One of the controversies about this is that the lanes were possibly removed at the request of the Hasidic community living in the area and who may have taken issue with the (type or lack of) garments being worn by (female) cyclists. It doesn’t help that the same NYPost article says “[a] source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month’s election.”
Really? This is what our safety is weighed against?
A while ago I wrote an article about my views on running red lights and speed. Basically I came to the conclusion that running red lights in no way made you faster, but being a faster cyclist (even when stopping at red lights) did. At the end of that article I said that I would write another one about the other common reason I hear for why running red lights is better, people will often say to me “Running the red lights is safer.” As stunning a statement as that is (breaking the law, and violating the rules of the system is safer!?) many people actually think this.
(this is a pretty common sight here in Boston).
We will set aside for a moment the other consequences of running red lights and deal solely with the safety aspect of it. As far as I can tell, the main thrust of the argument for why running reds is safer goes something like this:
“When I am on my bike, if I stop at a red light and wait for it to turn green all the cars take off really fast, and I am taking off slower so I feel in danger from these cars, so If I run the red light I can avoid this situation.”
I have heard other variations on this from “I feel a little wobbly when I start” to “I feel strange about making the cars wait for me to get going” but mostly it boiled down to the idea that a co-start, in which the bikers and the drivers all leave the line at once, is in some way dangerous.
The problem is that this argument breaks down for a couple of logical reasons.
1. If you position yourself properly at a red light you should not be competing for space with cars as they get going.
2. If you are worried about cars passing you as everyone starts because of a speed difference, how will that be less dangerous when the cars pass you moving much faster further down the road?
3. By running the red light you put yourself in the very real danger of being hit by a car going through the intersection at high speed.
4. You potentially endanger pedestrians and other cyclists crossing with the light.
Before we move on, let me just say, the stuff I am about to tell you, could be, in some situations, not completely totally legal…That being said what I am about to tell you is only very slightly illegal, and I feel it does nothing to garner ill will of other road users, or place you in danger. Thus I am comfortable with it. So what is this slightly illegal thing I am gonna propose you do to address the points made above?
When you stop at a red light, pull in front of all the cars and park yourself in front of them. Plop yourself down right in front of the cars, even if this means you have to go slightly past the stop line (that is the slightly illegal part). When you are doing this remember that because cars don’t always stop on the stop line by putting yourself in front of them you may be in the cross walk, this is also slightly illegal, but if you position yourself as far back as possible you should still leave plenty of room for pedestrians.
We will cover how you get to the front of the line in another article as “filtering” as I like to think of it, is it’s own special skill. For now just slow down, watch for opening doors, and watch for people walking between cars. You will also want to keep a keen eye on the light itself, as nothing is more annoying than seeing someone spaced out far after the light has turned green, and by putting yourself in front of all the other cars you are now “that person.” Don’t be that person.
The reason for doing this, as apposed to say staying over on the right, is that when the light turns green, you can control the lane until you cross the intersection and then you can move over and let the car pass you. Cyclists should really stop thinking about the road as a place they borrow from cars, and instead think of it as a place they control until they are ready to let cars use it. By controlling the lane through the intersection you get to choose when and where the car passes you. If you don’t dawdle too much, and make it clear you are moving over to the right after you get through the intersection the person behind you will pass you easily and safely.
I do this almost every time I stop at a red light, literally hundreds of times a week. Let me present a couple of common scenarios.
1. There are already cars parked at the red, I want to go straight:
I approach the line of cars from the right, and then move slightly to the left so that I am directly in front of the car in the right lane. The light turns green, I stay in the center of that lane until I make it to the other side of the intersection and then I move to the right. The cars then pass me, I am up to speed (and thus more stable on my bike), and I have delayed the cars roughly 5 seconds. They get a good look at me because I am directly in front of them at the red, so there is no “I didn’t see you” bull shit. I am also protected against people making un-signaled right turns off the start line, as I am in front of them. Be aware that at “right on red” intersections people might be turning right before the light turns green.
2. The light is red, the lane is empty, I want to go straight:
I check behind me, signal a left move, move to the center of the right most lane, and wait for the light to turn green. If cars approach from behind and it is a “right on red” light, I will move further over to the left to allow them to turn. The reason why I put myself in the middle of an empty lane, is because empty lanes don’t stay empty. There is a good chance that cars will line up at that red, and if I let them they will try and squeeze past me (actually dangerous), if I am squarely in the center of the lane when they arrive they have no choice but to line up behind me. When the light turns green I proceed across as in the situation above.
