[still technically an unfinished draft; I haven't written the part from Perrysville and East to back into the city, and out Penn Ave to 16th Street]
My plan was to tackle riding a couple of difficult streets in a law-abiding
manner. CM in other cities is an in-your-face taking over of the streets by as
many bicycles as can be assembled in one spot. We don't do that here, at least
not on this ride. (The closest to that is the Pittsburgh Underwear Ride, which
I regularly ride, and recommend heartily.) CM here is about cyclists
re-claiming the streets, which is the point of CM, but by assertively taking
the lane and adhering to traffic laws, we intend to gain the respect of
motorists. Other locations' CM rides which do not do this do the cause of
cyclist rights as much harm as good.
Our turnout was tiny, only five at the start, though we picked up two more
on the North Side. This is OK by me. I'm for quality, not quantity. Our plan
was to ride up East Street, a 35 mph street which few cyclists tackle. Why so
few? I wanted to find out. The whole point of our CM is to figure out what
makes certain streets undesirable, and so to devise any recommendations.
From our start at Dippy (the dinosaur statue next to the Carnegie Museums
and Library in Oakland), we headed first out Forbes and left onto Craig Street.
It's a narrow street, so there is no question that we would fill the lane.
Since there were only five of us, there is also no concern about corking, as we
can stay together and pass as one through any change of a traffic signal. For
all that, we have decided we will not cork, should we ever get large enough,
but split into groups so as to pass through each corner legally.
After we got past the Baum Blvd corner, the lane widens a bit, so we took
the full lane. Why? Because there are two lanes. The law requires us to use the
right-most lane or as far to the
right as practicable. On a multi-lane street, the first half of that
"or" clause applies, so we used the whole lane, without apology. It's
also safer that way.
We continued doing that after the merge with Bigelow Blvd, but upon taking
the split to get on the Bloomfield Bridge, we fully occupied the single lane
prior to the merge point for traffic from outbound Bigelow. There, we are using
the other half of that "or", but in doing that, "as far to the
right as practicable" means, literally, for us to take the lane, forcing
any cars that come up behind us to stay behind us. It is not safe for anyone to
pass us here. We take the lane, we get into the merged lane as one, and any
cars that were there, just had to follow us. This is both legal and desirable,
because to do anything else would be unsafe.
Once on the bridge, the lane we were in was the left of the two forward
lanes. We maintained course in the left lane, which would seem to defy the law,
but what we are doing is also preparing to make a left turn, and the law does
allow that pedalcycles may use the left lane when preparing to make a left
turn. It would also be unsafe to try to get over to the right, as we would only
have to get back over to the left in 300 yards. While the bridge is posted 25
mph, ambient motor traffic speeds are more like 45 mph on a routine basis.
Maintaining course in that left lane is the only safe way to travel. Once
again, CM is claiming our rightful use of the streets.
A left onto Liberty Avenue, and we had what would seem to be a good thing,
but is not. Liberty has a "door zone bike lane" from here down to
Herron Avenue. Bike lanes might seem like a good thing, but when they are
plastered right up against a line of parked cars, as is the case here, the bike
lane is precisely where NOT to ride. The traffic lane itself is also not wide
enough for bikes and cars to ride side-by-side within the lane. But the two
together do provide enough horizontal space to keep a safe distance from the
cars while at the same time allow unfettered passing by motorists, them giving
us the requisite four feet of horizontal space. To do this, I got right on top
of the white line marking the left edge of the bike lane. Really, that lane
should be moved left a couple of feet, and a buffer placed between the parking lane
and the bike lane.
At the corner of 40th Street, the parking lane is replaced by a
right-turn-only lane for cars turning onto 40th. Bikes and buses can continue
straight from this lane. This is a tad confusing for people, motorists and
cyclists alike. Cyclists have to make sure that cars are not going to cut them
off while trying to make a right turn. What motorists making a right are
supposed to do is merge into any bike traffic in the bike lane, giving any
cyclists the right of way if the cyclist is there first. OTOH, cyclists should
yield right of way to any motorist who is there first. Cyclists actually have
to get slightly left as they go through the intersection, as the parking lane
resumes immediately after the corner, and the DZBL appears to be a bit left of
where they typically end up when approaching that corner. Even for side by side
cyclists and motorists, it's still a bit sticky as the cyclist has to travel
those few horizontal feet closer to that car.
Past 40th, the downhill on Liberty gets scary. Cyclists should actually
abandon the bike lane and just get in the traffic lane here. There is no room
for error in the bike lane; if a motorist opened a door into a cyclist going
down the hill at 25 mph or better, the resulting collision would send the
cyclist airborne for several yards, and the result would be major injuries, or
worse. Motorists, too, should be cognizant of this possibility, and understand
and accept that the safest place for a cyclist to be is fully in the driving
lane. If that means they must operate their cars below the posted limit of 35, then
so be it.
After Herron, Liberty becomes one wide inbound lane but without a marked
bike lane, so it becomes easier for cyclists to co-exist with same-direction
motorists for the couple hundred yards down to where we turned at 32nd Street.
We could have turned at 33rd, but it comes up quick and is banked slightly the
wrong way. 31st is very busy because of the bridge over the river. But 32nd is
one way from Liberty to Penn, so that's the cross street we took. It was easy
to get in the left lane of 32nd, to make the left onto Penn.
Penn is two-way at 32nd (one wide lane each direction) but becomes one-way
at 31st, so we got into and stayed in the right lane. Somewhere between 31st
and 25th, two cyclists unaffiliated with the ride passed us, the first on the
left, the second on the right. The guy passing us on the left had no problem at
all -- he just got in the left lane, gunned it, and got right past us without
any problem. The guy passing us on the right had to call out several times to
let us know he was there, and even then, it wasn't obvious who was saying what,
or why. Only after he got in among us did I realize he was unaffiliated.
