Newton has a few really large intersections, and even fewer that have bicycle lanes, so far. While cyclists may regret the current state of our streets, it presents an opportunity: we can watch what Boston and Watertown do, and make our lanes even better.
Here’s a Dutch critique of the traditional (American) treatment for a bicycle lane approaching and crossing an intersection–something we are now treating with merge lanes, “bike boxes,” and funny arrows–if we treat them at all.
What do you think? Do we have the room for these? And if so, would you feel safer–as a driver, cyclist or pedestrian–if this is what our intersections looked like?
As a cyclist I love this. The challenge I see, however, is in the right on red turn. In those situations it’s likely that a driver will inch forward to see traffic in the intersection and end up stopping in the crossing lanes. So this is great for traffic light intersections, it wouldn’t work for those win just stop signs.
As a long-time cyclist, I don’t think this is a good idea in the U.S. As the video voice-over claims, it’s good in a situation where the cyclist is in clear sight of right-turning traffic as the light turns green.
But consider if the light is already green, with traffic moving. To stay on the path, the cyclist first twists right, then immediately swerves left into the intersection.
U.S. drivers will take the cyclist’s slight right swerve on the path as a visual cue that the bike is turning right. They’ll both be in for a surprise when the bike then swerves left through the intersection, just as the car behind is turning right (colliding with the cyclist).
I like that people are thinking about the problems of mixed traffic, but I don’t see this idea working in the U.S. — not without lots of vehicle operator re-education (which won’t ever happen).
@Dulles, I forget if it was mentioned in this video but if you observe typical dutch intersections you will see that when straight auto traffic is going there are no turns allowed anywhere. So bikes and cars go straight and nobody turns (well bikes always get free right turns). If turns are happening from auto traffic, bikes have a red light, same if cross traffic is going straight. Also the Dutch have more and shorter light cycles so one does not actually have to wait that long and typically more bicycles can move through a phase than auto drivers. Also remember as a cyclist you always get a free right turn which overall offsets this extra waiting.
If there is not enough room for the signalized right turn to be separated then the cycletrack has priority through the junction and because of the tighter curve radii the turn can not be made swiftly in a car thus limiting (though not eliminating) that right turn risk. In practice this is almost always followed because it is clear and consistent across the country. Best practices have been implemented and designs are similar if the intersections match.
If there is not enough room for turn lanes than bike lights may also be timed for an “all-bike” phase which goes at the same time as an “all-walk” phase for peds, this keeps everybody moving safely and allows a one-stage left vs the two-stage left.
Yes this works for larger signalized intersections, for example Washington and Walnut where there is ample room. A version of this works for roundabouts and typically gives outside priority for cyclists. A car using a roundabout needs to yield to cyclists crossing their path, cars in the circle and then yield again to cyclists as they exit. If the junction is very bad or very large (eg circle of death) it is bypassed completely either by an underpass or overpass or a totally different route.
In Dutch design where modes are separated the best path for cars is usually not the best path for bikes and typically there are multiple options for bikes to get to a place but only one for cars. This limits exposure and also makes cycling much more convenient. The major benefit is there are pretty much no auto traffic jams (Rotterdam has them but they have a very low bike mode share and the city was redesigned by Americans after the war, they are working to correct this) but it will simply take you longer to get somewhere. A 15 min car trip without parking time will take 12 minutes by bike simply because the bike has a direct route and a car must travel out and around to get to the same place.
A final note in Central Square Cambridge where there are ped advance walk signals right turns are taken very slowly and usually car drivers have to wait for a break in ped traffic before they can go, imagine that setup but with bikes crossing and you will see even here is can and will work
No this will not work everywhere and it does not work everywhere in the Dutch system either. We need to get out of a mentality of one solution for every intersection and understand that every one is different and unique and deserves a study to figure out what is going on and how best to accommodate all users safely.
Great idea, but in Newton SCHOOLS COME FIRST as far as tax spending goes, no? How is Newton going to pay for this? Traffic calming measures cost $$$, as I am well aware of from working on the Newton Corner Advisory Committee.
@John_on_Central — thanks for the explanation! I’m not sure if the voice-over for the video ever mentioned that there are separate bicycle and car traffic lights. Maybe I just missed it.
Next I was going to ask if any U.S. cities had actually tried bicycle lights yet, to see how they work in this country. Turns out USA Today (thank you Google) wrote an article in December that notes at least 16 U.S. cities have deployed bicycle lights. From the sound of the article, the lights are being used in ways other than the complete “Dutch configuration” that the video above outlines.
I do think the full intersection setup, with bike lights and all, described above is a very nice if costly idea. Thanks to better advance planning and more infrastructure spending, it succeeded in Europe. In the U.S. we’re so far behind, urban traffic infrastructure-wise, that the sort of idea outlined above is a gold-plated solution. Right now we need to dedicate $$ to more basic infrastructure triage.
Matter-of-fact PSA campaigns about how properly to Share the Road (for those who last studied road rules when they got their learner’s permit decades ago, if at all), and about dooring and helmet use — coupled with traffic enforcement — I think would all be money well spent to reduce accidents, injuries and deaths.