Man dies from being "doored" in bike lane
03-15-13, 06:40 PM
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Man dies from being "doored" in bike lane
At least police are blaming the right person....
https://laist.com/2013/03/15/bicyclis...ashing_int.php
https://laist.com/2013/03/15/bicyclis...ashing_int.php
03-15-13, 07:08 PM
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This will keep happening until we either stop striping door-zone bike lanes or we make the penalty for dooring so steep that no one will ever open a door until he/she is absolutely certain that it is safe to do so.
Locally, we are having a 42 foot wide street repaved and restriped. It currently has parking on both sides of the street which results in dzbl on both sides. Since state guidelines require the dzbl to take 12 feet from the curb, there is no way to legally restripe with parking on both sides without narrowing the traffic lanes from their current 9 3/4 feet to 9 feet. Thus, we got the traffic engineer to agree, reluctantly, to remove the parking on one side of the road, which frees up one dzbl.
We further asked him to use some of that space to buffer the other bike lane so that it is no longer in the door zone. Naturally, he decided that it was much more important to widen the travel lanes to 11 feet rather than make the bike lane a safe place to ride.
I'll add here that my city, Eugene, OR, has been literally hemorrhaging cyclists these past few years. In 2009, the U.S. Census reported that we had 10.8% of all commuters using bikes. In 2011, the latest data I could find, we are down to 7.3%, a loss of one-third. I suspect that a lot of people gave cycling a try, found it to be too dangerous because of things like dzbls, and went back to their cars. I haven't seen any other community that has had this drop off, but I really haven't looked very hard.
I don't ride in the door zone, ever, but I see people do it and I just cringe. Just two days ago, while running some errands, a car door opened just as I passed it. If I would have been riding in the door zone, I would have won the door prize. I can't think of another traffic control device that a road user must disobey to stay safe.
Locally, we are having a 42 foot wide street repaved and restriped. It currently has parking on both sides of the street which results in dzbl on both sides. Since state guidelines require the dzbl to take 12 feet from the curb, there is no way to legally restripe with parking on both sides without narrowing the traffic lanes from their current 9 3/4 feet to 9 feet. Thus, we got the traffic engineer to agree, reluctantly, to remove the parking on one side of the road, which frees up one dzbl.
We further asked him to use some of that space to buffer the other bike lane so that it is no longer in the door zone. Naturally, he decided that it was much more important to widen the travel lanes to 11 feet rather than make the bike lane a safe place to ride.
I'll add here that my city, Eugene, OR, has been literally hemorrhaging cyclists these past few years. In 2009, the U.S. Census reported that we had 10.8% of all commuters using bikes. In 2011, the latest data I could find, we are down to 7.3%, a loss of one-third. I suspect that a lot of people gave cycling a try, found it to be too dangerous because of things like dzbls, and went back to their cars. I haven't seen any other community that has had this drop off, but I really haven't looked very hard.
I don't ride in the door zone, ever, but I see people do it and I just cringe. Just two days ago, while running some errands, a car door opened just as I passed it. If I would have been riding in the door zone, I would have won the door prize. I can't think of another traffic control device that a road user must disobey to stay safe.
03-16-13, 02:56 PM
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This is another case of a dumb motorist not looking out their window, before they open the car door, and not being penalized in ANY manner. When it is obvious that a bike lane exists.
03-16-13, 07:00 PM
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At least police are blaming the right person....
https://laist.com/2013/03/15/bicyclis...ashing_int.php
https://laist.com/2013/03/15/bicyclis...ashing_int.php
03-16-13, 08:24 PM
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Yeah. I live in LA and am pretty sure there are no bike lanes there. There are sharrows and most sharrows are out of the door zone. I believe the article is wrong claiming bike lane.
03-16-13, 09:19 PM
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This will keep happening until we either stop striping door-zone bike lanes or we make the penalty for dooring so steep that no one will ever open a door until he/she is absolutely certain that it is safe to do so.
Locally, we are having a 42 foot wide street repaved and restriped. It currently has parking on both sides of the street which results in dzbl on both sides. Since state guidelines require the dzbl to take 12 feet from the curb, there is no way to legally restripe with parking on both sides without narrowing the traffic lanes from their current 9 3/4 feet to 9 feet. Thus, we got the traffic engineer to agree, reluctantly, to remove the parking on one side of the road, which frees up one dzbl.
We further asked him to use some of that space to buffer the other bike lane so that it is no longer in the door zone. Naturally, he decided that it was much more important to widen the travel lanes to 11 feet rather than make the bike lane a safe place to ride.
I'll add here that my city, Eugene, OR, has been literally hemorrhaging cyclists these past few years. In 2009, the U.S. Census reported that we had 10.8% of all commuters using bikes. In 2011, the latest data I could find, we are down to 7.3%, a loss of one-third. I suspect that a lot of people gave cycling a try, found it to be too dangerous because of things like dzbls, and went back to their cars. I haven't seen any other community that has had this drop off, but I really haven't looked very hard.
I don't ride in the door zone, ever, but I see people do it and I just cringe. Just two days ago, while running some errands, a car door opened just as I passed it. If I would have been riding in the door zone, I would have won the door prize. I can't think of another traffic control device that a road user must disobey to stay safe.
Locally, we are having a 42 foot wide street repaved and restriped. It currently has parking on both sides of the street which results in dzbl on both sides. Since state guidelines require the dzbl to take 12 feet from the curb, there is no way to legally restripe with parking on both sides without narrowing the traffic lanes from their current 9 3/4 feet to 9 feet. Thus, we got the traffic engineer to agree, reluctantly, to remove the parking on one side of the road, which frees up one dzbl.
We further asked him to use some of that space to buffer the other bike lane so that it is no longer in the door zone. Naturally, he decided that it was much more important to widen the travel lanes to 11 feet rather than make the bike lane a safe place to ride.
I'll add here that my city, Eugene, OR, has been literally hemorrhaging cyclists these past few years. In 2009, the U.S. Census reported that we had 10.8% of all commuters using bikes. In 2011, the latest data I could find, we are down to 7.3%, a loss of one-third. I suspect that a lot of people gave cycling a try, found it to be too dangerous because of things like dzbls, and went back to their cars. I haven't seen any other community that has had this drop off, but I really haven't looked very hard.
I don't ride in the door zone, ever, but I see people do it and I just cringe. Just two days ago, while running some errands, a car door opened just as I passed it. If I would have been riding in the door zone, I would have won the door prize. I can't think of another traffic control device that a road user must disobey to stay safe.
03-16-13, 10:16 PM
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No, it's 5th Ave. Parking on south side is slated for removal from Blair to Jefferson. I guess that makes it a one-quarter victory, which is one-quarter better than we thought we had a chance at when we started talking to Tom Larson.
03-17-13, 01:48 AM
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Good luck getting a conviction on that sort of charge then.
Around here, juries aren't even good at convicting drives when they have strong evidence that they were drunk, and certain evidence that they hit and run after killing somebody ...
Around here, juries aren't even good at convicting drives when they have strong evidence that they were drunk, and certain evidence that they hit and run after killing somebody ...
03-17-13, 05:36 AM
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Ooh, I didn't realize 5th was also on the agenda for repaving. That'll be nice, I once quipped to a friend that going from Chambers to the 5th Street Market should be called the "Eugene-Roubaix Bicycle Route." He didn't get it. I hope someday soon they get on repaving 15th st. "bicycle route", lots of the concrete slabs are so cattywampus that it's practically a 3" kerb right in the middle of the street.
eta because of city geography derp
eta because of city geography derp
