Hey guys. I’m curious about this type of scenario, because I see two ways of approaching it and neither seems like the best way.
Legend for the photo: MUP = multiuse path; SW = sidewalk; BL = bike lane (sharrows, but it turns to a bike lane).
Assuming you were on the MUP going north, and wanted to turn onto the bike lane heading west.
What’s the best/safest/legal way to do this?
A. Use the crosswalk (not a crossride, so you’d need to get off your bike and walk) and position yourself on the lane facing west?
B. Turn from the MUP straight into the bike lane on a green? This would mean going across two lanes.
C. Position on the left turn lane of the road, and make the left turn from that lane? Cars turning right don’t make this easy or safe.
For context, there is a bus route going south to north, and this particular road has a lot of speeders. What I’d think would be safe, usually isn’t.
If this were an intersection with cyclists in mind, it would have a large green box for cyclists to move into to make the turn safely. In that case, I’d think C would be the most ideal. But without that, what’s the next best?
I tend to choose A at this particular intersection, but that’s nearly gotten me run over by people turning left from the north side.
Thoughts?
EDIT: Thank you for all the input, guys. I will stick with “A” (which is a Copenhagen left turn), and will suggest to my city to add a proper green painted bike box at this intersection for cyclists to safely make these turns.
I don’t know the actual best practice, but my 2 Canadian cents:
For complex intersections I personally cross on foot both ways. I’m not a particularly experienced street cyclist so whenever I come to an intersection that’s not well designed for cyclists I tend to take the safest option.
Depending on the speed limits and personal abilities I think we should be able to take the intersection as a street vehicle but in my neck of the woods people don’t know what the heck to do with a cyclist and can make some poor decisions.
Better to be slow than flattened by a lifted pickup that didn’t even see you lol
This is a Canadian intersection, unfortunately.
The MUP is great. Getting to it, or off of it, is not so great. LOL
Lots of trucks and buses along that stretch of road (north to south) and it turns into 1 lane each way, with no bike lane or shoulder, once you cross that intersection.