One of my biggest fears when cycling is the dreaded opened door. I can watch out for oblivious motorists at intersections, ensure I make eye contact and all that good stuff. But as the tragic death of Jane Bishop on Tamaki Drive has shown us, even avoiding the door can put somebody on a bike in danger.
This article talks about a great project in San Francisco to put in a protected cycle lane. As part of that, back in angled parking will be installed. This requires drivers to back into the park rather than back out, always a dangerous situation for cyclists.
Wherever angled parking is installed in the city, the SFMTA says it has recently been using the back-in arrangement since it helps drivers pull out of the parking spots safely while removing the danger of the door zone for people on bikes.
You will see that the cars act as a buffer for the separated cycle lane on the inside of the cars. Therefore the danger here was from the passenger door being opened. But of course it works just as well to protect cyclists if (as unfortunately is almost always the case in Auckland) the cycle lane is on the outside of the parked cars.
So in one fell swoop, this project has eliminated the risk of dooring, while also eliminating the back-out danger of angled parking. One place in particular this could work well would be in Devonport on Victoria Road. Speeds are generally low here (though it would be nice to see the limit at 30Km/h from the Albert Street roundabout) and the main risk is someone reversing from these parks.
It appears from this article that reversing into an angle park that is facing towards on coming traffic is actually an offence. But that article and this one from CAN in 2010, seem to indicate that NZTA is in support of the concept of reverse angled parking (but the AA isn’t).
Does anyone know anywhere in NZ where this has been tried?
