One of the "innovations" that organizations like Portland's Alta+Design Group are promoting, in their quest for completely segregating bicycles from normal traffic flow, are "bike boxes". The perceived need for these has come about because of the high number of "right hook" collisions between motor vehicles and cyclists in bike lanes, often fatal. A "right hook" occurs when a motor vehicle turning right collides with a straight-through cyclist traveling between the motor vehicle and the curb.
Portland has experienced several of these, including some rather gruesome fatalities, when cyclists attempting to pass inside turning trucks (in the truck's blind spot), were caught in and beneath the trucks' wheels.
These were "deaths by design", as Portland's bike lane design essentially caused the collisions. Rather than admit the fatal flaw, more paint was deemed the remedy.
It isn't.
3 comments:
Thanks PM! The "innovations" never stop in Portland! Did you see the next-gen "bike box" for making a left turn out of cycletrack?
http://bikeportland.org/2009/05/13/city-works-on-cycle-track-design-legal-issues/
The "floating bike box" it so GREEN! It's go be GOOD!
A picture really is worth a thousand words. Well done.
Rantwick said...
"A picture really is worth a thousand words. Well done."
The illustration was done by the immensely talented and eminently wise Keri Caffrey.
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