Portland's Bike Boxes: Making Cars More Polite : TreeHugger

I came across this article on TreeHugger this morning about “Bike Boxes”.  A small area for a cyclist to stop in at a stop light.  The location of the box would make the cyclist more visible as well as prevent cyclist from being hit by motorist making turns.  Portland has even taken it so far as to paint the approach to the intersection and the box green to remind drivers to look out for cyclists.  The bike boxes and green warning areas came after several deaths from accidents at intersections.  (Read the entire article here.)  Imagine that, a community works to solve a problem and encourages motorists to share the road and look out for cyclists!  Not just throw the blame on the cyclist and move on without correcting the problem.  It’s ironic that I came across these articles only a few short weeks after a local cyclist lost a case in Virginia Beach.  He had been riding up Atlantic Ave in the trolley lane, which for those unfamiliar with the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, is the entire right lane going both North and South on the main strip at the Oceanfront.  A vehicle making a turn ran in to him because supposedly the motorist did not see the cyclist in the trolley lane.  It was determined that the cyclist was fully responsible for the incident due to the fact that he was in the trolley lane and not the normal traffic lane. 

The City of Virginia Beach could be such a wonderful place, especially the ocean front resort area, if they could follow the lead of several other communities like Portland with it’s bike boxes and even Rehobeth Beach with their bike lanes.  I am not talking about a widened sidewalk, but a wide shoulder or special use area incorporated in to a part of the main road.  Cyclists in these lanes are more visible to motorists and the lack of intersection transitions and gutters make it much safer for us the narrow tire riders.  Not to mention the widened sidewalks, like those along Dam Neck Rd, are very unsafe at major intersections.  Try crossing the intersection at Drakesmile Rd at rush hour.  Cars making right hand turns don’t pay attention and don’t see the cyclists coming up the path where as a cyclist in a bike lane would be much more visible.

I wonder how long it will take the City of Virginia Beach to realize that promoting a safe community for outdoor recreation will help draw even more people in to the area.  It will draw the type of people that I would think the city would want in it’s tourist and tax base.  It would be much better than drawing those fat rednecks in their old beater Ford pickups spewing exhaust fumes that flick cigarette butts out the window and cant use a turn signal!

The original Treehugger article: Portland's Bike Boxes: Making Cars More Polite : TreeHugger.