Several reasons. Have to watch out for traffic on both sides when parking and exiting the car, and no curb to keep you from over shooting into the bike lane when parallel parking. Hopefully the buffer strip is sufficient to make up for lack of a curb.
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no curb to keep you from over shooting into the bike lane when parallel parking.
Do you need cement blocks to keep you from hitting the car in front and behind as well?
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Sure…
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I believe the repeated refrain in this thread is you can’t engineer out all operator error.
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True, but good design assumes there will be “operator error” - that people will act like people - and works with it, rather than pretending you can get people to be perfect.
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Is that a Harold’s Chicken Shack in the background?
We can assume drivers had to pass the parallel parking portion of the driving exam to receive their license, so we have a baseline for skill level.
I think the assumption of operator error in the above photo is that cars are dangerous but make really good walls, so let’s put the stationary ones between the fast ones and the squishy things.
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Nope, you can’t assume that - well, you could but you would be wrong in California.
In general, parallel parking (other than pulling alongside a curb) is NOT required as part of your DMV drive test.
Learn something new today. Got the number on parallel parking fatalities vs cars jumping curbs?
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Nope, but this parking arrangement forces drivers to exit their car into traffic with less leeway than if they parked against the curb and we’re opening their door into a bicycle lane. Granted, the latter is dangerous for bicyclists but it’s safer for pedestrians exiting cars.
Eh, I disagree.
Oh, and it looks like only
16 out of 50 States have dropped the parallel parking requirement.
Smartest thing posted in this thread today.
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There are roads with curbs with exactly that much space on the drivers side.
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Um, you think it’s safer for drivers to exit their cars under this arrangement into traffic? Not seeing on what basis you can say that.
True, but that doesn’t make them optimally safe.
What’s been done in this example is to make it safer for bicyclists and more dangerous for drivers to exit their cars. It may be a justifiable trade-off. But I do think it is a trade-off.
I suppose that depends what you consider the baseline.
It may be more dangerous for drivers than opening their doors into a bike line, but no more dangerous than opening their doors into traffic in all the streets without bike lanes.
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We don’t have gaps in the speed bumps, but the main traffic calming we use here is making every intersection on a street a traffic circle.
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I can answer that for runners: concrete is very hard on knees, hips and backs. Also, any displacement between concrete slabs can cause a runner to trip. Finally, driveway breaks can cause runners to put their backs out of sorts.
When people run on streets, they really should face the traffic and be respectful of oncoming bicyclists who are utilizing their lanes.
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I go that route once a week. They have a mobile led sign posted on when bicyclists may ride on the shoulder. On days they may not (which seems to be a majority), there is a phone number to call for lift assistance.
It was in California when I got my license at 16, but this was in 1979. I want to say that I vaguely recall that they did away with this requirement…maybe during the late 80s/early 90s? (I think they made the skills assessment easier, at one point.)
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FWIW, that’s no longer required around here (Chicago) to pass a driving test. I was shocked, but I guess it’s because parking lots are more common than street parking now.
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