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0 pointsStratoscope9y ago0 comments

What is scary is how few drivers in California know about this rule or the reason behind it, which is for the safety of the bicyclists.

Near my home there are several intersections with bike lanes, and I estimate that perhaps one driver in 10 enters the bike lane to make the right turn as they are required to.

In fact, I sometimes get surprised or even dirty looks from drivers making illegal right turns when I do move into the bike lane to make the turn. I guess they think I'm trying to get ahead of them and cut them off, but I'm not, I'm simply following the law and improving bicycle safety.

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phil219y ago

When only 10% of drivers apparently know the correct way, the problem is with the system not the drivers.

Better signage and more consistent (state to state) rules that make common sense would go a long way.

Keeping in mind what is common sense to a biker is many times counter-intuitive to a driver. I hate the unprotected bike lanes on the right - as a driver you simply are not expecting people to be passing you on the right, on what effectively "feels" like a shoulder. It amazes me there are not more deaths due to this, to be honest.

After I spent some time in the Netherlands and Belgium I realized this was not just me. Those systems actually work and are designed with "road sharing" in mind. Everyone gets where they need to go, and even a dumb foreign tourist who knew nothing of local traffic laws could operate a vehicle safely amongst cyclists.

apendleton9y ago

> It amazes me there are not more deaths due to this, to be honest.

Intersections are the most frequent place for cyclist/driver collisions, and "right hooks" (where a driver fails to merge or yield and turns right into a cyclist trying to continue straight through an intersection) are the most common kind of intersection collision, so your instinct is spot on. Your perception that there aren't that many fatalities is probably partly because traffic deaths don't get reported on much, and partly because collisions involving turns tend to take place at relatively low speed, so fewer of these collisions are fatal than might be the case under other collision circumstances, as speed of the car is by far the strongest predictor of death in a cyclist/driver collision.

MaulingMonkey9y ago

> I hate the unprotected bike lanes on the right - as a driver you simply are not expecting people to be passing you on the right, on what effectively "feels" like a shoulder

Having driven for a bit in California I'm now used to expecting people to be passing me on the right, on the left, between lanes - everywhere - thanks to a combination of legal and illegal lane splitting by motorcycles and mopeds.

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