I made such a ridiculously long comment at What’s Going Down(town) that I figured I should put it on my own blog. Posted a comment of such length there so more would read it, since other than family/friends, few read my blog.
As seen at “A Look at Possible Bike Route Signs”:
As Scott has mentioned, these signs are no finished product. They were only briefly shown as a head’s up they’ll be discussed at a later date.Michael, warning. I originally commented because I did have an issue with these beta signs. I understand you feel this is a drapery discussion, but I consider it to be a part of the windows discussion.
Earlier this spring I visited Seattle where biking as a form of transportation is a serious thing. (Those folks are dedicated. The hills out there are killer.) I felt safe getting around town via their bike routes, because their regulation signs made the rules of how to interact with bicyclists and bike routes clear to drivers. As bike routes are put onto roads where right turn lanes for cars and straight lanes for bikes exist, the fact bike lanes are official lanes of traffic must be clear. (See the animation under “Bike lane laws”: http://www.sfbike.org/?bikelane_right_turns for clarification of lane situation.)
I disagree that different signs will stick out to drivers. We are trained to look at the regulation signs. You can only take so much information as you’re traveling down the road at a high speed. Customized signs run the risk of being read second to signs providing information for the task at hand.
Having said this, I would have no problem customizing the already regulated bike route sign. (Bike routes are different than dedicated bike lanes.) This has been standardized in California. The federal sign is M1-8 at http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003r1/part9/fig9b-04_longdesc.htm. The customization for Oakland can be seen at http://www.oaklandpw.com/Page122.aspx#define and the customization for San Francisco can be seen on page 3 of http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/tpp/offices/bike/sites_files/Bike_Bklt_3-03_view.pdf.
I feel there is a need for official signs due to Fort Wayne drivers being used to an infrastructure that favors driving. Last summer I biked to work in Indy/Carmel mostly via their Monon Greenway, but near my work I was required to ride with traffic. Last Friday I rode to work in Fort Wayne and was shocked by the general disregard for both pedestrians and bicyclists. Multiple times I witnessed motorists make right and left turns as people were attempting to cross intersections when their sign said “WALK.” This is something I only rarely encountered as drivers generally yielded. Yes, Carmel and Indy have more pedestrians/cyclists, but they also have the infrastructure and signs to support and encourage considerate driver behavior.
[...] I shouldn’t complain. Fort Wayne is doing a lot of work on making it easier to travel by bike. I also have been unable to attend any of the bike meetings, so I need to stop being surprised when things appear to happen out of no where. With that said, I’m crossing my fingers these signs are official and not completely customized. [...]