"Doug" riseup.net> wrote in message
news:cf7c8e36-0802-4f00-8e12-2429e0a131b5@f36g2000hsa.googlegroups.com...

How does a bicycle boulevard "prioritize" bikes?

I see that cars are still allowed on the road, and presumably bikes
are allowed on roads in general.

Painting bike signs on the road will help those motorists who notice
signs but are unable to notice a six foot tall two hundred pound
object on the road right in front of them. What percentage of
motorists is that, even in California?

Painting bike signs on the road would tend to tell motorists that
they need not look out for bikes on a normal road without bike signs.

Actually, if bikes are common, you wouldn't need a sign. You would
only need a sign where bikes are rare, so in reality the sign must
tell you that bikes are unlikely, not that they are likely.

One lady commented that the bike sign gives her permission to avoid
the door zone. Doh! Avoiding the door zone is always a good idea,
especially here in London where being doored is the most common cause
of serious accidents to cyclists. Some cyclists learn to ride by
having one of each possible kind of accident, but that's not optimum.

What happens at intersections? That's important, especially in a
grid layout city like Berkeley, which would have more intersections
than a typical British back street. I can see four possibilities

- the boulevard gets priority

- the cross street gets priority

- bikes get "prioritized". In other words priority depends on type
of vehicle, not direction of approach. Watching two bicycles
approach might be interesting.

- "yield to the right" mainland Europe style. That's quite common
in California.

If the boulevard gets priority, that would tend to attract cars.

If the cross street gets priority, that would be a nuisance for
cyclists, especially as it likely would be with a stop sign, not a
yield/give way. Each stop sign is reckoned to be the equivalent of
about 100 metres extra distance to a cyclist, and there would
probably be at least five of them per kilometre.

I've been known to say that most of the bike facilities in London
have been designed by idiots, for idiots, but at least we don't have
bike boulevards.

London doesn't allow bikes on buses, but it does allow them in taxis.
They cost the same as a suitcase.

Jeremy Parker