More car accident news, and a reader poll
I went to my chiropractor again this morning, and he's now saying I should be able to get back on my bike next weekend for short distances - so the trip to Cape Breton is still off, but at least I won't be stuck using public transport for an extended period of time.
I took some time dinking around with Google Maps, and I found something very interesting. The lane in the road I was on (South Park Street) becomes narrower after it crosses Morris - slightly to the right of the green arrow in this Googlemaps link. I took a snapshot (unfortunately I can't get full zoom to show - if anyone knows of a better satellite image source, please let me know) and blew it up and drew in lines from the kerb on the north side of South Park, and from the kerb on the south side, to emphasise the offset of the kerb from one side of the kerb to the other.
So, given the following map:
with the poorly drawn black rectangle-ish thing being a vehicle turning left, if you were driving a car of the size of, oh, a large Oldsmobile or Buick, and you were driving your vehicle straight across... Where would you position your vehicle? On the left of the right hand lane, in the middle, on the right hand side of the lane, or other (in which case, please note where)? Feel free to leave an answer in the comments box; after not having driven regularly for over 10 years, I think my own opinion may be somewhat suspect.
I took some time dinking around with Google Maps, and I found something very interesting. The lane in the road I was on (South Park Street) becomes narrower after it crosses Morris - slightly to the right of the green arrow in this Googlemaps link. I took a snapshot (unfortunately I can't get full zoom to show - if anyone knows of a better satellite image source, please let me know) and blew it up and drew in lines from the kerb on the north side of South Park, and from the kerb on the south side, to emphasise the offset of the kerb from one side of the kerb to the other.
So, given the following map:
with the poorly drawn black rectangle-ish thing being a vehicle turning left, if you were driving a car of the size of, oh, a large Oldsmobile or Buick, and you were driving your vehicle straight across... Where would you position your vehicle? On the left of the right hand lane, in the middle, on the right hand side of the lane, or other (in which case, please note where)? Feel free to leave an answer in the comments box; after not having driven regularly for over 10 years, I think my own opinion may be somewhat suspect.
posted by steve at 6/24/2006 02:04:00 pm
12 Comments:
I'm thinking the left side of the go-through lane, especially if I noticed the lane was shrinking.
I have trouble judging clearances when driving, I'm sorry to say, so it's scarry passing bicyclists on a narrow road.
I've been hit twice while bicycling, once was my fault (that is, I could have avoided it if I had been thinking straight).
Ah! Steve! My cmputer blew up and I am just now procrastinating on the work I need to do, so I am catching up on my blog reading!
DUDE! THAT SUCKS!!!!! I am totally not down with you not communting on your bike. Someone has to do it and you are so good at it! Man, I was anxious to hear all about the trip to Cape Breton and what not.
Can you just tape your wrist and call it good and keep up the good fight?
Wishing you and your bike quick recovery for the mean streets of Halifax!
I was really looking forward to the Cape Breton trip too, until my chriropractor told me what would probably happen; the fracture would widen out, and I would be stuck in the middle of nowhere in agonising pain unable to do anything about it, and it would take even longer to heal with a risk it would never heal properly, and possibly a risk of infection, too. So, sucky as it is, no CB trip for me. Ditto I can't just tape up my wrist and hammer on, sad to say - the roads in Halifax are bad enough that the vibration would screw up my wrist. I'm lucky I managed to wring the concession of riding from next weekend from him - he was originally talking of up to two months, but since I'm such a fast healer (most of which he attributed to being fairly fit due to cycling) he said I could do short commuter rides after another week of healing.
Thanks for the comment, squeaky cyclist - my gut feeling is the left-hand side of the lane, too, so I'm hoping that if the driver can't explain why he wasn't in the left-hand side of the lane, it'll be a fairly major point in my favour... Any other comments on lane positioning from other readers would also be read with interest!
I expect if you look in the highway traffic act for NS, you'll find something that says that you should not pass a vehicle on the right unless that vehicle is turning left and it's safe to do so.
That guy passed you on the right, and he did it when he was in the same lane as you. And he clearly made the wrong decision since he hit you.
Was he trying to change lanes in the intersection? I'm fairly sure that's against the law also.
Another aspect is that a driver should only pass you if you are moving slower than he or she is. When you were at the intersection, you were stopped and the light was red, so he has no way of being faster than you if he must stop also. In other words, the entire lane is yours. It's up to the passing driver to determine if he can pass you safely (usually on the left).
From what you wrote in your original post, I can't see how this could be considered your fault at all.
Even if he did think you were turning left, he should have stopped behind you and waited for you to be in the intersection before pulling up beside you.