3. I want to make a left but get stuck at the light:
Usually when I make a left I will check behind me and make a series of moves over to the left side, thus getting myself into the left turn lane. Sometimes however when doing this I get stuck at a light. In this case I plop myself right in the middle of the left turn lane, when the light turns green I stay in the center of the left turn lane until I am completely through the intersection and then move over to the right to let cars pass. This lets cars that are lining up behind me know that I plan on controlling the left lane, and keeps them from pushing past me.
The secret to all of these situations is that you have to be directly in the middle of the lane, you can’t leave space or they will try to edge past you. This can be a hard thing to get used to. You are not in danger by being in the middle, if anything you are keeping the cars from squeezing past you (which is dangerous), but your mind is not going to realize this. Your brain is going to say “holy shit there is a big car behind me!!!” but after a while you get used to it and it’s old hat.
The issue here is that with a little lane positioning, and some practice you can remove all the “danger” from stopping at red lights. I say “danger” because there really wasn’t that much danger to start with. Even if you position yourself way over to the right, people do not do squealing tire starts when they see the green light, you are not going to get killed by a car going from 0 to 10 miles per hour (average speeds for moving through intersections from a stop). The real reason I think a lot of people feel so confident that running red lights is “safer’ is because they like having a non-selfish excuse. The idea that they are breaking the law “for their protection” rather than “because I didn’t want to stop” sits better in their head. Lying to yourself can be very easy, which is why so many of us do it.
In my opinion, running red lights is neither safer, or faster, yet people still do it. If we are being particularly honest with ourselves we will have to admit that the reason we run red lights is because we don’t want to stop. It’s the bicyclist manifestation of the same behavior we all get so pissed about in motorists. If you have ever been on your bike and gotten mad because a motorist honked at you for “being slow” or screamed “get on the sidewalk” or passed you going too fast, or found yourself saying “why are they in such a hurry to get to the next red light?” you know what I am talking about.
Yet this same impulse, to go as fast as possible, damn the consequences, is what I think is driving most people to run red lights. If we were being super honest with each other we would have to admit that stopping at red lights is only going to slow us down a little (plus why are you in such a hurry?), and is far safer, and better for everyone, than running them.
Many times when people start talking about bike lanes, some cyclist in the back pipes up and says “yea but they are no good cause you are in the door zone!!!!11!1!” These people area almost allways confident experienced cyclists. They have no problem ridding down any road. But to a brand new rider, or to people thinking about riding (you know the people currently in cars that we would love to see on a bike) the bike lane offers the promise of “safer” biking. Bike lanes on the street might be just that little extra that gets them riding.
We could argue all day and night (and a lot of people do) about bike lanes, and if they make you safer, but really that isn’t the point. The point is people don’t “feel safe”, you can argue all day and night about that, but no amount of logic or well thought out study is going to make people “feel” different. Many people need an actual physical “something” to make them feel safer, if a little stripe of white paint will do that, well then by god paint some white stripes on the ground! If hanging waffles around their neck made them feel safer I would do it…I want to see more people out on the streets on bicycles, and less people in cars.
Experienced cyclists fail to realize that they would be driving down the same exact street even if there was no bike lane on it. They also fail to realize that bike lanes are to keep cars OUT not to keep bikes IN. Let me say that again…bike lanes are to keep cars out, not to keep bikes in.
You are allowed to leave a bike lane whenever you want. In fact you are encouraged to leave the bike lane for safety, or if you want to make a left hand turn, or if you see some debris in the bike lane, or if you want to pass a slower rider, or some jerk pulled half into the bike lane, or if someone is getting out of their car, or if someone looks like they might be getting out of their car, or if a pedestrian is walking out, or…well you get the idea.
Boston and surrounding towns are absolutely in love with on street parking, and it is very unlikely that they will fall out of love anytime soon, so here is how you use a “door zone” bike lane. By door zone I mean, “the area by which an opening car door would cause a biker to be struck by said opening door.” An easy way to find out if you are in the door zone is to ask yourself the following question “if that car door opened would I run into it?” If the answer is “yes” you are in the door zone.
Here is an example of a typical bike lane in this area.
