Bike Lanes Bloom

I enjoy biking around B'game especially on the side streets and the bay front and I get that sometimes bikers need to use some of the main streets to get where they are going.  The new bike lanes just going in on California Drive (not "Avenue" as the contractor's sign says at the roundabout project) are the latest to bloom on our streets.  What I don't get is why the green lanes are not further to the right next to the curb?  From what the Merc's Roadshow column says, this is a point of confusion for a lot of motorists

Q Can you please remind drivers of the proper way to make a right turn when a bicyclist is present? I am terrified as I bike toward an intersection and a driver to my left or behind me waits until the last moment to make his move for a right turn, often cutting me off. … In my cycling experience, this is the single most dangerous habit of motorists that puts us cyclists at risk.  

A It’s time to remind drivers about a question that motorists get wrong more than any other on DMV tests: how to make a legal and safe right turn at an intersection when a bicyclist is present. Drivers, here is the right way to do this:

 

-Merge into or across the bike lane before your right turn, all the way to the curb. You can do this on all streets, whether they have bike lanes or not, within 200 feet of the intersection and only after ensuring there are no bikes in that lane.  (Ed:  so in many cases the turning car is blocking the green lane regardless of whether it is curbside or 4-6' off the curb)

-If you think there’s a chance that merging wouldn’t give a rider behind you enough time to slow down or pass on the left, then don’t do it. Slow down, and merge behind the rider to make your right turn. Treat bicyclists as if they were motorists.

All well and good but it doesn't describe why the lane is so far off the curb.  Where there are parking spaces, it's understandable but where there are none, like at busy intersections, it appears to me to add to the confusion for drivers.

 

Comments

[Just Visiting]

Great improvement to California Drive. It's a wonder it wasn't done years ago.

[California Bicyclist]

Love the new California bike lanes, but the nortbound side is going to squeeze bicyclists towards the road unless the bushes are trimmed back much more frequently than the few times a year it was done previously. And make sure you stay out of the door zone when going southbound, people! It would be terrible for someone in the bike lane to get "doored" by a parked car along Village Park. All too easy to envision with the bike lane right up against a long line of parked SUVs.

Agreed that the bike lane offset from the curb (between Rhinette and Broadway) is hard to understand and confusing to car drivers. Elsewhere on CA drive it's due to parking that exists or that is being added.

What was just put in is a good incremental improvement with some perhaps unavoidable flaws. We'll all be a lot safer (and the car drivers happier) when we can get a separated bike lane built. Some day, some day...

[[email protected]]

"One Small Pedal for Man Kind,(LBGT, Illegal and Legal aliens-UFO's, Walking Dead, etc.) One Giant Step for saving our little piece of Paradise in The City of Burlingame..
If anyone has ever been to Amsterdam et al. observing the impacts of using a bicycle as Primary Transportation is good for the people. Healthy, physical exercise only helps all working stations.
I am so Glad to see The City of Burlingame Elders be Pro-Active, rather than Re-Active.

[[email protected]]

Wow,
I am a real "Thread Killer."

Anyway, shouldn't Bicycle Riders have a DMV License, License Plate, Registration, Insurance, and some sort of Cognitive/Physical test every 2 years?

Share the Road
Share the Responsibility

[Just Visiting]

Holly, why? Cyclists are riding 20-30 pound vehicles that carry minimal risk to the public (there is some, don't get me wrong). Annually in the U.S. cyclists account for about 1-2 deaths to others.

Cars are thousands of pounds each, and are annually responsible for about 40,000 deaths. That number was going down for a long time (mostly due to safety improvements), but it's been going up pretty significantly for the last few years.

Comparing the level of responsibility between the two isn't comparing apples and oranges, it's comparing the sun to a speck of pepper.

[BMW]

Yes let’s absolutely license bicyclists. Starting with those little ones biking to our elementary schools and BIS. And those BHS students foregoing driving to school and biking to campus instead. And people out for rides to the Bay Trail. Or out to get coffee or to the store or to eat or to just spend money and contribute towards our sales tax. We need all those louts to share some responsibility. Why should us drivers be the only one idling on the Broadway overpass.

Also let’s license people who walk on our sidewalks and cross our streets. Those freeloaders shouldn’t be mooching off our gas taxes and the annual registration and smog fee we pay. We should also be requiring helmets and hi-viz for their safety.

[[email protected]]

Obviously not a Fan of licensing.

Nevertheless, if you are in an accident with a Bike Rider "in San Francisco, San Mateo, or Santa Clara County, "you" will be the Number One "Deep Pocket."
Heaven Forbid you have an interaction with an illegal. You will be screwed.
PS
BMW
Should people texting while walking on a Commercial Sidewalk-Burlingame Ave. be ticketed for J Walking?
How about loud cell phone conversations at Piccolo?
What is taking so long to get a City of Burlingame Police Force to arrest the Stupid?
We all know who they are.

[hillsider]

On that last point, I know where BPD should start.....................

[[email protected]]

Touché