subject: _:nodedb9c4f28bb9bf11a42338efc03d9a51
obj: "Last week, when I went for a ride against my better judgment and wound up aggravating my bronchitis, I was cruising through a new housing development that still has some construction going on. I saw one of the workers shoulder some tools and head toward the street, so I swerved a bit to my right to avoid him. Just then, the door of a pickup truck on my right opened. I had just a second to swerve back and thread the needle between the tool guy and the door.\nI got through that all right, but lots of cyclists get nailed by the opening door. So I was glad to see some new striping go down on streets in my area, with a feature I hadn\u2019t seen before.\nI\u2019ve already written about the new double lanes they\u2019re putting in. The right lane next to the curb is for parked cars. Then there\u2019s a bike lane to the left of the parking lane, then the lane for cars. It recognizes that people have been parking their cars in the bike lanes, and tries to make room for both.\nThe additional feature is a diagonal line that cuts into the bike lane every ten yards or so. It appears to designate the door zone \u2014 that area that a car door will cover when it\u2019s opened.\nThe door zone stripes aren\u2019t obvious, but bike riders should be able to spot them easily.\nI don\u2019t know how accurate it is, but it\u2019s a nice reference point. And the new bike lanes are wide enough that there\u2019s plenty of room for a bike to stay outside the door zone while staying inside the bike lane. I hope the city continues to add these kinds of features as other streets are re-striped.\nShare this:Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Like this:Like Loading..."@en-us