Sharing information about Traffic Signals, Bicycles, Technology, and the Urban Form.
I work for the City of Portland. The views expressed on this blog are my own.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Junction design the Dutch - cycle friendly - way
Discussion at PBOT today and I couldn't find the following video. It's unclear whether this would meet our accessibility requirements and I haven't heard of another agency that has implemented a signal like this.
I'd like to nominate the northeast corner of Broadway and Williams for an island. Already have the light and timing down. Cars still whip sharply at speed on to I-5, this would make that intersection so much easier.
This is very interesting! I have to say I'm not immediately persuaded, though, because this requires cars to yield to cyclists in the same way they yield to pedestrians, and that yield doesn't always work. I'm not sure why a turn-merge is better than a lane-change merge. A competent driver should know how to execute either, so the "because they're looking forward" reason seems weak. It does look as if these would be better than being to the right of turning traffic when the light is green, so I would think these could be useful where traffic is mixed and the bike lane would usually remain to the right (e.g. Grand and Couch), but I think I would still prefer the lane-switch design where there is an exclusive right turn lane. Solving merge before junction also results in less traffic backup since everyone is properly directionally positioned.
2 comments:
I'd like to nominate the northeast corner of Broadway and Williams for an island. Already have the light and timing down. Cars still whip sharply at speed on to I-5, this would make that intersection so much easier.
This is very interesting! I have to say I'm not immediately persuaded, though, because this requires cars to yield to cyclists in the same way they yield to pedestrians, and that yield doesn't always work. I'm not sure why a turn-merge is better than a lane-change merge. A competent driver should know how to execute either, so the "because they're looking forward" reason seems weak.
It does look as if these would be better than being to the right of turning traffic when the light is green, so I would think these could be useful where traffic is mixed and the bike lane would usually remain to the right (e.g. Grand and Couch), but I think I would still prefer the lane-switch design where there is an exclusive right turn lane. Solving merge before junction also results in less traffic backup since everyone is properly directionally positioned.
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