When Professionals Disappoint: Part II
A full-sized van or SUV with its door open would take up at least another foot of this Baldwin Park bike lane.
On April 16 and 17 Metroplan Orlando hosted a Bicycle Facilities Design Course. Thirty planners and engineers from local governments and consulting firms attended. (Kudos to instructors Michael Moule and Craig Williams.)
On the 17th I led an on-bike facilities tour from downtown Orlando to Baldwin Park and back to showcase and discuss examples of good and bad facilities and designs.
I’m sure the attendees learned a lot, but…
During both the classroom design session and in the field, door zone bike lanes were discussed and explained; how it’s impossible for a cyclist to react effectively if a car door is opened too close ahead of the cyclist.
A short while after illustrating the problem in the field, we rode down one of Baldwin Park’s streets with door zone bike lanes. The combined width of the parking and bike lanes is 12 feet; one foot less than the Florida Green Book standard. If your wheel is in the bike lane there, the right end of your handlebar is in the door zone and you are at risk. With 13 feet you can at least keep out of the door zone by staying all the way to the left side of the bike lane.
Nearly every single person drove in the bike lane. I called out to everyone within earshot, reminding them that they were traveling in the door zone.
They all stayed in the bike lane.
This was a group of professional planners and engineers.
As Keri Caffrey has pointed out, this problem goes beyond education. These folks all knew better. It’s about social conditioning. Bicyclists need to not only learn what is actually safe and unsafe, but shed the belief that the “authorities” always know or do what’s best for them, and also shed the belief that standing up for one’s own interests as a roadway user is not merely acceptable, but preferred.
Posted in Bikeways, SafetyTags: bicycle lane, bike lane, bikeway, bikeway design, door zone, engineers, planners