There aren't a lot of options when you need to have cars turning on roads with bike lanes. At some point the car lane and the bike lane have to cross paths unless you're going to build a fully grade-separated bike lane.
I suppose you could have a wall that separates the bike lane from the road except for a short area where cars can cross over, so that at least there's only a small space where the bikes & cars can interact, but that introduces a bunch of new problems (cars that can't see bikes behind the wall when they go to cross over, cars that run into the wall, probably even more swerving to get into the lane because your choices are do it RIGHT NOW or you're stuck/hit a wall).
> There aren't a lot of options when you need to have cars turning on roads with bike lanes. At some point the car lane and the bike lane have to cross paths unless you're going to build a fully grade-separated bike lane.
The problem is that the lane markings encourage vehicles to make turns from the non-rightmost or non-leftmost lane. One should not be crossing another lane when making a turn at an intersection. One should merge into the rightmost or left most lane in order to make the corresponding turn.
I think it'd be safer to keep the bikes in the far right even if they go straight. Yes, it means they have to pay attention to cars turning right. They might even need to stop until it's safe. This is a place where "bikes/peds having right of way" doesn't really make sense.
Users to the right have the right of way over users further towards the center of the street. Thus, pedestrians crossing in the crosswalk have priority over bicycles and cars turning right, and bicycles going straight have priority over cars turning right.
I guess in a perfect world having right of way means you can cross the street without looking left or right. I’m more willing to yield as a bike/ped because my risk is higher and I know people are distracted idiots.
Absolutely worth accepting the reality of drivers on phones' as a threat to safety. I'm just trying to explain the rules of the road from which intersection design can be derived.
There are ways to design an intersection so that those rules are followed naturally, and there are ways to miss it. C.f. right turn lanes.
I would greatly appreciate a barrier of some kind between me and car drivers looking at the cells.
Or just do what Germany has sensibly done and split sidewalks between pedestrians and cyclists (though, cycling enthusiasts are unlikely to enjoy the experience as much)
I suppose you could have a wall that separates the bike lane from the road except for a short area where cars can cross over, so that at least there's only a small space where the bikes & cars can interact, but that introduces a bunch of new problems (cars that can't see bikes behind the wall when they go to cross over, cars that run into the wall, probably even more swerving to get into the lane because your choices are do it RIGHT NOW or you're stuck/hit a wall).