The Antiplanner has previously questioned bicycle lanes because they create an illusion of safety from overtaking cars when in fact the real danger is cross-traffic. Unfortunately, I received a very physical demonstration of this while cycling in Maui last Friday when I was hit by a large van.
I was enjoying a tailwind in the bike lane shown on the right side of this photo. The auto lane had bumper-to-bumper traffic while I was traveling at least 20 mph and passing cars that were going much slower. The van was in the left-turn lane where the red car is located in the above photo. Someone was nice enough to leave a gap for the van to turn left, but their car also blocked my view of the van just as they blocked the van driver’s view of me.
I don’t remember the moment of impact — the driver said he thought he hit my rear wheel — but I do remember going flying and landing on my back with my helmet hitting the pavement hard. My forward momentum left me lying next to the hedge that is behind the pedestrian in the “21” football jersey in the photo.
The good news is nothing appears to be broken; just a lot of scapes and pulled muscles. The bad news is I’m probably not going to get to ride a bicycle again for a few days at least. When I am riding, I can pretend I am 29 years old (I rode 185 miles in five days on Maui, including one 67-mile day with 5,000 feet of hill climbing), but I heal at the rate of a 65-year-old.
I think bicycle boulevards are safer than bike lanes. This means slightly redesigning local streets that are parallel to busy arterial roads to encourage through cycling while allowing local auto traffic but discouraging through auto traffic. Unfortunately, Kihei, the town through which I was cycling, doesn’t have any local streets parallel to Kihei Road.
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What it does have parallel to that street is highway 31 (above), which is signed for 45 mph but most traffic actually goes 55 mph. Since the highway has no driveways and most of its cross streets are protected by stoplights, it is actually much safer for cyclists than Kihei Road, and I rode it into town. But for the change in scenery I decided to take Kihei Road out of town.
For at least 6.5 miles, from Kaiwanhine Street on the outskirts of Kihei to Ho’okeli Street on the outskirts of Kuhalui, highway 31 is paralleled by a dedicated bike path. I cycled this highway southbound from Kahului, but never saw the bike path as it is on the northbound side. I might not have used it anyway as it is another example of creating an illusion of safety. From what I saw, few cyclists ride this segment of highway; the shoulders are broad and safe to cycle on; and the real dangers to cyclists are not in this rural area but in the cities where the bike path disappears.
The state could have made cycling a lot safer by spending the money used for that bike path in Kihei or Kahului instead. For example, though no streets that parallel Kihei Road are continuous through the entire town, some discontinuous parallel streets could be connected with bike paths. On the ocean side is Halama Road. Between Kihei Road and highway 31 is Liloa Road. Either of these could be turned into bicycle boulevards if bike paths were built to link the gaps in the street network. Bike paths are costly, but it would make more sense to build them in Kihei, which sees a lot of bicycle traffic, than parallel to highway 31, which sees little bicycle use and which is safer for bicycles without the paths than Kihei Road’s bike lanes.
This is my second serious accident, and in the previous one in 1983 I was also struck by cross-traffic. It was more serious than this one as I wasn’t wearing a helmet and suffered a concussion. I’ve now worn a helmet for 35 years and this was the first time I’ve actually needed it, but it definitely saved me from another concussion.
While these two accidents are a small sample, John Forester has long argued that advocates of bike lanes have no supporting data to justify their use, that they address the wrong safety problem (overtaking vehicles rather than cross traffic), and lead to dangerous cycling behaviour (such as riding faster than 20 mph in heavy traffic).
Unfortunately, cities and states have designed bicycle facilities to encourage cycling by creating an illusion of safety, not to actually make cycling safer. Putting safety first means finding out where hazardous conditions exist and treating those conditions, not just haphazardly spending money on bike facilities.
I think riding on the sidewalk is safer than getting on the street with a 2000 pound car………….
Maui is not big which means for very little money the area can have a dedicated bike way.
Maui is not a big place. The testicle shaped island is about 48 miles by 25 miles which means you can pretty much get anywhere.
