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LESS ADDRESSED BICYCLE AND PEDESTRIAN ISSUES 

Pedestrian Safety Laws

Most municipal traffic and road infrastructure codes and guidelines are adopted from well vetted national model consensus code.  Anyone who drives can understand the value of the Uniform Vehicle Code adopted through-out the United States. Unfortunately many pedestrian advocates argue for individual State or local legislation which leads to a hodge-podge of some-times conflicting regulation.  Advocates should consider the success of the League of American Bicyclist's efforts to introduce bicycle friendly code into the UVC which is then typically adopted nationally.

Painted Crosswalks are not necessarily safe

Walk times 

Drivers are often frustrated by pedestrians crossing roads at other then painted crosswalks.  Beside a sense that mid-block are crossings are safer those walking to get somewhere want the most direct route they can find.  How far they are willing to walk (vs. drive) is often based on time rather then distance.  Often public policy and even some pedestrian advocates fail to recognize that pedestrians, especially those with carrying goods or towing kids, want to get where they're going in the least amount of time. direct route rather then just distance.

Pedestrian Infrastructure 

Many Municipalities are actively studying and installing infrastructure that provide for safe and effective bicycle and pedestrian transit.   Well thought out designs are often low cost and have little impact on motorized traffic flow.  See Infrastructure Performance/Cost/Traffic Impact Matrix

Some examples are 

See the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center for a comprehensive list of infrastructure ideas and links to other organizations that provide advice.

Unfortunately in some cases good intentions are not well implemented, well maintained or well thought out.

See John Wetmore's Perils for Pedestrians  for a more comprehensive list of the problems facing those who choose to get there by walking.

Narrow on street bike lanes

Some municipalities or civic activist feel the are helping bicyclists by striping bike lanes that are less then the AASHTO minimums.  This puts riders to close to car doors.  Bicyclist who move out to the motorized traffic lanes annoy drivers who think the riders should be in what is clearly marked as bike lane.

The following discussion-group note clarifies AASHTO misunderstanding's

Your statement that AASHTO recommends a minimum combined width of 11 feet for a parking lane plus a bike lane is essentially incorrect. The 11-ft minimum only applies to roadways without curbs (aka open-section or rural-section roadways). For roadways with curbs (aka closed-section or urban-section roadways), such as Union St, the *minimum* combined width recommended by AASHTO is 12 feet. Apparently, when there is no curb present, cars are typically parked closer to the right edge of the pavement.   Also, as do you note, AAHSTO further recommends *at least* a one-foot wider combined space where parking density or turnover is high such as on Union St. IMO, the AASHTO recommended minimums are only acceptable where parking is sparce and parking turnover is infrequent.  As I recall, some of the drawings in the 1999 AASHTO bikeway guide are poorly labeled or mislabeled, leading to the impression that AASHTO's minimum recommended combined width is generally 11-ft, not 12-ft. The text for this section of the AASHTO guide states these recommended minimums correctly.  Because opened car doors can extend from 35" to 45" to the left of the parked vehicle, and a bicycle and its rider is about 24" wide, safe cycling beside a line of parked vehicles requires keeping one's wheels at least five feet to the left of parked vehicles at all times. The parked vehicles themselves typically extend at least seven feet from the curb face, so it is unwise to cycle with one's wheels within 12 feet of the curb wherever there is dense curbside parking.   When the AASHTO bikeway guide states an absolute 12-ft minimum width (which is clearly inadequate for Union St), a half-foot narrower width is most certainly unacceptable. The City should remove these dangerous substandard bike lanes at once.  
Source: Allen Muchnick Arlington VA

Additional Support 

Width occupied by parked motor vehicles, by John S. Allen (as shown by the chart, the door zone extends at least 10 ft from the curb when vehicles are parked only 6" or 8" from the curb face)

Wayne Pein's critique of door-zone bike lanes:

Critique of various bicycle facilities, including door-zone bike lanes, by Fred Oswald:

Lanes that direct riding against traffic

Some roads have a bi-directional multi-use trails along busy sections of a highway that frequently cross side roads or the entrances to business's.   Drivers turning right, look left for a gap in the traffic flow and go when they see it.   At walk speeds pedestrians tend to notice the lack of eye contact but the faster speed of bicyclists evasion response time.   

Where there are frequent crossings, recommend sidewalks on both sides of the highway of co-equal width and bike lanes or wide outer lanes that allow cyclist to travel the same direction as the motorized traffic. 

Lanes that cut-off a motorized traffic lane

Note in the 'looking north view' the bike lane cut's off the motor vehicle lane.   The bicyclist is being directed to cut in front of a moving motor-vehicle.   The Auto-traffic is expected to either shift to a new lane to the right of the bike lane or to move what had been the middle traffic lane.  Interestingly the dash-lines for the shift come at the same point the bicyclists is directed to the left.

In the photos above, both a truck and a car maintain their alignment to the adjacent motor vehicle traffic lane rather then shift to the traffic lane to the right of the bike lane.   Note the bike lane is directly under their vehicles.

Hello,

I just found your site as I was looking for laws pertaining to blocking sidewalks. I failed to find any mention of the most egregious examples, to wit:

1. Autos coming out of driveways failing to stop prior to the sidewalk almost never look both ways. Then they have the audacity to refused to backup or pull forward to allow one to pass.

2. In another case people park their cars across the sidewalk;

a. to wash it for an hour and a half.
b. to leave it parked all night.
c. to load and unload passengers and/or goods.
d. to spend the next two hours moving a lawn.
e. while they converse with a friend.
f. to deliberately dissuade access.
g. to spend time at a garage sale.

h. sometimes (at a party or wedding) they are bumper to bumper to bumper and are busy making so much noise that you cannot get anyones attention to deal with the obstruction.

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