There’s a surprising amount of confusion out there about what, exactly, people should do when turning a car right over a bike lane. Surprising to me, because as a regular bicyclist it is glaringly obvious, but not actually not that surprising given how little road education we all get in this state.
When was the last time you read the driver’s manual? What new traffic laws went into effect last year? See, you don’t know either.
Just to be clear: drivers, when you’re turning right across a bike lane, you absolutely must 1) turn your head and look behind you for an oncoming bicyclist, and 2) stop and yield if someone is coming. You definitely shouldn’t start your turn only to see that there are pedestrians in the crosswalk, at which point you are stuck sitting on the bike lane, blocking traffic behind you. Treat the bike lane like a railroad track. Do you pull across railroad tracks and then sit there, waiting? I hope not.
The same applies when you’re merging right over a bike lane, to get into a right turn lane.
Bicyclists can help drivers see them when they look by having a nice bright front light. I see many people out there with a rear light only but it is the front light that is most important, and required by law. Don’t be an idiot. Get one.
Here’s a great ad on why you should always, in a car or on a bike, move your head and look around you. “Not seeing” someone you hit is no excuse if you didn’t look.
Thanks for raising awareness about this issue Michelle. Riding in traffic can be very dangerous and drivers are often either overly cautious or treat cyclists as a secondary concern. There definitely needs to be more effort put into educating drivers about how to safely share the road with cyclists.
That’s one reason I like the CA model of bike lanes, where they go to dotted lines near the end to indicate it is ok to merge. They “feel” more like other traffic lanes and from my experience drivers treat them more like other traffic lanes, checking mirrors and blind spots before merging. (This obviously excludes the drivers who don’t do those things even in traffic lanes, but nothing will make them drive better.)