Originally Posted by
UniChris
Putting your tires just to the side of the gutter pan puts you 48" from the cars, also keep in mind the drains are not usually continuous (though I did see a stretch in New Brunswick...). The other thing is that even if you do get a door-handlebar strike the aftermath isn't into traffic; not to say that it can't still be serious injury, but the situation doesn't compound the way it does in a lot of dooring or more prevalent door-dodging deaths where the cyclist not only ends up impacting the ground with their own kinetic energy, but then getting hit or run over.
In my area, the seam at the gutter pan is often broken or deteriorated much more than the pavement. Riding into the seam creates a situation that is difficult to maneuver out of because the wheel is trapped in a linear groove. It is very difficult to countersteer to get out of that groove so the wheel remains trapped until such time as the groove goes away or until such time as the cyclist falls over. Front suspension helps tremendously but most bicycles used for road riding are so equipped.
As for dooring, yes, a cyclist could hit a door and be thrown into traffic but they could also avoid hitting the door by maneuvering away from the door. In a protected lane, there simply isn't any room to maneuver or any maneuvering room you have is severely limited. The rider is "protected" from traffic but is subjected to a whole host of other hazards that they didn't have to deal with before. In other words, it's not much "protection".
Originally Posted by
UniChris
As for the drain pans, the ones with longitudinal bars that aren't safe to roll over need to go, and most have. Remaining ones need to be reported.
I was only addressing gutter pans not the drainage grates. The drainage grates further reduce the size of the lane and do so at the intersections where you have to pay more attention to what traffic is doing so as to not get hit by a turning car from which you might be masked.
Originally Posted by
UniChris
There's also no reason for protected lanes to be narrower overall; same travel lanes, same parked cars, just swapping sides.
Yes, the sides are swapped but before the protected lane was in place there was no barrier to the bicycle maneuvering away from the parked cars. In other words you have, potentially, 11 feet of travel lane you can move into. Cars moving in the travel lane could restrict that but the cars are moveable and may or may restrict your movement. A curb is fixed.
Originally Posted by
UniChris
About a third of our deaths including our only bike share one seem to be mid-block. They also tend to be the ones the cyclist has the least ability to prevent (at least short of bold tactics like taking the lane that invite abuse, including from the police), and the fear that keeps most of the people intimidated from riding from doing so.
Are those due to cyclists jumping out into traffic to avoid dooring or due to contra-flow cyclists? I would suspect the latter for mid-block crashes. Most accidents are going to occur at intersections and most of those, according to statistics I've seen involve a turning vehicle...usually left turning.
Originally Posted by
UniChris
Unfortunately, yes intersections remain a large danger.
And placing cyclists in a situation where they can see or be seen at an intersection does nothing to improve safety.