This doesn’t look good
safety January 18th, 2010
From the Daily Star:
Cyclist injured in crash on Tucson’s north side
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.18.2010A collision involving a bicyclist at West Miracle Mile & North 14th Avenue has blocked off all lanes of westbound traffic on North Oracle Road at Miracle Mile.
There appear to be life-threatening injuries associated with the collision, spokesman for the Tucson Police Department, Charles Rydzak said.
Updates will be provided as more information becomes available.
January 19th, 2010 at 2:36 pm
The link went bad. Here’s a new one…
linky
January 19th, 2010 at 6:14 pm
The article mentions that he wasn’t crossing the street in a crosswalk. It’s not legal to ride in a cross walk, right? So how’s that relevant.
January 19th, 2010 at 9:52 pm
It’s not yet clear to me what happened. Was he merging across lanes or trying to cross the road directly mid-block? Or was he simply struck from behind and the driver is accusing him of riding out into traffic? It could be any of those things. We’ll need to take a close look at the police reports and witness statements to get a better picture.
And, it is not technically illegal to ride a bike in a crosswalk in Arizona. It is illegal to ride on the sidewalk in Pima County, but not in a crosswalk. However, it’s not a good idea even if it is legal!
EBR
January 20th, 2010 at 11:41 am
This opens a question I’ve been wondering about – all over Tucson, usually places where a signed bike route crosses a main thoroughfare, are bike route traffic signals, differentiated (at least to our POV) by a red/yellow/green bicycle shaped logo, as opposed to a walk/don’t-walk crosswalk light. My assumption up to this point is that these are different from crosswalks and are intended specifically for bikes (I can think of one that features two separate painted parallel lanes, each with their own signal, one for bikes, one for pedestrians) and as such I always ride through them when green. Even though there may be no law against riding in a croasswalk, am I correct in that these bike crossings are “officially” intended to be ridden through?
The reason I bring this up, is that from the cross-traffic POV there is no visible differentiation between a bike crossing and a crosswalk – every now and then I encounter a really angry motorist among the stopped cross-traffic who, either out the window or after completely jumping out of his vehicle screams at me some version of “GET the !#*! OFF AND WALK IN A *@#! CROSSWALK!!” If these are indeed intended to be ridden through, I wonder if they shouldn’t be marked for the cross-traffic with some sort of “BIKE CROSSING” sign?
January 20th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Yes, these are intended to be ridden
through. These are regular signal-
controlled intersections modified to
reduce auto access to the neighborhood
and bike route; that being done by
eliminating cars from going straight
through (right turn only onto main
route). Cars can still access the
secondary route via left and right
turns from the main route (at some).
Bicycles can be ticketed for crossing
during a red signal. In order to meet
certain criteria, these types of
controls are not allowed to be
activated by auto traffic. The type
of control at Treat & Speedway can be
used by bikes, but the activation
switch can’t be oriented toward the
street for easy bike use. Then cars
could access it. I know cars get
irritated at that one when bikes
use it, but I don’t think it’s
illegal. Drivers will probably
forever misinterpret these crossings.
January 20th, 2010 at 3:29 pm
Oh, yeah – drivers will still not see the difference initially, but it would be nice when one makes an issue of it to be able to just point to a “BIKE CROSSING” sign that is visible from their angle, to at least try to minimize the “scofflaw cyclist” ill-will that many of the stopped motorists would otherwise take away from witnessing the encounter.
I’m assuming these crossings are a city (or maybe county) thing? Are there specific ordinances that cover these?
January 20th, 2010 at 5:50 pm
There are National guidelines for
these crossing styles and the city
makes modification to suit location.
The Hawk: like the one at Treat & Speedway,
The Toucan: at 3rd and Country Club,
The Pelican: at 6th St.& Fremont, this
one stops one lane of traffic at a
time and gets pretty abused.
The city could put signs up, but either cost
or sign clutter would probably be cited as a
reason for not.