Comments on: Bike Boxes in the Bike Lane

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 14:34:57 +0000

I ride a scooter, a little 50cc Piaggio Vespa here in London. The Advanced Bike Box (as it’s called here in UK) is a very useful addition to the streets although I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use it as a motorised scooter rider. I do and it works with the cyclists as they stay on the left of the box and us on the right (we drive on the left side of the road in the UK – so cyclists pass cars to their left ie. close to the pavement/sidewalk) and when they get to the trafficlights, they peel out into the stop box on the left, and the scooter riders who go past all the traffic in the oncoming lane then peel into the box from the right.

I’m with other posters, the cyclists who go through red lights really don’t help your cause.

By: Dave from Van

Dave from Van — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 23:47:00 +0000

Just started reading this site, but judging from the comments, it would seem mosst American cyclists would find Vancouver, BC to be valhalla. Secondary street bike routes parallel to most major auto routes are plentiful, cyclist activated buttons for crossing major intersections, access to most bridges, and for the most part, courteous drivers, and year round biking (rare for Canada) make biking here a dream, really.

Bike boxes are well used here in Van.

For an example, see here: http://tinyurl.com/2g4or2 (google maps), or point your google maps to Vancouver, search union st at main st and zoom in to the satelite image. In the photo you will see a bike box, but has since been amended to allow right turning cars an unfettered lane, the box now boundaries in the middle of the lane.

By: Spenny

Spenny — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:51:35 +0000

Ha! even bike lanes would be nice, but i think my city hates bikers.

By: MikeOnBike

MikeOnBike — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:11:39 +0000

#12 peteathome said: “I suppose they could put a special signal near the bike box that tells you when it is safe to enter it. They do something similar in the Netherlands.”

The link in comment #1 makes a similar point. Portland is doing a half-baked version of the bike box, leaving off a critical safety feature.

By: peteathome

peteathome — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 18:59:00 +0000

These boxes seem to offer very little to solve the right and left hook problem and could likely make them worst. These only work if the light is red as you approach the box and you somehow know it is going to stay red as you enter the box. Otherwise, you are REALLY setting yourself up for a right hook if the light turns green just as you are entering the box ands start crossing to the left of a right-turning car.

And, of course, if the light is already green they do no good at all.

I suppose they could put a special signal near the bike box that tells you when it is safe to enter it. They do something similar in the Netherlands. Bikes have a separate phase and have to stop and wait for the bike phase to become green. I think most American bicyclists would dislike this as it really slows you down.

An alternative would be a count-down signal near the box that tells you how long it will be before the light turns green.

I think the simplest and safest thing is simply to have bikes follow the general rules of the road, i.e., merge into the car lane that goes in the direction they want to go. You stay right if you are turning right. You merge into the right-most straight-going lane if you are going straight, and so on. You start this merge well before the intersection so you have the time and traffic gaps to do this safely. You could make the directional lanes wide enough to share if lane sharing is an issue.

If you are going straight or left and don’t want to merge into the traffic lanes, then you do a pedestrian maneuver – get off your bike and use the cross walk to cross the itnersection. If you are going straight, you hop back on on the other side and ride off in the bike lane. If you are going left, you cross again at the next walk phase and then ride off.

Slower, but a lot safer than these illogical bike lanes that go to the right of right-turning traffic.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 17:36:26 +0000

I’m not sure how much this would help… most of the time I have been right-hooked has been into drivewaysor minor T intersections (i.e. a little side street of a main road). As somebody else already pointed out, the best solution is for the cyclist to take the lane at a place where a right hook may happen, and have the legal code allow it.

Also, around here they are starting to have more places where the right-turn lane crosses over the bike path (or the bike path crosses over the right-turn lane depending on your perspective). These feel safer to me because there is a longer decision time and it happens further back from the intersection. But I’ve been nearly right-hooked on one of those too so I don’t know…

By: RainCityCyclist

RainCityCyclist — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 07:06:35 +0000

Great posts! As a daily bike commuter in Seattle, there has been a lot of recent press locally of late about bike boxes, the frequency and incidence of “right hook” accidents, and how this bike box intervention could potentially reduce this type of accident.

I recently read (unsure of source) that the “right hook” accounts for approx 10% of all bike/vehicle accidents, and this amounts to the single largest cause of cycling accidents. This data was also supportrd by a recent study in Portland, I believe. If this is accurate (and I’d like to see more data before concluding it is), then an intervention to adress this tspecific ype of accident is warranted. Is the bike box the answer? I already move to the front of the cross walk (allowing peds to pass, but being in front closer to the actually cross-traffic in front of the corsswalk). This works for me and doesn’t seem to piss anyone off. As someone who does own a car, I don’t like the idea of eliminating the ‘right on red” for cars in order to incorporate the bike box. Anyone else have similar expereneces, other solutions, or opinions?

JT–Your day sounds like an average February commute day in Seattle. Hang in there, its worth it and I’m sure it will get better! You’ll be laughing at your 04Feb commute in years to come…

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 01:11:50 +0000

I think like some of the above posters, I make my own “bike box” by filtering up to the front of waiting cars positioning myself in front of them so I can be clearly seen

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:52:43 +0000

I have never seen one before. Instead, I stop in the center of the lane. I stay in the center of the lane until I cross through the intersection.

Of course, there is no such thing as bike lanes in Columbus either.

By: John

John — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 00:49:38 +0000

They have these all over Taiwan. I spent a month there last summer, and between the cyclists and the scooters the bike boxes get good use. However, it’s not so much for the right turn, as is featured in this article. Rather, it’s for making a left: as you approach an intersection where you want to go left, you stay on the right of the traffic, and go halfway across the intersecting street and stop in the bike box for the intersecting street (in front of the traffic that’s coming in from your right). Then you wait for the light to change, and go across the intersection with the traffic going straight. Essentially you make a right and a U-turn in place of a left.

I thought they were pretty effective. Traffic in Taiwan is not at all like in the US, but I imagine they’d be a good thing here. At first glance it’s much crazier and more dangerous, but everyone is far more attentive, and there aren’t as many aggressive idiots. I felt far safer cruising around on a bike there than here in Baltimore.