So let me clarify where the door zone is.
and here is where I personally would ride in this bike lane.
Right away new cyclists are going to balk at this suggestion, stating something like
“But how can being over on the left hand side with the moving cars be safer than over on the right near the parked cars, surely moving cars are more dangerous than parked ones!”
I would respond them by saying that while this might seem true, it isn’t. Parked cars have a nasty habit of sprouting doors, and pedestrians like to sneak out between them. If you ride in a nice straight line (this is actually really important), and are predictable (signal your turns, stop at red lights etc), being on the left hand side of the bike lane allows cars to plan for what you are going to do. They will move over a bit, go past you, then continue on there way. It might seem loud, as cars often give it some gas to get past you faster, but they are not being malicious they are just trying to get by.
You are going to have to trust me on this, but having two predictable vehicles (car and bike) interacting in a predictable and planned way (bike stays in a straight line, car moves over slightly passes then resumes position) is MUCH MUCH safer, than a car door randomly opening and breaking your face, collar bone, or worse. People get tossed into traffic and run over by doors opening, people swerve into cars and are run over when doors open. There is no easy way to predict when a car door will open, and getting doored is horrific (even at low speed) so the best method of dealing with it is to STAY OUT OF THE DOOR ZONE.
Imagine would would happen to this person if the car in front of them opened the door…
Would they end up under the wheels of that truck?
You can see that the truck has moved over to go past the cyclist ahead of the one closed to me (click the image for the bigger version). The person in the foreground is smack in the door zone. You will also notice that they would be just fine (even with this wide truck) and have plenty of space if they were on the left hand side of the lane. It would take some getting used to but by moving over to the left they would avoid the door zone, and still have plenty of space to use the bike lane. Giving them the best of both worlds the safety (perceived or actual) of the bike lane, without the danger (real) of the door zone.
It took me a couple of weeks of riding to get comfortable with the feeling of being on the left hand side of the lane. But in that couple of weeks more than a few people opened their doors in front of me and I never had to swerve into traffic, or even really make any avoidance maneuver at all. Being on the far left of the bike lane has saved my skin more times than I can count.
So the next time you hear someone complaining about bike lanes because they have parked cars next to them simply explain to them that they are allowed to leave the bike lane, and that the far left of the bike lane is the safest place for them to be. If they are not happy with that tell them to lobby for the removal of on street parking, or perhaps ride down streets without bike lanes on them.
With the help of Office of University Communications; we bring you our new Map of Suffolk University On-Campus Bike Parking. Very exciting stuff. While Boston was recently ranked very high on a Safer Cities survey; securing your belongings is and always will be a must in any urban setting.
This map will also be available on suffolk.edu/bikes. If you’re lost you can look and you will find the map– time after time. Save a PDF to your phone for keeps and show it to all of your friends. They will probably think you are VERY cool.
You, my few readers, may recall the recent Boston.com article on Boston’s unruly riders, or the op-ed that left a particular vomit-taste in any cyclist’s mouth. Finally we may have something sane to consider and discuss: roads are designed to kill (which is another op-ed.) Excerpt:
I took a photograph of the scene where I had found the runner. When I showed this picture to friends from Sweden they asked, “This is where you live? This is your neighborhood? Your streets are designed to kill people.’’ They said that the thin painted white lines at the intersection could not be seen at dawn, nor was there a raised bump to or a narrowing of the road to demarcate the intersection and slow down traffic. They said the speed limit should be 30 kilometers per hour (about 18.6 miles per hour) or less if we wanted pedestrians to have much of a chance of surviving. They also said traffic lights increased the number of deaths because people often speed up when the light turns yellow.
When Sweden removed red lights from intersections and replaced them with traffic circles or rotaries, death rates at these intersections fell by 80 to 90 percent.
This is the closest article I’ve yet seen that seems in line with Liveable Streets: the engineering is directly related to the use of the system. The usual discussion page is also available.
In addition to this op-ed there is a letter in response to the Unruly riders article as written by MassBike. (Here is the discussion page.) Concluding excerpt:
By all means, let us build better roads, which lead people into safer behavior by design. But each of us can help make everyone safer now, today, by more often following the rules of the road whether driving, bicycling, or walking.
I am digging on these San Francisco safety videos.
Thank you fellow Bostonians for your continued commitment to not running me over. I know you like to kid with your feints and poor right turning, but I know deep at heart that you all want to be super safe, right….right?
