bike lanes kill

On September 7th a cyclist named Bryce Lewis was killed in Seattle at the intersection of Eastlake and Furhman (heading north on Eastlake just before the University Bridge).  The cyclist was going straight and a dump truck turned right across his path, dragging the cyclist for 25 feet.

Here is what the intersection looks like (thanks to the aerial photography of local.live.com):

The cyclist's path is the orange line, the dump truck's path is the blue line.

The city is not holding the dump truck driver responsible.  Most cyclists are upset and think that the driver wasn't looking and thus is clearly at fault.  I personally hold the city responsible -- the bike lanes should never have been stripped this way.

Almost all bike lanes (including the ones above) put cyclists at the right side of the road all the way up to the intersection.  This puts the cyclist to the right of right turning cars.  When I'm riding I avoid this by pulling into the lane before the intersection, but that is not an obvious or typical thing for a cyclist to do.  The bike lane needs to merge with the traffic lane before the intersection, cross the traffic lane, or otherwise indicate that bicycles going straight should not be on the right side of cars which are turning right.  I don't want to see more bike lanes in Seattle if they are designed like the ones on Eastlake Ave.

----------------

I was also disappointed to see that The Stranger (one of Seattle's weekly's) put Cascade Bicycle Club on the genius shortlist.  They specifically gave credit to David Hiller for the Stone Way Bike Protests, an event which was actually planned and organized by a point83 spinoff called "Seattle Likes Bikes".  Cascade often does good stuff, but there is a lot more going on than what they organize.  The point83 guys got together last weekend and built a memorial at the accident location.  I've ridden past the accident location two or three times since then and there are always people looking at it.  This does build awareness.

As an aside, I was hit by a car on April 17th about 300' from the accident shown above.  I'm okay.  I was also in the bike lane when a southbound car turned left across my path.  Someday I'll write a full blog entry about my learnings on dealing with insurance after a bicycle accident. 

Published 16 September 2007 06:58 AM by AlexWetmore
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Comments

# Henry said on 16 September, 2007 10:03 AM

According to a guy commenting on Denny's post the bikes were not going straight, but had turned right:

seattle.metblogs.com/.../a_tragic_inters.phtml

# Richard said on 16 September, 2007 05:43 PM

The Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB) is looking to fill vacancies.  I already feel strapped for time, but I going to apply.  I think I could bring a different opinion to the board than is there currently.

# bradley said on 17 September, 2007 03:37 PM

I think I'd change the blog post title to "poorly designed bike lanes kill." As you note, it's the way the turn lane crosses the bike lane that's the problem, making the city the accountable party. I've read a lot of conflicting information about the accident itself, but, if I've heard, the cyclists were over-taking the truck while it was turning, it would be tough on the driver to see them coming. My sense is that the driver wasn't careless, but the situation created by the intersection's layout almost makes him the scapegoat. It's a shame either way to get killed in what is supposed to be a bicycle friendly city.

# Greg said on 17 September, 2007 10:27 PM

In the discussion about a later slog post

slog.thestranger.com/.../making_biking_safer

there's some interesting talk about the Portland study of blue lanes and what that study did (or perhaps did not) discover about their effectiveness.

Short answer is that they might not be much of a solution, either.

I'm beginning to find myself agreeing at least partially with the VC folks. I think bike lanes are dangerous as drivers don't look for traffic in them and therefore you end up with a lot of left and right hooks. I wonder if they may still have a beneficial role in situations where they essentially mark out a wide lane on a fast street where sharing the lane isn't practical. I'm also curious if they might be worthwhile as climbing lanes.

In either case, being in a bike lane makes me nervous. And when I see people riding on a bike lane like the one on Dexter (welcome to the door zone!) I'm simply aghast that anyone thought that was a good idea.

# AlexWetmore said on 29 September, 2007 04:02 PM

Bradley -- I agree with you that it is badly designed bike lanes that kill.  However the badly designed ones are the most common ones by far.

There is a lot of unknown about the specifics of this accident and many of the first person accounts disagree with each other.  Rather than focussing on a specific accident I wanted to highlight a common type of accident that occurs with bike lanes.

Greg -- I'm torn on bike lanes myself.  They often do create dangerous situations and riding in the lane is usually the right thing to do.  However they also tend to be a "gateway" to vehicular cycling that makes cyclists more comfortable in riding in the streets.  This makes them more likely to use their bicycle for transportation.

Thanks for the pointer to the other discussion on this matter.  Portland's study around the blue lanes looks interesting.

# Dennis said on 08 October, 2007 05:05 PM

Richard, I hope you do fill one of the vacancies  on the Seattle Bicycle Advisory Board (SBAB). You definately will provide a differing veiwpoint than the bike lane lovers and training wheel backslappers that are presently on this board. They make me want to puke that is why couldn't and wouldn't apply to join the board myself.

Alex you GET IT! you Rock! So how do we get cyclists to understand and recognize the danger that bike lanes can lead then to?

coupdegrace

# David Smith said on 12 October, 2007 12:09 AM

Nice picture. How did you get it? I could not find it through the link. I videotaped this intersection in 2004 as an excellent example of the city painting bike lanes that call for behavior that is contrary to the rules of the road and what bicycle driving instructors teach.

www.bikedexter.com click: fatal-intersection .

Please contact me, I would like to discuss some things we could do to follow up with this.

# David Smith said on 12 October, 2007 09:51 AM

Nice picture. How did you get it? I could not find it through the link. I videotaped this intersection in 2004 as an excellent example of the city painting bike lanes that call for behavior that is contrary to the rules of the road and what bicycle driving instructors teach.

www.bikedexter.com click: fatal-intersection .

Please contact me, I would like to discuss some things we could do to follow up with this.

# AlexWetmore said on 12 October, 2007 01:32 PM

That photo came from local.live.com.  They have a BirdsEye view feature that makes it easy to check for bike lanes.  

# Roy E said on 05 December, 2007 10:18 AM

I have been riding my bike to work for the past 15 years now and have had a myriad of close calls. The worst vehicles are trucks, buses,  and trailers. You need to be defensive when on the road. I believe in most cases bike lanes are added as an after-thought when roads are designed. You can not trust ICE vehicles when riding a bike.

There's nothing more fun than riding to work. I'm excited to get up and go and I get excited to head home.

One can only hope the story of Bryce Lewis may help make cycling safer for the rest of us by raising awareness.

# John S. Allen said on 12 December, 2007 06:47 AM

Blue lanes have been mentioned in this discussion. So, what does painting bike lanes blue accomplish? If the lane is located so that bicycle traffic conflicts with normal traffic movements, then maybe they make motorists somewhat more attentive and maybe they make both bicyclists and motorists more likely to operate incorrectly, as the Portland study shows. Comments on blue lanes may be found at www.bikexprt.com/.../amiblue.htm  , at www.bikexprt.com/.../bluelane.htm and at pages linked from www.bikexprt.com/.../links.htm

# Samuel said on 15 February, 2008 12:43 PM

Portland had six cyclists deaths last year, with at least two due to similar "button hook" collisions.  Our city commissioners are putting in what's called "bike boxes", which are designated places for bikes to move into the traffic lanes, at over a dozen intersections.  They've been effective in Europe, and everyone's hoping they'll enjoy similar success here.  Of course, the best tool to prevent these tragedies is awareness and education, but it shouldn't take death to raise it.

# MikeOnBike said on 17 February, 2008 09:15 PM
I've yet to see an explanation of how a bike box prevents right hooks. Without bike-specific signals, it might cause more right hooks, as explained by John S. Allen: http://www.bikexprt.com/bikepol/facil/stopline.htm (See last paragraph.)

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