Several times a week I nearly get hit while traveling in the bike lane near this intersection going toward Negley. If you are familiar, there is a sign that says that traffic turning right from ELB onto highland must yield to cyclists, yet it doesn't happen. More often than not I automatically brake if I hear a car coming behind me because if I don't, I will get right hooked. Is there anything else that can be done? There is already a sign there. Would this be something to 311? I would like to use bike lanes while on a bike.
I've actually had surprisingly few incidents at that intersection, all things considered. It's one of those places where I always think to myself "great, some jerk is gonna hook me", but it's only happened a handful of time. Maybe I'm just lucky?
311ing can't hurt, I'm always submitting complaints for ELB. People really love driving in those bikes lanes.
Maybe take some video of the frequent near-accidents and send it to Stephen Patchan? I think 311 works well when the fix is obvious (broken light? repair light). Here it might involve enforcement, different signs, traffic signal fixes, new paint on the street....
I have been slacking with they helmet camera use. I need to use it again. I nearly went up to the car that did it yesterday (who was stopped at the light anyway.. Glad to see that she got really far) and pounded on the window and flipped out, but this week has already been a mess and I didn't need to make it worse. I am hoping that the bicycle cops will be around some day to either see it or for me to tell them about it. I haven't seen them lately.
I want to completely redesign ELB. That intersection is the trickiest one however due to the volume of traffic, and the necessity for car parking for the school across the street, but I still think it can be designed to be safer, and the intersections more visible for bikes and pedestrians.
PS. We currently do not have the money to completely redesign ELB so this won't happen over night.
Maybe more signs and candle sticks?
P.S. I'm tired of the programs I like always being out of money; damn it
I am really frigging tired of the top 1% have 40% of the wealth in the country. There's plenty of "money".
IMHO we need to focus as much on getting people to actually use the growing bike infrastructure as we are growing the infrastructure. Question every car trip. Why would anyone, ever, use a car for anything? Sure, there are valid answers, possibly even the majority of answers justify using a car. My point is to get away from 100% dependence on cars, on a person-by-person basis. The more people who actually try to use a bike, the better, and if they have a plausible reason not to, then that's the problem we try to solve.
Increase use. Reduce barriers.
We're not out of money, we just don't have the money for this particular project at the moment. Two very different things.
Well I guess it's the difference between having your hands tied and having no hands
What's important to me is that I'm hearing "we'd like to do this, but we don't have the resources to do it" and it's something I'd like to see done.
Meanwhile, between the county and the city, we spend at least 262 million dollars on jails, cops and judges
I'd prefer bike lanes over drug busts
@Stefb I don't ride there very often but I always shift a little bit of bike lane to take whole "car" lane so they cannot pass me.
Sounds like a broken bike lane. It's generally good practice to start merging into the lane before the intersection to avoid getting hooked. IIRC, Philly had some (well-designed) bike lanes that actually merged left a little before the intersection. Can't find any examples online, unfortunately.
I always ride per the situation, and never count on drivers to do what they're supposed to do. I almost always ride with earbuds in, too, but that's okay because I also do not rely on hearing for anything. Keep your head on a constant swivel and get used to a life of looking over your shoulder, and you won't feel let down by drivers. They are almost certainly going to do the wrong thing.
philly does have a large & substantial bike lane infrastructure.
while it seems the majority of drivers are aware of it, there are still morons behind the wheel there as well, a friend of mine was hooked there by an out of town driver. (low speed, no injury.)
I also have been almost right hooked at this intersection many times. This is my route home from work and people don't like to wait to try to make the right turn onto Highland. My favorite is when someone almost right hooks me and then gets stuck and can't make the right. I just yell at them things about wasn't that a good idea to cut me off so they could sit stopped for 30 seconds.
when i wind up in that situation i like to filter up and TAKE THE WHOLE DAMN LANE
Why is that turn a highway off ramp when the rest of the intersections are normal right hand turns?
I have no idea. Good point. Do you think the gas station entrance has anything to do with it?
I wonder what that intersection looked like before they put in Penn Circle, which has a lot of similar monstrosities. Wouldn't surprise me if it got "redesigned" at the same time.
I know that intersection well. I usually try and time my turn, so I don't have to deal with a car behind me at the time I am going to turn. I try not to be in a rush when I ride my bike, so I may give more time. Also, you could just not bother with that spot at all. I will frequently take Sheridan up past Stanton and take a left at the tiny alley and then up one block and left to Highland. It is more laid back that way.
This afternoon I followed multiple cars driving in the ELB bike lane from Negley to well past Highland
I ride it multiple times daily and truly believe that drivers on that stretch have been increasingly bold in the past few months and pose a danger even to other motorists.
Besides the Highland intersection issue which I totally agree is a huge problem,
The route has more than enough signs and is very clear when breaking the bike lane to provide a turning lane.
I think that any traffic enforcement should solve a few issues and being that a good chunk of ELB is a school zone you would think that there would be.
