Getting There and Back on Two Wheels

Cities across the nation are trying to make it easier and safer for commuters, health enthusiasts and plain old joy riders to have a safer experience on their bicycles. In some cases the solution is complex but in others it's amazingly simple.

Take the case of Tempe, Arizona, a wonderful desert community with clean, warm air and miles and miles of open spaces. In other words, a perfect place for bike riding whether it's for fun or function.

Tempe transportation planners did what they thought needed to be done when they set aside dedicated lanes for cyclists. Those lanes were separated from the other lanes by thick, white lines and even had a bike icon painted on them.  The problem was that drivers of cars and trucks didn't pay enough attention and there were numerous crashes involving cyclists who were where they were supposed to be. Yes, the city could write all the citations it wanted but they knew that the issue of safety was more important and they came up with a solution. They painted the entire lane red. According to The Scottsdale Tribune the materials used isn't really paint but rather an epoxy stone treatment. After tests showed that this colored lane concept worked the city added green and blue to its palate. The beauty, in addition to reducing the number of injuries, is that it only cost the city $3,600 to test the idea in two areas.

Up in Toronto they have devised a solution to the problem we have raised in the past and that is how can bicycles trip loop detectors that make traffic signals know they are there and that they are waiting. The city is using three white dots, each about the size of a Frisbee, to sense that a bike is in queue. These highly-sensitive pavement markings can sense the presence of a smaller mass of conductive metal. I guess those riding high-tech composite bikes are out of luck. The problem is that the city, according to The Toronto Star newspaper, has done a poor job of promoting these "bike dots" and so the benefit has been slight. They have tested the concept and found it to be worthy enough to build them out in numerous intersections and yet transportation officials didn't let the end users know how to use them... not a good use of technology or resources. They have subsequently decided to paint small images of a bicycle next to the dots so that riders might get the idea.

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It may have been an intriguing idea when it appeared in movies like The Italian Job (the remake, not the original) and Live Free or Die Hard but few of us probably thought it was something that could happen. In each of those movies computer wizards hacked into a city's traffic control system. That meant that they could turn lights red or green as it suited their needs. In The Italian Job it was all about making one route of green lights that trucks full of gold would have to follow. In the Bruce Willis movie it was about shutting down intersections to create chaos in our fair city by making all of the signals in an intersection green at the same time. But that could never happen, right?

It can and it did. Two traffic engineers in the City of Angels (that's Los Angeles) pleaded guilty earlier this month to hacking into the computer system that controls the traffic signals. According to the Los Angeles Times the two shut down the traffic signals and the control boxes in four intersections as part of a collective-bargaining dispute. It took four days to return the system to normal and not before some back-ups that wound through the city for miles. The good thing is that the city and, one would presume, others with which L.A. officials share information have now been able to patch some of the technical holes that existed. Taking control of traffic signals may be a neat plot device for the movies but in real life it can be deadly.

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Steve Eldridge is a long-time reporter, observer and commentator on the Washington region's transportation issues. You can contact him directly by writing to: Steve@SprawlandCrawl.com. Unless otherwise requested, letters or portions of letters can be used within future columns. Letter writers will be identified by their first name and city/neighborhood.

Comments

[Joe]

I was aware that there are arguments against separate bike lanes, but haven't seen data to support the arguments. Allen, if you can point us to data, I really would like to see it. I have seen studies that show that when bike lanes are provided, more people ride bikes. Here's an article about a recent Penn State study. (Probably not coincidentally, the article is from the Portland Tribune.)

http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=122402296838932000

The Penn State study suggests that dedicated bike facilities open up bike riding to a huge number of people who otherwise would not ride. In addition to listening to the existing bicycling community and bike advocates, it makes sense to me to pay attention to people who don't ride bikes now, and find out why.

What intrigued me about the bike lane/bike box combination was that it clearly made it legitimate for bicyclists to move to the front of the line at red lights. If that could be done safely, it would show a decision to give cyclists a positive advantage over cars in getting where they want to go. Most bike and pedestrian initiatives I've seen are only designed to make it a little less likely that they'll be killed.

[Allen Muchnick]

Colored bike lanes and bike boxes have typically been installed as band-aid fixes to badly designed bike lanes and/or badly flawed traffic laws (in Oregon) that direct bicyclists and/or motorists to violate the standard rules of the road when approaching or navigating intersections, where most car-bike crashes occur.

In urban communities such as Arlington and Washington DC, where motoring in the curb lane is often at or below bicyclists speeds, ordinary striped bike lanes are often already overkill. Painted bike lanes and bike boxes may make unsafely positioned bicyclists more visible, but the best and least expensive approach is to better educate bicyclists and NOT install ANY bike lanes on many of the streets where they now exist.

As John Forester says, "bicyclists fare best when they act--and are treated--as drivers of vehicles." Bicycling as a vehicle driver is neither difficult nor dangerous, whereas bike lanes and bike boxes can put even competent bicyclists at considerable risk.

[Sprawl and Crawl Steve]

Now those are the kind of innovations that make it easier for people to ride their bikes. It would be nice to see more of that around here.

[Joe]

I've seen pictures taken in Vancouver and Portland of brightly-colored bike lanes combined with "bike boxes," painted the same color, at intersections. The bike boxes put bicycles at the front of the line at red lights and are supposed to reduce conflicts between bikes and turning vehicles. Having both the bike lane and the bike box painted the same color looks like it would give a strong visual cue to drivers when they're crossing "bike territory" and should be especially watchful for cyclists.