Bike Lane Issue - What to do?

[Mr. Bloom]

This is a real situation that confronted me yesterday at an intersection between a secondary road and a side street with a traffic light. The question is: does a bike, in the bike lane, stop or not...and then, is so, how long?

Here's how it looked:


The reason I ask:

• There was no solid line through the bike lane to the curb as there would be at an intersection without a bike lane
• There was no danger presented to the bike from cars turning on from the side street
• The light was abnormally long considering there was no traffic entering from the sidestreet

I chose to treat it as a stop sign and proceeded after I was sure there were no pedestrians or cars entering from the side street. My initial inclination was to stop and wait for green, but as I pondered the set up and the lack of a solid line, I decided to proceed.

Thoughts on this?

[Melalvai]

No one knows what bikes are supposed to do and bike lanes like this perpetuate the confusion. Most cyclists will say "No danger to me if I blow through this" and a few will say "A red light is a red light".

I say show up at a city council meeting and say "Hey, what am I supposed to do here? I don't want to break any laws." The point being that the city planners are perpetuating the confusion.

Oh, if you want a real answer, not a political one, treating it like a stop sign works for me.

[OakLeaf]

There's an identical intersection that I go through frequently.

It seems to me that I'm supposed to stop at the stop light. If there were two car lanes and only one light, both of them would be expected to stop. I don't see how this is any different.

(I don't always stop ... but if there's left-turning traffic from the intersecting road, I do.)

[Koronin]

That is confusing. I'd say to treat it as a stop sign.

[laura*]

There's an identical intersection that I go through frequently.

I often ride through a similar T-intersection that is a three way stop.

It seems to me that I'm supposed to stop at the stop light. If there were two car lanes and only one light, both of them would be expected to stop. I don't see how this is any different.

Agreed.

(I don't always stop

(looks around, pretends to be an oblivious tourist, runs stop sign)

... but if there's left-turning traffic from the intersecting road, I do.)

There is some chance that the left turning traffic is ... another bike! Meaning - traffic that will be entering the bike lane.

[Kiwi Stoker]

What about people crossing the road? I would assume you would stop to give way to them.

If there's a cross signal and a green man light I would say you would have to stop.

[Mr. Bloom]

I agree that pedestrians in the cross walk always have the right of way over a bike. Ironically, in this situation, I was actually next to a large utility truck that was stopped at the light and would not have seen a pedestrian without getting into the cross walk and stopping.

To Mel's point, it actually "felt" to me that the design was intentional but not completely thought through relative to pedestrians...but designed to "usher" the bike along unimpeded. Interestingly, I looked at an old satellite photo and see that past design had the wide "stop line" all the way to the curb...so, the current configuration is a modification.

As I've pondered over night, I'm very comfortable with my decision to treat it as a stop but can think of other scenarios where I would have waited for the light.

ETA: Laura, I am a tourist here, so I guess that approach would work

[OakLeaf]

There is some chance that the left turning traffic is ... another bike! Meaning - traffic that will be entering the bike lane.

Even if it's a car or truck, there's at least a possibility that it will swing wide and enter the bike lane. I'd just as soon obey the law and let it go. Even if it does mean I have to spend an extra 45 seconds thinking about the amazing Napoleons at the bakery just up the street, and how I've probably earned one by riding.

[Eden]

I'd treat it like a regular red light... around here at least one city has been clarifying their position by going out and making sure they've painted a stop line all the way across...

In any case although technically you should be able to go through without having or causing any problems, remember how sloppy a lot of drivers are and how many will make a wide turn into that bike lane...