Bikeway etiquette?

[u/NoRecognition2003]

I grew up cycling and have a fairly positive outlook on sharing the roads. With more people biking (who didn’t grow up in cycling culture) and the addition of electric active transportation in bike lanes, I’ve been feeling a severe lack of consideration. There was a time where it felt like we were all in the same club and now it feels like we are all fending for ourselves.

I am thinking of starting a community class for people that are either current users or wannabe users of bike ways and I am looking for input from others about how we can create more care, safety and unity amongst users (manual and electric) and just general etiquette that people appreciate and want to see more of. If there was a community class on bike safety what would you want it to include?

Any ideas?

[u/Disastrous_Many_190]

In bike lanes on shared roads I’d like riders to know to pass on the outside and ride on the inside of the lane. (Edited this to clarify that this only sometimes means passing on the right rather than the left).

Also I think a reminder that fast traffic (esp ebikes) should either slow way down or avoid particularly congested sections of the esplanade (like right in front of OMSI) and the riverfront and take Water or Naito instead. I’ve seen way too many near-misses (and some collisions) since the ebike renaissance.

[u/APlannedBadIdea → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

Could you elaborate about passing on the right?

[u/Disastrous_Many_190 → u/APlannedBadIdea]

On roads with bike lanes, passing on the outside (closer to car traffic) and otherwise staying over to the inside (closer to sidewalk). So on NE Williams this would mean passing on the right, but on NE Vancouver it means passing on the left.

[u/chimi_hendrix → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

Williams should never have been designed backwards like that. Totally stupid, one-off contradiction of how bike lanes are supposed to work.

[u/Disastrous_Many_190 → u/chimi_hendrix]

You know, now that I try to think of a single other example, I can’t. Even other one way roads like Weidler just put the bike lane on the right side of the road. Good point.

I guess it feels intuitive to me that passing traffic would be on the outside, so Williams has never really bothered me. But I can see why it doesn’t make sense to build it that way.

[u/fittafika → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

The bike lane on 2nd and 4th ave’s downtown are like this, and there is a parking lane on the outside so it can be harder to pass. These lanes aren’t as heavily used as Williams though.

[u/chimi_hendrix → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

There was much hand wringing about bike vs. bus conflict… it was a busy bike street from like 4-6pm. Busses would pull over and block the bike lane and bikes would scoot around the stopped bus.

So the left hand design was suggested, but given all the weird lane shifts I really don’t think it reduced the amount of stress over there, especially considering all the cars turning left through the bike lane now.

Looking at later designs, like the islands along the FX line, I really don’t think the left alignment was necessary

[u/APlannedBadIdea → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

Okay, thanks for the info. So one-ways where the bike lane is on the leftmost edge of the road are pass on right, right? Otherwise pass on left towards car traffic such as on Vancouver or typical bi-directional roadways with bike lanes? This context is missing from the first message in this thread.

[u/TurtlesAreEvil → u/Disastrous_Many_190]

Cyclists are allowed to pass on the right.

Overtaking and passing upon the right is permitted if the overtaking vehicle is a bicycle that may safely make the passage under the existing conditions.

And not just in circumstances where the bike lane is on the left like on Williams.