass on the right of slower cars, moving to the head of the queue and surprising turning drivers.

The current USA standard has the bike lane becoming dashed near the intersection. A straight going bicyclist is suppose to merge out of the bike lane into the straight-going car lane, and right turning cars are suppose to merge to the right to make their turn.

If this design is used in Toronto and bicyclists (and drivers) followed this protocol, it would be nearly impossible to get right hooked. Of course, the same protocol should be followed whether or not their is a bike lane, and no right hooks will occur.

LA: I always wondered why the bike lanes went to dashes near intersections (they do in Toronto) , and now I know. nonetheless, a bike lane with dashes would have been better than the situation here. I was always against bike lanes because I thought we had a right to the road, but now plan my routes around them- as bad as they are they are better than nothing.

Ok, I know people may feel that this is inapproprate, and may believe that it sounds like I'm blaming the victim (which I'm not), but my hope is to save lives...

Don't pass on the right! Just don't do it. And avoid riding way off to the right, too. Ride like you belong, and take as much space as you need to. You are operating a legal vehicle just like everyone else, and you have as much right (more, technically, since motorists need to be licensed to drive their vehicles) to be in the travel lane as anyone else. Studies show that when you drive your bike like you would drive a car (same roads, same rules, same rights) you have far fewer crashes. Yes, people will get annoyed because they don't think bicycles are serious vehicles and may resent your relaxed, enjoyable ride. But have to be able to see you to be annoyed at you, and if they see you they aren't going to accidentally hit you. Plus, the more people who drive their bikes like they belong, the more people will come to believe that bikes really do belong on the roads. It's a win-win solution.*

By the way, bike lanes are especially dangerous because they encourage people to believe that cyclists don't belong on the roads, and should stay way off in the gutter where they can be easily right hooked. On the open road, where there are no side streets or driveways, bike lanes can be safe, but in an urban or suburban area, they are deadly.

* I'll note that there are a few road raging motorists out there who might be inclined to intentionally hit you. If you believe that you've got one of these unfortunate souls behind you, feel free to get as far off the road as you need to to get out of their way, Standing your ground is healthy, but standing your ground with a crazy person is usually unproductive.

Pete (at home), I've seen the results of a meta study done by the CDC that showed that there was effectively no difference in cyclist safety on roads with bike lanes versus roads with only normal shared lanes. Unfortunately I've never been able to find this study online (I heard about it from a CDC researcher at a the Pro Bike conference in Minnesota a few years back.)

I have, however, seen some evidence that the "sharrow" aka "Denver Arrow" does actually increase passing distance, at least in a couple of studies. This kind of facility, if you aren't familiar with it, is a bike marking in the normal travel lane that indicates where a bike should be travelling for maximum safety and visibility (generally, about 3-5 feet away from parked cars or 2-3 feet way from the curb/shoulder, or in the right-center of a narrow lane). The sharrow has all the benefits of a bike lane (promotion of biking, awareness of bicyclists right to use the road, etc.) without the dangers (encouraging curb/door zone hugging, that whole seperate but not equal treatment, dangerous passing, etc.). I'm a big fan of sharrows and have been happy to see that a few are starting to pop up in my area of Boston/Cambridge.

Pete,

We have the dashed lines at intersections, as well (I assumed that's the way they were everywhere). Seems to work. The City also hands out thousands of maps each year, which indicate the safer streets, and give clear instructions on safe cycling practices.

Don't have studies, but have heard several times from cyclists, that drivers in Chicago - even the ones coming in from the burbs - are more aware of the cyclists. My meager testament to that is that I commuted by bike in two other big cities that had no bike lanes, and drivers were definitely less aware that they should be looking.

Nothing but a solid barrier is going to keep bikes and cars from colliding, but anything that builds awareness certainly seems to help.

Turil,
I do pass on the right, but not at intersections. That's just messenger lunacy.
I distinctly remember a guy in town yelled at a driver who nearly hit him, and the driver promptly ran over him a few times, to make sure he was dead. Luckily he was caught and got 40 yrs, but I know to not mess with drivers. 'Cages' seem to make the occupants rabid.

RIP to Hubert Van Tol--I didn't know you, but I feel that, as a fellow urban cyclist, we must have shared some significant things in common.

None of this should ever have to happen.

