Door Zone Bike Lane Markings In JP?

I saw these little guys a couple days ago…looks to me like they are marking the door zone? Could be a nice addition to several other bike lanes in town.

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Cambridge Studying Solutions For Door Zone Bike Lanes

Cambridge seems to be running a study for how new markings in “door zone” bike lanes can reduce the instances of dooring. (thanks John for the tip)

BICYCLE LANE STUDY UNDERWAY SUMMER/FALL 2011
This summer, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program (REF) is conducting a study
evaluating various ways of marking bicycle lanes; Cambridge and Chicago are the two cities being
used for the research, each being busy urban areas with many cyclists.
The study will be looking at various bike lane widths on streets with and without on-street parking. The
study sites in Cambridge are Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard and Porter Square and
Prospect Street between Hampshire Street and Broadway.
The study will evaluate the influence of bike lane widths on how motorists and bicyclists travel on the
road and the comfort level of both bicyclists and motorists under various conditions. The study will
also look at how markings may help diminish the risk of “dooring,” where motorists parking
suddenly open car doors into the path of travel of cyclists.
Most of the line markings that are being used are temporary, and city staff will use information from the
study to help determine the preferred solution for the long term.
As part of the study, researchers will be surveying motorists and cyclists about their experiences and
perceptions. There is no personal data gathered as part of that study and the responses are
completely anonymous. If you are stopped while traveling, we would appreciate your responding,
but if you do not want to, just say “no, thank you,” and there will be no pressure.
If you have questions about the study, please feel free to contact Cara Seiderman,
[email protected]

I am all for studies like this, if it turns out a simple addition, or editing of the current way bike lanes are painted could reduce this risk, hurray!

In the mean time here are some tips for how to not get doored in a door zone bike lane.

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Door Zone Indicating Bike Lanes On Mass Ave

I noted a while ago that I saw “proto-lanes” on Mass Ave near Porter, seems they finally put in the new lanes.

I am not sure if this was done this way intentionally, but I like it. It mentally nudges the cyclists out towards the left hand side of the lane, and indicates visually the “door zone.” What do you think? Is this brilliant, a beneficial accident, or a new way to design door zone bike lanes?

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What It’s Like To Get Doored

From the forum

I hate hate hate when cabs discharge people into the bike lane (or into any lane that is not the side of the road). Hopefully this passenger and this cab driver were both issued tickets on the spot, as dooring someone is now a ticket-able offense.

Always assume every door will be opening, if you are riding in a bike lane, or not. Also this guy is wwaaaaaayyyy more calm than I would have been. Way to keep your cool dude.

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Sharrows On Dot Ave! And An Update To South Huntington Bike Lanes

Got this tip from Fenway today

Sharrows have been added on Dorchester Avenue from at least Richmond Street to Gallivan Boulevard in front of the Carney Hospital. They’ve been there since the middle of the week. I’m not sure but they might extend all the way down to the intersection with Washington Street.

I am pretty happy they are starting to work on Dot Ave. That used to be part of my daily commute and I can tell you that it wasn’t that bad…but could be a lot better. There is room for bike lanes over most of the northern half, and in my opinion some interesting things could be done with the southern half if you got creative with time shift parking (park on one side in the morning, park on the other in the evening ala the restrictions on many neighborhood streets.) But I think they are going the sharrow on the narrow part, bike lanes on the wide part (I don’t know for sure yet though). I also know they are redoing the intersections on that street to make them more bike and ped friendly.

I will have to get down that way this week and take some pics in the mean time here is a snippet of video from the south Huntington Lanes going in (mentioned here). As always if anyone has any pics of video send them my way!

I rode in them today and I can tell you they are going to be nice and wide, with a buffer on the parking side for a lot of it, and only a couple spots of door zone (ish) areas. They should also help to slow traffic down a bit in that stretch as cars tend to go slower in narrower lanes.

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