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Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?

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View Poll Results: Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?
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Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?

Old 01-19-18, 02:27 PM
  #1  
Ninety5rpm
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Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?

Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?

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Old 01-19-18, 03:43 PM
  #2  
tagaproject6
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Yes
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Old 01-19-18, 03:56 PM
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glad you posted that sign. never heard of the acronym before - i guess on account of no one would ever allow bikes to use the full lane around Motor City......

Last edited by mrv; 01-20-18 at 09:38 AM. Reason: added a "d"
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Old 01-19-18, 04:03 PM
  #4  
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Yes, but few and far between... and motorists still don't "get it."
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Old 01-19-18, 04:12 PM
  #5  
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All the road signs here are written in French
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Old 01-19-18, 04:14 PM
  #6  
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Originally Posted by genec
Yes, but few and far between... and motorists still don't "get it."
Don't tell anyone, but the signs are really for the cyclists, not for the motorists.

The motorists don't even see the signs, so of course they don't get it. But what they do get is a cyclist using the full lane. They change lanes to pass, or slow down until they can.
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Old 01-19-18, 05:00 PM
  #7  
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Originally Posted by Ninety5rpm
The motorists don't even see the signs, so of course they don't get it. But what they do get is a cyclist using the full lane.
Here in Chicago, it is written in the Municipal Code that a bike may take the full lane when the lane is too narrow to safely accommodate both a car and a bicycle, and when the bicycle is traveling at the same speed as the motorized traffic. The second thing doesn't happen all that often (except at stoplights), but the first is a common occurrence.
Of course, not many cyclists know this, let alone motorists. But you're right: the motorists "get" the bike when it's in the lane. I don't think there's likely to be too much running down of cyclists, especially during rush hour (too many potential witnesses). I still am very careful about taking the lane.
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Old 01-19-18, 05:06 PM
  #8  
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Originally Posted by alcjphil
All the road signs here are written in French
And English too. My favorite sign - ever.

Originally Posted by Ninety5rpm
Don't tell anyone, but the signs are really for the cyclists, not for the motorists.
I won’t tell anyone because that’s not true.

Originally Posted by MUTCD
The Bicycles May Use Full Lane sign may be used in locations where it is important to inform road users [emphasis mine] that bicyclists might occupy the travel lane.
Road users includes the people who think they "own the road" and yell at us to "get off my road."

FWIW, people on bicycles were using the full lane well before those signs went up.

-mr. bill

Last edited by mr_bill; 01-19-18 at 05:35 PM.
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Old 01-19-18, 05:33 PM
  #9  
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Yeah, I know. That's the official line. I'm talking reality/practicality.
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Old 01-19-18, 08:42 PM
  #10  
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I claim a lane on a street thus decorated nearly every day. I have had discussions with two motorists there, both of whom said, 1. the sign was irrelevant, 2. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk, 3. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk, 4. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk. Looking at the positive side of these interactions, there seemed to be a tacit acceptance of my right to consume oxygen.
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Old 01-20-18, 05:23 AM
  #11  
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Originally Posted by alcjphil
All the road signs here are written in French
<off topic, but...>

Waaaaaaaaay back in the mid 80's, I drove from Northern Maine (Loring AFB) to Chicago via Canada, coming into the USA at Windsor / Detroit. Quebec was one of the provinces I had to drive through. For an English only speaking lad, some of the signs were easy to figure out (basic traffic sign shapes) and some were not. Trying to order McDonald's was fun...NOT. Thankfully, one of the managers on duty spoke English as well and was able to help me out.

<Okay, I now return this thread to its originally scheduled topic. LOL!!>




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Old 01-20-18, 07:40 AM
  #12  
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My town is a diamond in the rough of midwest cycling. All sorts of large bicycle pavement markings on many roads around town, a decent amount of MUP with active expansion, and widened shoulders with marked bike lanes leading out of town on a couple of two lanes. Down one of the wide roads for a short distance is access to easily over a hundred miles of well kept wide MUP.

The drivers have been very gracious to me, and I have yet to encounter any real hostility. All of the surrounding area is rural, narrow two lane.

I have yet to be brave enough to ride the rural back roads, many do.
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Old 01-20-18, 08:25 AM
  #13  
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Originally Posted by GrainBrain
I have yet to be brave enough to ride the rural back roads, many do.
At least around here, rural back roads are the best. Very little traffic and if other riders use the road drivers are used to seeing cyclists. You don't get a lot of strangers on rural roads, so there aren't many distracted drivers. No one is looking for a store, or trying to figure out where they should turn.

One rural road here has BMUFL signs. The most rural road I've ever seen such a sign on. And the signage may well be intended to encourage cyclists to do that as much as to warn cars. The road is well treed and it's harder to see cyclists who hug to fog line.

In the city, they often use such signs along with sharrows, which have appeared on many more streets in the last five years. But I believe that now all new roads and any road that is being substantially reconstructed must be designed to include either bike lanes or sharrows. We really don't really have a lot of bike commuters, but TPTB are trying to encourage it.
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Old 01-20-18, 10:32 AM
  #14  
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No, because cyclists have the same rights here as any other vehicle anyway - as long as we're not prohibited from a particular road (all motorways, for example).

There are laws regarding courtesy to other road users, and causing an obstruction - so if you're taking up the lane and have a huge tailback behind you, you can get into bother for not pulling over to let them past.
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Old 01-20-18, 01:49 PM
  #15  
Jim from Boston
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Do you have BMUFL signs where you live/work/ride?

