Dear Bikers

[dhbearguy]

As I said, no matter where the right turn is, there can be a car on bike action!


This morning at Gough and Market, the location you have to turn right in your car since you can't turn right at Octavia.

Comments

[squalidbear.livejournal.com]

Oh, those poor cyclists... if only they could learn to use their brakes...

I think we should pay a few hundred million to build a lovely elevated faerie bridge parallel to Market St, that only cyclists could use...

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

The politics of the city are such that if it's a *convenience* for drivers, it's bad. Everyone should be forced to bike and use Muni. This means 100K people have to move into the city, but this is no problem because rent-controlled affordable housing will spring up all over town, welcomed with open arms by those people who otherwise never saw a new building that wasn't a hazard to their carefully-crafted neighborhoods.

[squalidbear.livejournal.com]

You should talk to my friend Julian who lives in London. They have taken the "if it's a *convenience* for drivers, it's bad" policy to ridiculous extremes (except of course for politicians - like those car lanes in Moscow for the Inner Party?) with so many speed bumps, traffic restrictions, traffic "calming" and erosion/expense of parking, that car journeys take as long as public transport. Which sucks if you have to carry around 200lbs/£20k worth of photographic equipment...

[realaustinman.livejournal.com]

So for non-locals, what's the issue? are bikes ignoring the red? are cars ignoring a no-right-on-red? or is it just kinda that the cars aren't looking for the bikes that have right of way?

[dhbearguy.livejournal.com]

My preception is that it is a little of both. Bikers don't always pay attention, and drivers don't always look.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

My brother is a porfessional intermodal transportation safety expert. It's fair to say drivers and cyclists both have a large percentage of idiots. It's not rare for right-on-redders to feel they have the right-of-way even with cars. It's not rare for cyclists to fail to stop at lights and stop signs, or to come up from behind at speed and get creamed by a car turning right who could hardly be expected to see them in the blind spot. That said, the prohibition of right turns for the ramp was part of the political compromise, and not a rational decision.

[squalidbear.livejournal.com]

As a motorcyclist and ex-cyclist, one of the most frustrating things is that so many motorists are apparently unaware that they have turn signals. Turn signals can be a real life saver when a decision needs to be made as to which side of the vehicle to pass.

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

Until the day when autos won't turn unless there's been a signal, or we get thousands of extra cops ticketing nonsignallers, you have to assume the worst, which means slowing down and being able to stop before you'd hit a car unexpectedly turning. Sucks, don't it? You expect anything to change? :-)

[squalidbear.livejournal.com]

Yep, you're totally right. As I've got older, I've managed to do that whole slowing down thing. I still think that stupid people should be ticketed.

Police Force

[sfmini.livejournal.com]

They keep saying they can't afford the manpower to keep such traffic control going. BS. At $100 a ticket if a cop can't write 16 in an 8 hour shift he's blind. That works out to be about $400k for one officer revenue-wise. Seems like it's more revenue than expense, even when you take into account the salary, vehicle and personnel costs.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

I got really enthusiastic about cycling during the one summer that I trained for the Boston-NYC AIDS ride. The ride captains for the training rides were very good about making sure we learned all the things you're supposed to know about bike safety and NY and NJ traffic laws regarding bikes.

The next year I wanted to participate again, and also get into using my bike more, but circumstances kept me from being able to. And then I started to notice how, no matter how many of us wore helmets and stopped at all the lights and otherwise made sure we were good citizens, there would always be far more cyclists who broke all the rules -- in particular the restaurant delivery guys who can barely be blamed because (1) they speak so little English that they probably can't read the laws and (2) they are under so much pressure from the restaurant owners to deliver quickly that they feel they *must* ride on sidewalks, run red lights, and ride the wrong way on one-way streets.

Add to that the lack of truly safe places to ride, plus already-frustrated motorists to whom cyclists are just further hassles, and you've got almost a guarantee that you'll get injured or killed if you go out on your bike enough. At least in NYC. Bummer.

[greggjim.livejournal.com]

And I've noticed that a good half of the drivers who don't use their turn signals are on their friggin' cell phones. Oh, but wait, California is soon to get a law outlawing talking on the cell....and fining all of $25 for violators. A toothless law for the drivers and the cops expected to stop anyone. It should be $250 as it has been in New York for years.

[markosf.livejournal.com]

In a country designed around the combustion engine, San Francisco thankfully has some reprieve from the usual lack of foresight. Anyone who has been to Amsterdam or any number of European cities knows how much more live-able cities are when they don't put the automobile first.

That said, the solution of no right turn from Market onto the freeway at Octavia makes little sense. The better solution to prevent people from being killed, is to have the traffic light allow pedestrians and bicyclists to cross while all directions of auto traffic are stopped. There are several intersections downtown that already behave in this manner.