A better way to share the road with bikes

For anyone who is a cycling enthusiast, the Tampa Bay area often feels like a contest between people who ride their bicycles and all of the motor vehicles on the roadways. Every time I am on my bicycle, I have an uneasy feeling about the potential danger of what might happen when I’m sharing the road with the motorists that drive through my community. The good news is that more dedicated bicycle lanes are being planned and built onto our roadways as we try to crawl out from under the ranking of one of the most unfriendly metropolitan areas for bicyclists and pedestrians. But if we want to really be a thriving community that welcomes bicyclists, we can’t stop there.

Just late last year, Davis, California opened up the first Dutch Junction intersection that promises to be a major safety improvement to bicyclists. The configuration of the intersection places bicyclists who approach the intersection from dedicated bike lanes in better view of motorists so that blind spot accidents are likely to be significantly reduced. An article that describes how it works is here.

I have represented cyclists who have been injured because of the negligence of motorists who failed to check their blind spots for cyclists traveling alongside in the bike lane while going through the intersection. This new type of intersection is designed to protect bicyclists from this type of accident. When a cyclist is approaching an intersection in a dedicated bike lane and believes that it is safe to proceed straight on a green light, the danger arises when a vehicle going in the same direction attempts to turn right without checking if the bicyclist is proceeding straight. This new intersection design puts the bicyclist in clear view of all of the motorists so that accidents can be prevented.

Because our community should be promoting the health and energy benefits of bicycle transportation, we should call on our community leaders to adopt the Dutch Junction plan for our intersections. Let’s not be satisfied with just dedicated bike lanes when we can do even more.