Post date: Jun 10, 2011 11:43:10 PM

From GuelphMercury.com

Bike boxes may cause confusion to motorists and cyclists alike.

By Scott Tracey, Jury of One

The threat of severe weather led to the postponement this week of the city’s demonstration of new “bicycle boxes” near the University of Guelph campus.

That’s unfortunate, because I was intrigued to see how officials believe the boxes should be used.

A bike box is a marked area where cyclists wait in front of cars at a red light. Unlike most intersections, where bicycle lanes end several metres before the stop line, with a bike box intersection the bicycle lane extends forward to the edge of the pedestrian crosswalk.

Since the city announced last year it would be implementing bike boxes at the intersection of Stone Road and Chancellors Way, there has been some confusion about how they are to be handled.

A big part of the problem is mixed-messaging from the city.

A new video intended to demonstrate how to use bike boxes says motorists approaching the intersection with the intention of turning right should “make sure the bike lane is clear before turning,” while depicting a cyclist speeding past a car waiting to turn right.

That’s true, from the driver’s perspective. But the video clearly depicts the wrong way for cyclists to approach the intersection.

As hopefully any driver or cyclist knows, the Highway Traffic Act requires every person in charge of a vehicle — which includes bicycles — “who is overtaking another vehicle or equestrian (to) turn out to the left so far as may be necessary to avoid a collision with the vehicle or equestrian overtaken.”

In other words, you can’t pass on the right.

City officials know this. The ‘Share the Road — Cycle Safe’ page on the city’s website includes several tips for safe cycling including, in bold letters, ‘Don’t pass on the right.’

The website includes a link to Ontario’s Guide to Safe Cycling, which says when a motorist is making a right-hand turn “cyclists can either stay behind the vehicle or pass the right-turning vehicle on the left.

“Never pass a right-turning vehicle on the right,” the Guide to Safe Cycling cautions.

Elsewhere on the city’s website, in response to a comment from a resident about right turns, a city official wrote a cyclist approaching from behind a right-turning vehicle “must remain a safe distance back until the driver completes the turn and the way is clear.

“When the vehicle has cleared the bike box, the cyclist can enter from the approaching bike lane,” the official wrote.

That appears to be correct, and entirely contradictory to the city’s new educational video.

Matthew Lawrie, a paralegal with Pointts, said the bike boxes and accompanying video seem to send the wrong messages.

“If the city is saying a cyclist within a bicycle lane has some sort of exception, would that exception apply to a cyclist approaching a red light or stop sign?” he asked. “Of course not. It doesn’t supercede the Highway Traffic Act … or exempt a cyclist from behaving like a vehicle at an intersection.”

Of course, the overarching principles for all road users, no matter the type of vehicle, should be to use caution and be aware of everything going on around them.

But in sending out competing messages the city has not got its bike box pilot project off to a very promising start.

Scott Tracey is a Mercury staff writer. His Jury of One column appears Fridays. He can be reached at stracey@guelphmercury.com