Frankly, I preferred the passer on the left. He did not need anyone's OK or
attention. Just like a motorist should, he changed lanes, passed us, and got
back in the lane in front of us.
A brief regroup at the red light for 16th Street, then we turned as one and
started across the bridge. This seemed a little uncomfortable. If there is
supposed to be a lane separation there, I couldn't detect it, not until 150
yards later when the stripes for the lane separations became somewhat apparent.
I say somewhat because they were easier to see from behind than when directly
upon them. We took the lane, but having said that, there was no clear
delineation of which lane we were taking, starting across. Once firmly
established on the bridge, it was clearer, and as usual, cars went flying past
us at well over the speed limit. Or were they? What is the speed limit on the
16th St Bridge, anyway? There is no sign! Is it 25, the speed limit on outbound
Penn? Or 35, the speed limit on Liberty? Or, since there is no sign, so by
default, 55? Whatever the number, motorists scream across the bridge. But hey,
they scream across every bridge. To make up for crawling through every tunnel,
I guess.
Hey city (or whoever owns this bridge): Howsbout making it clearer that 25
is the preferred speed limit, and then enforce that?
16th becomes Chestnut St on the north end of the bridge. A
second meetup location was planned for the corner of Chestnut and Progress, but
there was nobody there. I'd figured on getting there about 6:35; it was
actually about 6:45 when we went past. I doubt anyone would have given up that
quickly. (We did pick up two more later, on East St.)
From there, we crossed East Ohio Street, continuing on Chestnut Street,
with its bricks and trolley tracks. This is close to dangerous, as it is
slightly downhill and so quite easy to move with some velocity. The brick
surface is enough to jiggle loose various body parts, and while the rails look
nice and smooth, they will surely dump you if you get in them. Edge riding is
out of the question, as you are right up against that right rail. There is no
question that cyclists have to take the lane and ride between the rails. There
is no other way to do it. And motorists damn well better give them some space
here! We had no trouble, but others might not be so lucky. I know that when I
drive along here, I try to get the car up on the steel rails to smooth out the
ride. Cyclists can't do that. But this underscores my belief that rail tracks
and cyclists are not a good mix, and uneven bricks make it a most unpleasant
and unforgiving a piece of road.
Shortly we came to the corners of first Spring Garden Avenue, then Concord
St, where we had to make a left. These are nasty corners. The first is very
wide, with a lot of traffic on the cross street. At the second, also very wide,
oncoming traffic is coming down a steep hill. Executing a left requires a
cyclist to get fully into the middle of the street, which can be unsettling if
you're not accustomed to doing that, and it has to be done on a moderate
uphill, besides. The group actually came to a standstill in the middle of the
corner to get our bearings, rather not on purpose. It might actually be easier
to seek out a quasi-legal alternative to getting through here, because the
legal way just isn't safe. Adding darkness or any weather condition to the mix
would only make it worse. If I had to do this every day, I would try to figure
out some of the back streets through this neighborhood.
Concord St itself, once we got onto it, was not difficult, a typical
narrow, one-way street, with house fronts that come almost up to the curb.
These would be ideal for cycling, if it weren't for all the damned cars.
With a quick right, we were onto what became, one short block later, East
Street. At this very spot is also the on-ramp to I-279 north, so traffic speeds
approaching from the left were insanely high for a 25 mph street, though most
were well to the left, headed for the ramp. The problem isn't the traffic
itself headed up East, a steady trickle, but the perception of speed. Once we
were around the corner, cars could easily get past us for the one brief block
where it is two lanes, but then had to get behind us for about 50 yards (that
left lane becomes a left turn over the highway), and that was a little
unsettling. Once past that, East is one lane for another tenth of a mile or so
before the stripes separate it into two northbound lanes, the right of which we
took. As with any other two-lane street, there really is no space for cyclists
and motorists to both be in the same lane at the same time, so they had to get
behind us. In addition, there is a barely perceptible right bend in the road
here, making it difficult to see oncoming traffic too far ahead, though that
traffic is posted 15 mph in preparation for a right-turn-only over the
aforementioned bridge. Motorists really do have to cross the double yellow to
pass us here. But this is also where the speed limit changes to 35, which
really means ambient speeds of 45 or more, so drivers are impatient.
East Street was last worked on when it was built -- rebuilt, actually -- as
part of the I-279 construction in the 1980s. It is made up of badly eroded
concrete slabs. Every piece has the edges ground off, rubber dividers stick up
everywhere, and longitudinal slots separate the lanes more than the white
stripes do. This street is supposed to be repaved in 2014, but at ride time,
this had not happened.
Once East opened up to two outbound lanes, we had little trouble. Cars went
flying past us in the left lane continuously, but not a single horn, and no
shouts out the window. It is a long but mild climb, not particularly difficult,
just a couple of miles of steady 2 or 3% grade, a climb of 380 feet over 2.7
miles. The last little bit, after East splits to go up to its terminus at
Perrysville Avenue, is a little steeper, 130 feet over a half mile, for about
5%. We took a breather at the top. Even this last little bit wasn't too bad.
While we did not hug the parked cars, we did keep as far right as practicable,
single file. Cars coming up behind us did have to cross the double yellow; the
lanes are still not wide enough to accommodate both us and them without that
being necessary. Even on a wide street, that is still necessary. Sometimes
there were a few parking spaces open, allowing us to veer into them briefly,
but that is not a sustainable practice, as we do move along continuously,
though slowly uphill, and with several of us at once, at least one of us is not
going to be in the parking lane.