I am sporadic with my posts, and every interesting thing I see won’t warrant its own article from me, so I’m thinking I’ll try and lump things together in smorgasbord fashion.
Here’s what I saw this week that looked interesting.
A picture depicting how we, humans, get ourselves from one place to another all over the world. The most popular vehicle? The bicycle, natch.
An article on the sustainability of cycling and using alternative transportation (buses, trains, carpools.) The article is an excerpt from the book Seven Wonders. I might pick this up some time, once my book queue becomes more manageable. (Which reminds me, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, and I’ve read it on at least one adjacent blog; read The Art of Urban Cycling.)
Two links from BoingBoing – someone over there likes the bike! An old safety video for kids where everyone who loses is a monkey and dies (blog link.)
Then there’s one on building bike frames from bamboo in Africa. (Direct link.) This was also shared on the Make ‘zine blog over here.
Recently I marginally helped an intriguing venture to assess several Boston roads for possible bike lane inclusion. I wish I could have spared more time to the effort, and I guess I’m not the only one saying that since in a little over a month’s allotment only 16 of a desired 50 roads were surveyed. This was work spread out over several individuals who volunteered, and of which I probably helped the least or near least. (I’d offer excuses, but this is a bike story, not a work-woe story. If you need to ask: woe is work.)
The idea behind the activity was to find out what roads are already wide enough to support a bike lane, with particular preference to roads that connect any other already-established bike networking routes or major areas of the city. Ideally some roads are already wide enough to include a bike lane, and those would be cheapest and fastest for the city to adapt. The survey work involved detailing any observations from a biker’s point of view, such as metal plates in the road or incorrect alignment of gutter plates, as well as measuring road cross-sections with one of these:
The wheel I was loaned took measurements in .12″. Everyone else’s read in .10″. I have no idea why the wheel I used was any different, nor what the significance of .12″ is (anyone care to fill me in?), but that’s what I had to walk across the road many times with and note the distance of the center of every line of paint (parking, white lines, yellow lines, etc.) The person who collected all the data we obtained had to write a conversion routine and apply it to all of my collected numbers.
Someone brought up the point of “why do we have to take these measurements, wouldn’t the city already know all of this?” And the answer I heard given started out as “well, ya see…” and sorrowfully explained that the measurements currently available are all too inaccurate to be of much use. Our measurements, as accurate as they can be, still need to account for several inches for error or variance between measured points. We took measurements wherever the road widths changed a recognizable amount, which may be often but not necessarily often enough. Whatever our measurements come out to be will be better than what was there before, and up to date.
I hope that something comes of this attempt, and that we’re not left oggling the void of another action->no-action response from the city. I am disappointed about how little I chipped in for this, but would feel cheated if it all amounts to nothing. Kudos to LiveableStreets for putting up the measurement wheels that we got on loan, and to the Boston Bikes initiative that was all under the auspices of: I hope to be of more use on the next venture.
It took my sister’s scorn to get me into the habit, but once I started wearing a helmet I feel naked riding without it. Some might say riding naked is liberating (I’m sure it is,) but the helmet is one of the most important safety devices a rider has. After all, everything about riding starts by firings in the brain, all senses get processed there, all decisions get made there. Common sense trumps style.
My sister’s device for persuading me was familiar to anyone with a sibling. She made me feel bad, wounded my pride, even managed to use my own words against me. She was earnest in trying to make me do something that I already knew was a good idea. I was trying to be rebellious, to be free of the imposition that I am mortal. I was, of course, being stupid. And I knew it.
I really hate to be ‘that guy’ that knows to do things a certain way and does them contrary to that for no decent reason. So I changed my ways. So long as I live I hope I continue to do the same. It can hurt to have your pride wounded, but pain is inevitable. Suffering is an option. Suck it up, learn, adapt, and move on.
Knocking Sense into People
Last night a few friends of mine got together at my apartment for poker. I learned today that one of them got clipped by a car while riding back to his place.
Holyfuckingshit!
My friend was going straight and riding to the left of a car that ended up taking a left hand turn in the intersection. He didn’t see any indication that the car was intending to do this, and he was riding aggressively. His rear wheel got clipped while both he and the car that hit him were going at normal traffic speeds. In the end he was extremely lucky, no major body damage (or none discovered so far.) Pretty much he walked away with a wrecked bike and a badly shaken ego.
