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New Lanes, New Signs
Overnight, Corona del Mar got some new striping along Coast Hwy, some new signage, too.
Let’s take a look: first a new bike lane…
The idea here is that cyclists will stay out in this lane because to move them all the way to the curb sets them up for a right-turn only lane just ahead. The white car pictured here is coming off MacArthur on one of the many dreaded ‘free right turns’, often at high speed, so cyclists will be looking over their shoulders here. The ultimate solution must deal with the high speed turn.
Picture a cyclist continuing straight along Coast Hwy while traffic exits to the right — Yikes! Bike Religion’s John Tzinberg once rated this the worst intersection in the City, so it’s nice to see the improvements. It might take awhile for the speeding South County motorists to understand the message on the sign. A little green paint inside the dashed lines might emphasize the point.
This is what cyclists get when the Bike Safety Committee vetoes Sharrows. “Go around,” is the message; you’ve been warned. This doesn’t exactly place us in the Most-Innovative Bicycle Friendly Community category.
Think about it — the Saturday morning peletons will ignore this suggestion; these lycra-clad, semi-pro riders enjoy safety in numbers. Casual cyclists aren’t gonna be on Coast Hwy in the first place, right? This where where they’ll be if they’re smart…
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Yes, that third sign is almost a nullity.
Even if cyclists and motorists expected signs telling them where they should and should not go (they don’t, unless they are driving a special vehicle like a multi-axle truck, for example):
(1) The local beach-cruiser cyclists don’t care; they’ll just continue down the sidewalk.
(2) The fitness / roadie / flat-belly cyclists will not have any idea what it means and continue down the Pacific Coast Highway in the door zone, not realizing they are going about the same average speed as cars and could be in the center of the right lane.
(3) The only cyclists who are going to see this sign are out-of-towners, the ones with panniers on the back and road-maps in plastic sleeves. They will see it, pull up, try to figure out what it means, and either continue down PCH in the door zone to Albertsons (where most of them stop) or turn right on Goldenrod and wander around the neighborhood dodging speeding sedans running the STOP signs until they finally claw their way back to the Coast Highway, wondering what the heck that diversion was all about…
I feel bad for the City of Newport Beach here. This really betrays how out of touch they are. The “alternate route” suggestion was floated back in the days when the City’s Bicycle Safety Committee was wrestling with the fact that bicycles are, in fact, legally allowed to be in a traffic lane (as opposed to the shoulder of the road). Still not quite comprehending that they were telling cyclists to “ride at the back of the bus”, the Committee – even after getting the City Attorney’s opinion that there was no liability for installing sharrows, and even after seeing them in place in other communities – suggested an “alternate route” was the best way to protect cyclists traversing the Pacific Coast Highway through Corona del Mar. And it declined to advance sharrows in Corona del Mar.
I think the Committee now honestly understands – in its collective heart – that sharrows are appropriate and necessary. I have spoken with one of it’s most originally “anti-sharrow” members (a non-cyclist) who now believes that “green lanes” (sharrows on steroids!) would be helpful on 60MPH Newport Coast Drive traversing the 73 freeway on-ramp so, one could surmise, he would see their value on 35MPH Pacific Coast Highway.
In other words, I think the Committee had to get this “alternate route through Corona del Mar” concept out of its system.
By the way a cyclist was doored, according to Sergeant Damon Psaros, just down the street from this sign last month.
I agree with Brian but it’s a good start.
The first picture shows the first bike lane in Newport Beach drawn properly to the left of a right turn lane.
In the second picture, at least the stripes can remind drivers that bikes may be there. But putting cyclists to the right of a stream of right turning traffic ia just wrong.
Thanks for posting the photos! My two cents on each of them:
1. Like the top one in concept, make the motorist in from the right have to yield to straight through cyclist traffic, rather than have the cyclist merge across that lane only to have to move left again before the right turn lane at the next light. Though the bike lane is a bit narrow for my taste, and it remains to be seen whether motorists will follow the striping and cross at the dashes, or take the turn lazy and cross the solid white stripe.
2. I don’t like this one at all, it just reinforces the notion that bicyclists should hug the curb and that motorists should turn across their path. I’d rather the bike lane dashing start further back, so I can get out of the bike lane earlier and move to the left side of the lane when there’s a good break and let the right turning traffic scoot by on the right.
3. Seems like the best way possible to sign an alternate route without dissing cyclists who want to stay on Coast Highway.