by Jeffrey Marks
The picture shows the bike lane on the right-hand side of St. Paul Street abruptly ending at Mount Royal Avenue, where traffic exiting the JFX merges onto Saint Paul (“Where the Bike Lanes End,” Feature, April 20). But perhaps the better choice would be to place the bike lane on the LEFT SIDE of St. Paul. That way the cyclist could avoid this hazardous traffic merge. Other advantages of a LEFT SIDE bike lane would be not having to deal with buses that are constantly pulling to the curb to drop off and pick up passengers. And drivers exit parked cars onto the sidewalk instead of the bike lane.
At the April 18 Bicycle Meeting at Johns Hopkins University, City Bicycle Planner Nate Evans indicated that he is leaning toward placing the bike lane on the left side of Maryland Avenue once the street is repaved. Why the left instead of the right? To avoid the hazard at Lafayette, where cyclist John Yates was killed by a right-turning tanker truck. Also to avoid conflicts at Franklin Street, where right turns are authorized from both the right-hand and right-center lanes. I look forward to the city carefully evaluating, when designing bike lanes, which side of a one-way street works best for bicyclists. Maryland law provides an exception, when operating on a one-way street, to our state’s general rule for cyclists to keep right. And other cities, like New York City, often have bike lanes on the left-hand side of a one-way street.
Lastly, a bike lane is no substitute for paying attention and evaluating whether to use the bike lane or roadway. Bike lanes work best when the road follows a stream, railroad track, freeway, etc., where right-hand turns aren’t authorized. Bike lanes are new to Baltimore, and motorists haven’t been instructed to slow down and merge into the bike lane behind the cyclist when preparing to make a right-hand turn. Consequently, bicyclists need to be alert. When a motor vehicle pulls beside you but doesn’t complete the pass or passes and slows down, WATCH OUT. The motorist may be preparing to make a right turn. The safest thing is for you to slow down, and when safe pull directly behind the motor vehicle, preparing to stop if the vehicle slows down further or turns right. And there are downhill bike lanes, where right-hand turns are authorized, that I leave the bike lane and use the regular traffic lanes. The University Parkway downhill bike lane north of 39th Street, where cyclist Nathan Krasnopoler was critically injured by a car turning right into Broadview Apartments driveway, is the tragic but classic example of why the bike lane isn’t always the safest place to ride.
Jeffrey Marks
Baltimore
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