Local News Bites

[KarenK 382]

2 hours ago, Chris said:

One of them mentioned a bike lane and that the bus was crossing over on to it.

There isn’t a bike lane there. I checked.

And yet thats where people get their “news.”

Yep I saw that but what one guy said was they were "riding the line" and that's illegal.  Is it?  I would think crossing the line would be, but riding the line?  You would know that one better than me, but that guy knows.

 

[Chris 2,156]

9 hours ago, KarenK said:

Yep I saw that but what one guy said was they were "riding the line" and that's illegal.  Is it?  I would think crossing the line would be, but riding the line?

Well first off we’d have to define “riding the line.” What line? I looked around at them at intersection and there’s no “bike line”, at least one that’s labeled as such. Just the fog line.

I’d have to look up the vehicle and traffic law as it pertains to the fog line.

I see all the time people running down bus drivers, but what they don’t know is that bus drivers are the most highly scrutinized and trained commercial drivers out there. They’re told that on Day 1. Annual physicals, annual defensive driving evaluations, and every other year an additional, more in depth evaluation that includes a physical performance test.

They've got that bus under control, I assure you.

That doesn’t mean perfection, they’re only human after all. But the “they’ll let anyone drive” line is a complete crock. 

[Chris 2,156]

I just did a little experiment to make sure I’m correct in something.

My bus is 9’2 wide. I don’t know the exact width of a driving lane, they kinda vary though. On Maple Ave, centered in my lane, I am about 6” off of that fog line. In Jerusalem Hill Rd., I keep myself centered ( especially careful to stay more to my side of the road because we all know how people drive on that middle line). I can’t see it out the door window, that’s how close I am to it.

So I’d ask the armchair experts out there, what is or isn’t “riding the line” in a large vehicle? Or are they just spouting off nonsense?

[MsKreed 1,172]

There is no designated bike lane, and the sections where a bicycle could "fit" outside the fog line looks like it's clearly striped to show it's not a bike lane. 

When I worked in the DOT building in Hornell, I had a conversation with the boss in the Traffic Department and was told the only time it’s OK to cross the fog line is to pass on the right.....in the case where there is not any turning lane, and the vehicle in the traffic lane is making a left turn, and is stopped waiting for oncoming traffic.

And, although you wouldn’t know it from what LEO ignores around our area, the laws say that bicyclists are required to follow the same rules of the road as motor vehicles. 

So, regardless of whether the bus width partially crossed that line -- if the bicyclist was intentionally fully occupying that illegal space they are violating the "don't cross the line" law much more than the bus. 

I have long felt that local LEO are fomenting a serious safety risk by not citing cyclists for their constant violations of traffic laws.

Edited Friday at 12:36 PM by MsKreed