-------

Regarding bike lanes: in Chicago, I've noticed (albeit observed, not studied) a major difference in the way that drivers behave on specific roads since lanes were introduced. The lanes force drivers to the left, they clarify ambiguity about the number and size of car lanes (maybe this was just a chicago problem) and they probably provide an official recognition and reminder that cyclists might be on the road.

But I also know they give some cyclists a false sense of security. Most bike-car accidents (>%54) occur at intersections, and I don't know how well bike lanes, or anything beyond driver awareness, can prevent those.

To bring actual numbers to the discussion, here is a chart ( http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/matrix/list.cfm ) from one of the more extensive studies in the US. Sorry, I've got no Canadian data handy.
--
And as you say, pete...
"I always wondered why the bike lanes went to dashes near intersections (they do in Toronto) , and now I know"

--I'm afraid most motorists and cyclists are also confused about the meaning of those dashes, and many more are confused about who has the right of way.

I remember reading several studies about bike path designs (no refs, sorry), and few had solid solutions for the 'right hook' issue.

In my experiences riding in various world cities, I've personally found the approaches in Germany and Holland to be the best, but obviously most expensive: there is a physical barrier at right turns, if not a separated bike path. And a cheaper solution at several intersections in Amsterdam (and Cologne, I think)--they applied little ceramic bumps along the line of the bike lane.

(Of course, in Amsterdam, they also have traffic lights at bike path/road intersections.)

This sort of thing all comes down to money and need, I suppose. Maybe I should quit dreaming about seeing any of this in North America.

Did anyone post this link?
An interesting case against bikes lines on urban roads.

The BTI link is great.

I'm impressed with the knowledge of bicycle driving here at treehuggers. It's much, much higher than average. I believe knowledge of how to properly ride a bicycle in traffic, including how to properly go through intersections, is the most important factor in improving bicycle safety and having an enjoyable bicycling experience. Learning how to do this properly certainly removes a lot of the stress I hear bicyclist express about interacting with traffic.

Bicycles are just too much fun and too useful for transportation to not get more people into them. And people here clearly have the knowledge to do that.

Let's just hope we don't got "smug" like those Prius drivers :-)

Until 2 years ago (got a job in Denver) I commuted 100% by bike around Boulder for about 10 years. The addition of bike lanes, especially to less travelled streets, which parallel heavey traffic streets or on wide streets is fantastic. Here people respect the lanes (I was very surprised in Cambridge, MA to find people parked in the bike lane). The dotted lines at intersections help, but until the addition of arrows & bike signs in them, I wasn't sure what to do either.

I also think that bikes must really be "defensive" drivers, in my years of bike commuting I was never hit; however, at least once a month if not every day, I'd have a close call -- that was usually prevented by me and not the oblivious driver.

My rule of thumb is to think that all drivers have amnesia and when I pass on the right I always make certain that I am safe from right turns before entering an intersection. Although accidents around here happen on occasion, my personal experience is that with the addition of bike lanes, lots of signage, dedicated left turn lanes, and lots of bikers the roads have become much safer.

Regarding bike lane markings - there is also a school of thought that argues for removal of ALL road markings, signs, stop lights, etc. on the premise that having no rules will make people more cautious.

http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2004/05/20/traffic_design/print.html?pn=1

I've started "owning" my part of the road, keeping a couple of feet out into the road and away from the potholes and debris, for as much of my commute as possible. On some roads this has actually made drivers pay more attention to me, whilst on others it has made no difference.
Several years' experience has alos taught me to be canny in traffic approac hing a junction and only to go to the head of standing traffic if I can get ahead of the vehicle at the front and make myself seen. We have Advanced Stop Lanes for cycles at lots of junctions in Manchester which are useful for this so long as no driver has decided that it's actually part of their road.

In downtown Minneapolis, we have a bike lane I think gets the point across about being legit vehicles (and makes you "right hook" proof). It's in the center. 2-3 lanes of traffic going one direction, then a bike lane to their left and one traffic lane going the opposite way for buses and taxis only. It's only one road, but one I travel often and I love being in the center of traffic and making people take notice of bikes. Also, not having to worry about getting right-hooked is nice too.

Jen,

But then doesn't that put you in the position to be left-hooked? Moreso, I think I would not like to be in the middle of opposing traffic. Without seeing what the traffic flow looks like, it sounds more like the 'grinder' lane.