From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.misc
Subject: Re: Effective Cycling
Date: 23 Aug 2000 15:09:15 GMT

Frank Krygowki writes:

>>> Please explain to us the proper execution of left turns.  If there
>>> is a better way, I want to know how to do it.

>> Left turns with a bicycle on most multi-lane expressways are better
>> executed with cross traffic when the light changes because getting to
>> the left turn lane requires crossing as many as four lanes of 40mph
>> traffic.  This is not a good exercise even with good will at the wheel
>> in motor traffic.  With low traffic density this may work well but it
>> was just such a turn that Forester used to make on HWY82 from Menlo
>> Park into Palo Alto.  Some of his disciples do it today.

> There are times when left turns in a normal vehicular manner don't
> work, but in almost all cases, they work well and are the best way
> to get the job done.

> It sounds to me like Jobst has seen someone do it when he wouldn't,
> and is now painting with far too broad of a brush, splattering
> anyone who operates their bike as a vehicle.  Not much different
> than that subset of motorists who think riding a bike is
> fundamentally dangerous, and therefore hassle cyclists because our
> judgement is different from theirs.

It was John Forester that I watched doing it on various occasions as I
said on HWY82 coming from Menlo Park into Palo Alto, a fast 45 degree
left turn that moves swiftly and which is amidst three lanes of
traffic in each direction.  It would not have come to my attention had
it not been often and in awkwardly dense traffic.  At the time there
was no alternate way of crossing at this point but there was one 100
yds farther on and an overcrossing a short way farther.

I saw this as a protest to the highway department for not furnishing a
means for bicycles to make this turn.  I didn't see that this
accomplished anything except to irritate drivers of cars.

Jobst Brandt      <jbrandt@hpl.hp.com>