Not only do we have those black and white signs here in Metro Boston, I pass this whimsical one on my commute, with two additional directives, in the People's Republic of Brookline. It's at a fork in the road (at the intersection of Cottage St and Goddard Ave) and faces the oncoming traffic entering the fork (see map below).

It's a somewhat scary fork because as I ride west on Cottage St, upcoming traffic behind me may drive past me as I try to cross over Cottage to Goddard Ave. The slight turn to my left shifts my rearward-mirror view away from the traffic behind me, and often I stop to look and cross. So those signs are welcome.

Both streets are two lane without shoulders and carry a lot of commuter traffic. However there is an asphalt off-road path as seen in the photo. To my advantage also, I ride in the reverse commuter direction, with fewer cars on my side of the road.
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Old 01-20-18, 02:28 PM
  #16  
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I don't want to be obvious about it, but there are a number of things, some trivial, some not, that have been addressed legislatively to be "Law of the Land". In most cases if you look around you will see little change in anyone's behavior. Most American's are not going to let something like a law prevent them from knocking down a cyclist who deserves it because they are "flaunting themselves in front of my car!"
These are the people who are scared spitless at the thought of AV technology depriving them of the right to use their cars as extensions of their will to right any number of social wrongs as they see it. I am kind of surprised to see as little love as exists for AV tech on this forum. But it is slowly dawning that way too much of the cyclist community is on two wheels due to unfortunate circumstances.
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Old 01-20-18, 02:49 PM
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Very nice part of the world that, Jim.

I rode back and forth between Watertown and the Carney Hospital, over the hump through Brookline, for a month or two when was doing a med school rotation there, back in the 80s.
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Old 01-21-18, 05:25 AM
  #18  
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Originally Posted by MoAlpha
I claim a lane on a street thus decorated nearly every day. I have had discussions with two motorists there, both of whom said, 1. the sign was irrelevant, 2. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk, 3. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk, 4. I needed to get the f on the sidewalk. Looking at the positive side of these interactions, there seemed to be a tacit acceptance of my right to consume oxygen.
Originally Posted by MoAlpha
Very nice part of the world that, Jim.

I rode back and forth between Watertown and the Carney Hospital, over the hump through Brookline, for a month or two when was doing a med school rotation there, back in the 80s.
Hey Mo, Hey Mo, Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck,


Thanks for your reply. I eyeballed a Boston map and saw that a route I would pick goes through Brighton, Brookline (though not necessarily by that Share the Ride sign), on to Jamaica Plain and Rte 203 into Dorchester.

Personally, I find any discussions about cycling with motorists futile, especially those exchanged while en route, often with hostility. When off the bike, e.g. at work they are usually pleasant, but vacuous, for example when I’m called a saint. When they complain, it’s often about cyclists riding two or more abreast, no lights, ninjas, etc…valid complaints IMO.

The most antagonistic remarks though that I try to assuage are taunts about what it would do to the driver if they hit me, most often spoken on the Winter when streets are icy or narrowed by snowbanks. I learned my response from a long-ago thread, “When does Hardcore become Stupid?”
Originally Posted by StephenH
Hardcore becomes stupid when it becomes dangerous...

In each case, it's not just the weather that makes it hardcore or stupid, it's the degree of preparation and knowledge used in dealing with the weather.

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston
Good answer. Reminds me of "The Right Stuff."
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Old 01-21-18, 09:37 AM
  #19  
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I only know of one local road that has the signs.



Steep, shoulderless mountain road, popular among cyclists.

This is also the road that has this sign



I.E. ride with traffic, and keep control of your bike on those curves.
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Old 01-21-18, 10:24 AM
  #20  
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No and I wish that they would go up. Would love to see those signs on my rides and have drivers respect that. Instead, we have Bike Lane Ends - Share The Road signs instead. Most drivers think that share the road means get the f on the sidewalk, as mentioned above. Share the road to me means we both share, safely, and with courtesy.
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Old 01-21-18, 12:28 PM
  #21  
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NWBILIF.

Dumb poll. I voted no, since this applies only to the USA, and American English is not spoken where I live.

You should also define your acronyms before using them, particularly, as is the case here, if they are not in common usage.
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Old 01-21-18, 01:13 PM
  #22  
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Originally Posted by avole
NWBILIF.

Dumb poll. I voted no, since this applies only to the USA, and American English is not spoken where I live.

You should also define your acronyms before using them, particularly, as is the case here, if they are not in common usage.
I thought the image in the OP was definition enough.
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Old 01-21-18, 01:14 PM
  #23  
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Originally Posted by CliffordK
I only know of one local road that has the signs.



Steep, shoulderless mountain road, popular among cyclists.

This is also the road that has this sign



I.E. ride with traffic, and keep control of your bike on those curves.
Awesome!
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Old 01-21-18, 02:22 PM
  #24  
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Originally Posted by Ninety5rpm
I thought the image in the OP was definition enough.
No. you needed it in the title, as you well know. Also, the whole topic was ill-conceived. You Should have specified it only applied to a small part of the cycling world. There is a world outside the USA. High time you recognised that, as most people from your continent are well aware.
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Old 01-21-18, 02:24 PM
  #25  
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Originally Posted by Ninety5rpm
Awesome!
Except that sign would not be acceptable in the UK, where peds has only one, unsavoury, meaning.
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