Amazing Who You Run Into on the StreetI happened to catch this little drama as I was boarding the Metrolink shuttle bus this evening: This collision literally happened right in front of me... And I missed the whole thing! I was wearing...
I encountered a driver who probably thinks like you today galt. I was riding my bicycle at 30mph in a 30mph zone, so I was out towards the middle of the lane, after all I was doing the legal speed limit on this two lane residential road with a double yellow line down the center. This woman guns it up to 45-50mph to pbutt me, whips her car out into the oncoming lane and then cuts back in front and then jams on the brakes to avoid hitting the car already stopped at the intersection. I nearly rear-ended her. I dove left and pbutted by her.
Asking her if she had wanted me to rear end her, she responded that I had to look where I was going. Like you, she felt bicycle = slow and second clbutt.
Another driver today, pbutted me as I had taken the lane and was slowing to a stop for a red signal. The butthole then proceeded to sloth his way through the intersection, so he got a mouthfull of chastisement for his slowness from me as I pbutted him, in the same lane on his left side as he finally started to inch through his right turn. Maybe cars should be the second clbutt since they are often driven so slowly.
On the issue of wide curb lanes vs. bicycle lanes. Bicycle lanes add needless complication to the roadway. Wide curb lanes provide all the benefits of bicycle lanes with none of the drawbacks. Also bicycle lanes are often substandard in design. A wide curb lane, will not have these built in problems because the lane is simply wider. Be one foot or five.
Your concept of forcing a merge is actually going to be more dangerous and slower. As the bike lane ends, timid drivers may actually come to a stop. Remember, these are the same people who are likely enablers when expressway lanes end. Now you'll be stuck behind a timid driver who refuses to pbutt a bicyclist. Without the merge, as a wide curb lane, the timid driver is more likely to simply pbutt.