On Pailii highway I see a useless patch of grassless dirt, perfect for a cycle lane instead of putting it on the street and expanding the shoulder across st highway 31.
Cycle infrastructure makes sense in small island communities, cycles are cheap for people that cant afford an automobile. Maui is only 144,000 people, diverting just 1-2% of it’s population from routine car use can take as much as 500-1000 cars off the road……….
1) The justification I’ve heard is that creating an illusion of safety is more important that actual safety because the illusion will encourage more cycling, and that’s a good thing.
2) Chambers of Commerce and tourism boards have begun pushing for high ‘cyclability’ ratings (from Bicycling Magazine, the League of American Bicyclists, People for Bikes and others). Towns get points for ‘miles of bike lanes, paths, tracks”; towns get no points for ‘intersection safety improvements’.
3) Best wishes for a speedy recovery. Uh…how’s your bike?
TCS,
The bike doesn’t seem to have a scratch. There might be some scrapes on the leather saddle, but the frame and wheels seem to be intact. Wish I could say the same for me, but I’m getting better.
”
I think riding on the sidewalk is safer than getting on the street with a 2000 pound car
”
Riding on the sidewalk is worst. Hardly any drivers ever come to stop before entering the intersection. They’re counting on hitting the breaks hard if they see a pedestrian. Actually they’re not counting on that…. they haven’t thought it through; they’re just reacting.
To get on the sidewalk and be going 15 mph instead of 4mph gives them zero time to change their trajectory. At least out in the lane – sharing the lane – you have your best chance of being seen.
Mr. O’Toole, it sounds like you were a bit banged up but nothing serious, correct? I hope so. I also hope you do the prudent thing and get a new helmet.
As for bike lanes, I’m not a fan of them. They’re rarely little more than the shoulder of the road. Riding there is problematic: all the junk ( glass, screws, nails, bits of sharp metal, loose sand, loose gravel ) gets pushed onto the shoulder of the road by traffic. That alone can render them unsafe.
Other times you’re squeezed between parked cars and and cars on the left with little room for error. One parked car opening a door could send you to the hospital.
And then some places do this sort of shit. How do you handle cars turning right? This Florida move to make the bike lane a dashed line and no longer just a bike lane encourages drivers to move right to turn. That’s good to right hook a cyclist. That’s really good to eliminate.
However… if you’re a cyclist actually using the bike lane, you’ll be randomly forced to stop for the car turning right or forced to veer left to avoid the car turning right. If you miss out on the car coming fast from behind, you go from avoiding rear ending a slow car to being rear ended yourself by a fast car. Classic out of the frying pan and into the fire.
So I’ve learned overall it’s just safer to be in the lane. LIke here, I’m already out in it. If you want to turn right, well, you’ll have to slide in behind and wait your turn. I won’t get hooked unless someone’s really crazy and they use the left turn lane to turn right. Luckily I have camera’s to help document the craziness.
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Now, I’m nto a fan of busy roads where traffic goes fast. I rarely take this route but to get to a certain part of town from my place, it’s the best choice of many less than ideal ones. I’ve seen cyclists hang far right, and then cut across traffic to try to veer left hear. It’s only a matter of time before the car they think is going 40mph is going 60mph and they get hit. And it’s Florida. The drivers are arguably the worst in the country and there are more than plenty that go 60 on this city boulevard.
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My forward momentum left me lying next to the hedge that is behind the pedestrian in the “21” football jersey in the photo.
Yikes! Xrays/MRI shows everything OK? That was a hell of an impact.
Riding on sidewalks in Denver is technically illegal but I do ride on them when there’s no or very few pedestrians using them.
Glad Mr. O’Toole turned out OK, considering what his collision sounded like (could have been much worse).
Planners deliberately mix auto, bike, and pedestrian traffic, I believe, with the intention that conflicts will occur, which they can then spin into anti-car policies.
I’m not surprised that planner advocates like msetty are studiously silent on this particular post.