🚀 go-pugleaf

Greg, thanks for a very well thought out post.

On 2011-01-11, Gregory Sutter <gsutter@zer0.org> wrote:
>
> Sure.  They're well-intentioned, which is great to see, and it's also
> good to have evidence that bike improvements are occurring.  Those
> are the general items.  And specifically, the painted lanes in the
> short block of Bosworth eastbound between the 280 on-ramp and the
> Bosworth-Lyell split are useful, delineating four separate travel
> lanes (two turning, two straight).  Drivers seem to get the idea
> better and are lining themselves up for their lane earlier.

Agreed.  The painted lanes before the restriping were so badly faded
anyway that many drivers would cut over just before the island, in front
of cars already speeding down Lyell.

>  - the pavement wasn't fixed before painting.  There are still huge
> gouges in the asphalt within both the bike and car lanes.

Also agreed.  The eastbound bike lane on Lyell even has a huge bump from
a strip of concrete that's not even remotely even with the asphalt.  I
can imagine bikers losing control very easily and either falling and
hitting a pedestrian or getting hit by a car.

>  - The eastbound, downhill lane on Lyell is not needed or desirable.
> Bicyclists can get a a lot of velocity going down that hill, far too
> much to be confined to a small curbside lane while aggressive drivers
> try to pass by even faster.  I've been ignoring the bike lane and
> taking the full lane as I zoom down the hill.

Also agreed!  In addition, look at all the parking spots that were
removed to accomodate the lane.  That angers drivers without providing
a significant benefit to bikers.  (When I biked that stretch years ago,
it was trivial to keep up with auto traffic all the way to Alemany.)

I'm less impressed with the striping between Still and Alemany for
eastbound traffic.  What's a biker supposed to do when he hits the
traffic jam that piles up at the Alemany traffic light?  The lanes are
too narrow for a bike to squeeze through, the sidewalk is a busy
pedestrian sidewalk, and turning onto Cayuga sticks you on Cayuga for a
long time if you want to go southbound on Alemany.  The only option here
is to dismount and use the sidewalk for that block.  Then again, what
other options are there?  Making the counterflow lane narrower puts
those bikers at risk instead.

>  - The westbound counter-flow lane on Lyell (between Alemany and
> Still) is a crazy idea.  First, there's no good way to get onto it,
> since nobody is expecting a left turn onto the formerly one-way
> street.  You have to hang out in the middle of Alemany waiting for a
> break in traffic.

I do like the idea; it's a pain to bike up to Rousseau, and that
left-turn bike lane is insane.  But I do agree that there's no good way
of getting to the lane from northbound Alemany while staying on the
bike.  The only feasible option at the moment is dismounting and
using the crosswalks.  The only other option I see is a special bike
traffic light, that allows bikes to turn left from the right-side bike
lane of Alemany onto the Lyell westbound bike lane while all auto
traffic is given a red.  (Perhaps this could be combined with a
right-red arrow from eastbound Lyell onto southbound Alemany; as a
pedestrian I've been almost hit at that location quite a few times, as
cars roll through the intersection at 10mph and don't look right for
pedestrians.)

>   Second, cars coming up Still, despite their new stop sign at the
> right turn, won't be looking for a counter-flow bicyclist.  The
> counter-flow lane is not apparent to these drivers (they can't see
> it due to a raised island) and there is no signage indicating that
> someone may be approaching from the left.

That seems like an easy and obvious correction, the city should put up
signs warning about the bike lane.  From what I can tell, the bike lane
does not have a stop, so it has the right of way.  Fortunately, there
isn't so much car traffic turning left from Still onto Lyell, but the
right turn definitely needs more prominent markings.  (And, FWIW, Muni
might as well move the bus stop to the stop sign.)

>  - Even after all these street changes, there is still *no* good way
> for a pedestrian to cross Bosworth anywhere east of the crosswalks
> at Diamond, all the way down to the crosswalks at Alemany.  People
> are constantly cutting across underneath the San Jose bridge, despite
> the fast moving traffic coming down the hill and the parade of
> evenly-spaced cars coming up from the two stop signs at Lyell and
> Bosworth.  Why was a pedestrian crossing not considered?

How would it be done, short of putting a traffic light at the Bosworth/
Arlington/I-280 onramp intersections?  Not that that's a bad idea, but
it probably wasn't part of the bike lane restriping funding.  A traffic
light would help pedestrians crossing the on ramp, too; traffic turning
onto the ramp is often crazy, and drivers often aren't looking for peds
along the entire length of the crosswalk.

--keith

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