I have not been in that situation. I have been in other kinds of accidents, but every one can be unique to the situation. Walking away from an accident, any accident, is a blessing. Then comes the troubling period of dealing with what happened so that future occurances can be avoided.
My friend was riding with a warm hat on to stave off the chill. This event has scared him into making two safety purchases: a helmet and a very bright front light. It’s a start. I’ll be loaning him my copy of The Art of Urban Cycling once I get it back from another friend. I don’t know if he was in the wrong being where he was, but being to the left of a car isn’t usually a good position to be in.
I am the Nag
I don’t like being the Nag, which my roommate no doubt recognizes I am at times, but I’d rather not lose friends to disaster. It’s not my character to sound scornful, so I’ve never become adept at reflecting someone else’s risk-taking at them in a way that shows the bravado for the silliness it usually is. And who am I to preach when I have faults of my own?
But that doesn’t stop my gob from flapping. Wear a helmet. It’s a good idea. Get some lights going on you at night, put on something reflective, and ride safely. You a tough guy? You a crazy girl? Fine. Okay for you. Kindly remember: if something bad happens and it could have been avoided, well, that looks pretty bad, too.
To each their own in the end. Ride however you like, take whatever precautions you feel you must. I do my own thing and I find it works for me, and hope it continues to. To my friends I caution: do not die on me, especially for something stupid, or I will use you as an example when I share your tale of woe and despair. But I’d rather not have to share that story.
It took my sister’s scorn to get me into the habit, but once I started wearing a helmet I feel naked riding without it. Some might say riding naked is liberating (I’m sure it is,) but the helmet is one of the most important safety devices a rider has. After all, everything about riding starts by firings in the brain, all senses get processed there, all decisions get made there. Common sense trumps style.
My sister’s device for persuading me was familiar to anyone with a sibling. She made me feel bad, wounded my pride, even managed to use my own words against me. She was earnest in trying to make me do something that I already knew was a good idea. I was trying to be rebellious, to be free of the imposition that I am mortal. I was, of course, being stupid. And I knew it.
I really hate to be ‘that guy’ that knows to do things a certain way and does them contrary to that for no decent reason. So I changed my ways. So long as I live I hope I continue to do the same. It can hurt to have your pride wounded, but pain is inevitable. Suffering is an option. Suck it up, learn, adapt, and move on.
Knocking Sense into People
Last night a few friends of mine got together at my apartment for poker. I learned today that one of them got clipped by a car while riding back to his place.
Holyfuckingshit!
My friend was going straight and riding to the left of a car that ended up taking a left hand turn in the intersection. He didn’t see any indication that the car was intending to do this, and he was riding aggressively. His rear wheel got clipped while both he and the car that hit him were going at normal traffic speeds. In the end he was extremely lucky, no major body damage (or none discovered so far.) Pretty much he walked away with a wrecked bike and a badly shaken ego.
I have not been in that situation. I have been in other kinds of accidents, but every one can be unique to the situation. Walking away from an accident, any accident, is a blessing. Then comes the troubling period of dealing with what happened so that future occurances can be avoided.
My friend was riding with a warm hat on to stave off the chill. This event has scared him into making two safety purchases: a helmet and a very bright front light. It’s a start. I’ll be loaning him my copy of The Art of Urban Cycling once I get it back from another friend. I don’t know if he was in the wrong being where he was, but being to the left of a car isn’t usually a good position to be in.
I am the Nag
I don’t like being the Nag, which my roommate no doubt recognizes I am at times, but I’d rather not lose friends to disaster. It’s not my character to sound scornful, so I’ve never become adept at reflecting someone else’s risk-taking at them in a way that shows the bravado for the silliness it usually is. And who am I to preach when I have faults of my own?
But that doesn’t stop my gob from flapping. Wear a helmet. It’s a good idea. Get some lights going on you at night, put on something reflective, and ride safely. You a tough guy? You a crazy girl? Fine. Okay for you. Kindly remember: if something bad happens and it could have been avoided, well, that looks pretty bad, too.
To each their own in the end. Ride however you like, take whatever precautions you feel you must. I do my own thing and I find it works for me, and hope it continues to. To my friends I caution: do not die on me, especially for something stupid, or I will use you as an example when I share your tale of woe and despair. But I’d rather not have to share that story.
