Raise the Hammer

Almost all my commuting is now done in on-road bike lanes and it is very comfortable. There is one consistent and frequent source of danger and near accidents - turning vehicles.

Although I do not use Cannon frequently, the problem being described here is exactly the same, just on the left side. Vehicles are turning across the bike lane, hooking bike traffic that has right of way.

It happens to me on a fairly regular basis; getting right-hooked. Most are not on purpose - insert anecdote about poor driving here. However none of those has resulted in a collision. There have been close calls. Disc brakes shrieking frantically as I've got the levers cranked as tight as they go. I've always successfully stopped short of the offending vehicle, by having good awareness and riding defensively. If my instinct activates that someone is going to hook me, I start braking reflexively, and have anticipated several conflicts in time.

The point I'm making, is that yes, it sucks and is unfair, but defensive riding, having awareness when entering an intersection, is huge. It can break the chain of mistakes that leads to a collision.

The design weakness can and should be addressed. The CROW design has explicitly engineered to mitigate this type of conflict, as the article says. But we don't have CROW. In the absence of it, intersection markings are a very good idea to get drivers accustomed. They just aren't looking for bikes yet. Burlington (ward 2 at least) is trying to help some high risk spots; I see some new green paint at Guelph+Prospect.

Also, being an occasional driver as well, I can confirm that until you've consciously thought about it for a while, looking for bikes isn't part of the driving habits that are wired into the basal ganglia. Analogous to opening car doors with your opposite hand. Because drivers do not retrain ever again after getting licensed, intersection markings are very helpful in changing existing conditioning. It's the same reason they display "New" signs when something changes.

Comment edited by mikeonthemountain on 2014-12-04 08:53:16