Editor’s note: This vendible originally appeared on Urban Phoenix and is republished with permission.
Most days, I wade my 3.6 mile morning commute by bike. I won’t sink you with why this is my preferred way to start the day, I’ll just tell you that I squint at the sea of cars, speeding, honking, jockeying for position and snicker mildly, knowing I’m living the weightier kept secret.
While I love wanderlust for transportation, I unchangingly emphasize the realities of stuff a velocipede in the road. Luckily, my commute is increasingly than half on trail, but in those places where I “have to” share the road with motor vehicles, it’s unchangingly interesting.
If you think for a second that cars and bikes tideway our roadways the same, or wonder why cyclists behave differently at intersections, let me go over an tideway to a single intersection on velocipede in detail.
Let’s detail the photo above. On the far left is The Highland Crossing Trail, which, in this section, is a double-wide sidewalk. It connects with a trail that navigates through nearby Brighton Town Park and terminates at the Empire State Trail (which is moreover a part of my commute) to the south, and continues on a crushed-stone path just to the north. In this instance, a cyclist could take this sidewalk, printing the crosswalk sawed-off and navigate the street when the “walk” sign is on. This stuff said, many drivers make the left turn without yielding to bikes in the crosswalk, thus creating a dangerous point of conflict. Furthermore, if I use this route and navigate the street here, I still need to printing the crosswalk sawed-off once then on the other side to navigate the other road and protract to the rest of the pathway. Essentially, if I follow the trail, I have to navigate two streets instead of one, having to push a crosswalk sawed-off and wait both ways.
The volitional is to velocipede in the road here, which is what I do. It’s a lightly-traveled road, and I’ve never had an issue. But in referencing the whilom image again, something sticks out… in order to navigate the perpendicular road and reconnect with the Highland Crossing Trail that will take me home, I substantially have to velocipede straight through the intersection and pick up the double-wide sidewalk seen overdue the woebegone SUV on the far right.
The problem is, there’s no “straight” lane in this intersection… it assumes that you, as a driver, will only want to turn left or right. And this is understandable, considering the road coming from the north is a limited wangle road that leads to a detention facility and the Empire State College parking lot. If I pick the lane on the left, I often wait overdue an SUV, blocking other drivers coming from the opposite direction from seeing me traversing the intersection in a straight line. If I pick the right lane, I am often faced with a suburbanite who wants to make the right on red, and is insistent that I move over so they can do so. So essentially, I have to create my own lane by stopping my velocipede in between the left and right hand turners, and gesture to the drivers wideness the intersection from me that I am going strait wideness to the sidewalk and eventual trail.
If you’re a driver, you segregate lanes that travel left, right, center, etc., everything is clear. You are prioritized. You don’t have to push a sawed-off or worry well-nigh someone not seeing you. The light will transpiration when it changes with no thought well-nigh who will see you.
But in this innocuous intersection that poses a world of convenience and safety considerations every time I navigate it in bicycle, it’s a variegated story. And this is just one intersection of uncertainty that I and millions of other cyclists tideway every day. These are the internal conversations we must have when unescapable an intersection, simply considering there are so few that are built with the cyclist in mind.
If you have overly wondered why cyclists make strange moves in the road, consider this example. We are constantly having to think well-nigh safety and practicality scenarios that drivers will never have to appreciate.
