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Comment by telchar | Hacker News Reader

I'd add that a significantly under-discussed element of safe biking infrastructure is safer intersections. My city has lots of bike lanes that are sufficiently wide (and many that aren't) and no consideration all at for how a cyclist is supposed to safely traverse an intersection. My commute requires me to cross several lanes of traffic to get from the bike lane to the left turn lane on a road where cars go ~40mph - there's no way to do that without a significant risk of getting clobbered. That's to say nothing of the potential for someone hooking right through me when I go straight at an intersection as apparently no one checks their side mirror before turning.

Unfortunately even cities that consider biking infrastructure often seem to ignore how to connect bike lanes in a reasonably safe way. The only city I've seen that does this is Portland, OR and they make heavy use of separated paths to do so.

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> no consideration all at for how a cyclist is supposed to safely traverse an intersection.

This is because they are designed by non-cyclists who are thinking purely of recreational use: someone casually dawdling their way to work on a sunny day three times a year.

"Oh, well, here of course they will dismount and then use the crosswalk ... that's what I'd do!"

The best practice that I'm aware of is:

    * AT AN INTERSECTION
    * Dismount and walk the bike across the cross-walk, as a pedestrian.

IMO we've engineered intersections all wrong to begin with. There shouldn't even be cross-walks there (they should be mid-block dedicated services, placed where pedestrians WANT to cross and __VERY CLEARLY__ marked as existing; not the dinky lights many cities go for (Seattle comes to mind)).

I don't know how to handle bikes and turns at an intersection, separation of level would be far more ideal.

If we actually want to encourage people to bike instead of driving, they need to be able to cover reasonable distances in a car-comparable amount of time. Expecting cyclists to dismount every block to cross on foot in a crosswalk is not the way to achieve this goal.

I agree entirely on the crosswalks. Around here the pedestrian signal comes on at the same time as the left turn signal so that pedestrians and drivers get to fight for space on the crosswalk.

This makes crossing with the bike on the crosswalk even more inconvenient than it would otherwise be on the bike, which as the other poster pointed out, slows one down considerably. Maybe separation of level is the right answer. Bike boxes, painted areas that let cyclists cross lanes in front of stopped traffic, may work but only if the intersection is adapted for them, otherwise they're just yet more deceptive deathlures.

This is what I was taught when I was a kid and it's really dumb.

1. Bikes can't go on sidewalks, so you're already screwed one way or another.

2. It's a huge hassle to get off and on at every intersection.

Of course there's a problem with the bike acting like a vehicle too, even if it can keep up with traffic. Stoplight sensors don't register bikes so you end up waiting for a car to show up so it can trigger the sensor and change the light.

> Stoplight sensors don't register bikes

If you're a cyclist and stopped on a red, waiting for it to change, you're seriously breaking ranks. :)

I mostly just bolt for it when the coast is clear.

There are places where I wait, but if it's keyed to a sensor coil, I'm definitely not waiting for a vehicle to arrive.

> Stoplight sensors don't register bikes so you end up waiting for a car to show up so it can trigger the sensor and change the light.

Camera based sensors are far better than the induction loops used on older installations in my experience. Replacing the traffic light with a roundabout is even better :)

This is how to do it: https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2014/02/23/junction-desig...

Requiring dismounting would be the way to discourage cycling.

Separation of levels can work, too, but is more expensive and takes more room. Examples at https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/tag/tunnel/ and https://vimeo.com/71511991

> I don't know how to handle bikes and turns at an intersection

With regard to right turns, the easiest situation, though not feasible everywhere, is a dedicated right turn bay. Cyclist going right sticks to the curb. Cyclist going straight goes between the right turn bay and the straight lane.

The best way to do left turns asa cyclist is a hook turn. Go straight across, stop at the corner, then turn. Effectively making the turn two straight lines. That's how we're taught to do it in most European countries, to avoid having to cross lanes of car traffic.

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