When cars turn in no turn lanes

So this happened the other day. A car made a left hand turn in a no-turn lane. It wouldn’t be that big of a violation, except they turned into my path. Without signaling. Luckily, the Postal van in front of them made a left hand turn while signaling, so I was already on the alert, and already slowed down. However, I didn’t actually think the car would turn because it waited until the very last moment to turn its wheels. I’m not sure if the driver even noticed me. What you can’t tell from this video is how dangerous this is for a cyclist. Unlike cars, cyclists don’t have the braking power cars do in the rain. The wet road and sharp breaking caused my tires to skid and my rear will to kick up and swerve off of the ground. I am an experienced cyclist, so I new to hammer my brake levers with caution. A less experienced cyclist probably would have hammered hard on the brakes which would have sent the bike into an uncontrollable skid. Once the bike is skidding uncontrollably, the options would be to either hit the car or fall to the ground. Usually falling is the best option, but I wouldn’t recommend it downtown where drivers are looking at their phones and might not even notice something lower than their grill. I’d hate to be run over after nearly hitting a car and crashing my head on the concrete. I’m not sure what I could have done here, other than stop at the green light.

If the bike lane didn’t exist, I would have been biking in the farthest left lane, which had sharrows before this lane was made last summer. Because I would have been biking with traffic, I would have been behind these turning vehicles and not next to them. I would have been safe. It is not intuitive for a car to make a left hand turn on a green light and have another vehicle in the way. I don’t blame the drivers here. Downtown driving is confusing. There is a lot going on and the drivers have to notice one tiny “no turn” sign at the light level. THis is the first intersection with a “no turn” sign after several others. I might have easily done the same thing. I don’t blame the drivers for this hazard. I blame poor traffic planning and poor road design.

This is why I am a cyclist who tend to vote against the cycling safety “improvements” pushed by the city. I am 100% for protected cycling lanes, but Seattle hasn’t figured out what those are. Seattle’s “solutions” are inconsistent across the city. THe city depends entirely on painted roads, cones, and signs. Maybe urban planners can absorb more data in traffic than I can. I’d rather a simpler road structure with fewer colors and signs.

Sharing the Road

Last night I had the pleasure of sharing the road with this particular cyclist. I’ve seen her riding downtown a few times. She carries a toddler-age boy in the back rack of her cargo bike. He sits on the platform, no belts or straps. She doesn’t ride ‘downtown fast’, but she rides with expert skill. She talks to him constantly, and they manage to have civil conversations among all the sounds of engines, horns, sirens, construction, buskers, etc. Some conversations I’ve overheard:

Cyclist: “Which way should we go, bud?”

Kid: “Dexter!”

C: “OK! Are you warm enough?”

K: “No I’m cold!”

C: “OK, let me get out your sweater. OK, put your arm through. I going to throw it at you if the light turns green. You’re going to have to hold onto it. Can you do that?”

K: “Yeah!”

C: “Other arm! Look we did it!”

K: “You are masterful!”

C: (giggles) “Aw, thank you!...Hold on! Here come the bumps!”

K: “Yay_y_y_y!”

C: “Did you get a drink? Is your tea still warm?”

K: “Got a drink, but it’s cold.”

C: “Wow, I’m surprised.”

K: “But it’s still tea!”

C: (chuckles) “That’s right! It’s still tea!”

It makes my day to listen to them having such a nice time. It’s also great to ride behind her, because the traffic parts like the red sea around her. Clearly no car wants to get anywhere near a bike holding a tiny bobbling helmet with little feet sticking out. Still, considering how terrified I am just trying to get myself home, I can’t imagine how she keeps so calm carrying such precious cargo.

42 Traffic Lights in 8 miles

I recounted the number of traffic lights I pass through on the way to work. I counted this before, but wasn't sure if I got the numbers right. I did, I pass through 42 lights on the way to work. Interesting tidbit- over half of these lights are in the last three miles as I approach downtown. You can imagine how much of a difference in ride time this would make depending on how many reds and how many greens I hit. I've improved a lot in anticipating the timing of many lights, and adjusted where I sprint and where I cruise in some places. This cut 10 minutes off my ride time. I could work on this more and save even more time, I'm sure, but I am not real motivated, especially since my lungs limit me from sprinting in some areas I see other cyclists take full advantage.