Sure it's polite to try to leave room for a driver to turn right - assuming right turns on red are allowed. However, every so often some numbnuts will see that as an invitation to pass on the right. So here's what you do.
1) Watch out for people rolling up on your right side who are not angling right and signalling.
2) If the street geometry allows, roll forward and right when the cross traffic gets yellow, blocking off any attempt to pass that way. You held the door open for the right turners - now slam it in the face of the passers.
I had trouble visualizing where this was before you posted the satalite image. I think you need to record if there were parked cars in that area. i.e. Why were you positioned where you were? Nova Scotia has a unique bit of legislation (3) No person shall ride a bicycle on a highway except as near as practicable to the extreme right of the main travelled portion of the highway
This being said, if there were cars parked behind you that you had just passed, and there were parked cars infront of you, you were correctly positioned. From what I know of South Park street, there are parking meters infront and behind you, and there are always cars parked there during daytime hours. Your positioning in the lane was to be safe while driving beside parked vehicles.
Ontario has an excellent guide online . About halfway down it shows the correct way, and the incorrect way to pass parked cars. The guide clearly says not to weave in and out, but to continue in a straight line while passing parked cars on your right.
Now the onus is shifted to the driver, why was he passing on the right? I don't think he can explain it. Especially if he has changed his story since the initial statement to the police. Do you have a copy of that yet?
A seperate note about Ontario bike law, in that it seems to be somewhat enlightened (I can't believe I actually said that about Queens Park!) as too "taking the lane". I think Nova Scotia should incorporate "takings the lane" into our laws. There are many places and speeds where I need to be the sole vehicle in my lane. i.e. travelling at the posted speed of 50 Km/h. I don't want to be on the extreme right with all the hazards that that can present. Yeah, the extreme right part should go too.
Again, I wouldn't even bring up the extreme right issue unless someone challenges you on why you were further into the lane. But the police certainly didn't see a problem with where you were positioned.
But in all things, Insurance companies move in strange ways. Its worse if you are a driver with a car, because your insurance company can decide for you that you were at fault, and you don't get to plead your case. I am not sure what happens with uninsured people like yourself.
Dougii, I don't think "taking the lane" is written so explicitely into Ontario law (I could be wrong). It's implied by the bicycle being treated as a vehicle on the road. It may be the same for NS.
Thanks for that link. I just passed it on to a coworker.
If someone claims Steve was too far to the left, he can say that it was not practicable to be further right, since he was moving at the same speed as the other cars (therefore no one should be passing him) and it was critical for his safety to be seen by the cross traffic that may make a right hand turn towards him.
There's another way that positioning yourself to the left at that kind of intersection is not just about being nice. It stops cars from doing a "right hook" just after the light turns green.
Dougii: The rule about "as far to the right as possible" gives an awful lot of leeway. I actually went over this with the police officer at the scene and he agreed with me that the left hand side of the lane was a reasonable interpretation of "as far to the right as possible". Of course, after being told by him that the driver was at fault and seeing the accident report saying otherwise, that may be taken with a pinch of salt...
Bicycle Nova Scotia had an excellent PDF on their site at one point called something like "the Nova Scotia Bicyclist's Handbook", which was written by them based around the Forester vehicular cycling principles, and endorsed by HRM Police. Unfortunately I can't find it on their site any more, which is a shame. It explicitly said in there that cyclists must move to the left-hand side of the right hand lane in a two lane intersection in order for traffic to pass on the right hand side to make a right turn.
Darren: I wasn't actually moving at all when the other driver came up parallel to me - I was stopped at the lights, and we ended up both in the same lane. In the future, I think I'm going to stop in the middle of the lane - I've had enough of trying to be polite.
I found two PDFs on the NS Government website:
Nova Scotia Bicycle Safety
and
2003 Bicycle Book
Thanks for looking, Dougii, but it's not either of those. This was an extremely comprehensive PDF that gave a full grounding on riding your bike in traffic in HRM focussing on the rights and responsibilities of riding in traffic. I really wish I'd kept a copy now. I've emailed the staff at Bicycle Nova Scotia, hopefully it rings a bell with someone and they still have a copy kicking around.
It's a shame it's not still on there - I recall it being a really good book, way better than either of those on the gov.ns.ca site.
When I said "moving at the same speed", I was refering to the fact that you were all doing 0 km/h because of the red light. I know it sounds a bit philosophical, but I think it's the way drivers should be thinking when they decide whether or not they should pass you.
http://www.wikimapia.org/#y=44639979&x=-63578686&z=18&l=0&m=a
This is a larger photo of the intersection.. not sure if it's much clearer than the one you have .. but I thought I'd send it anyway! Good luck!
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