I live only eight miles from my office here at ICLE, but my home is outside city limits. Ann Arbor is ringed by freeways. In my mind, the ring of freeways is a moat with just a few drawbridges. Only one drawbridge leads home, so my journey can take an agonizing amount of time.
Recently, a new bike lane, which eliminated a car lane, was added on the direct route to my drawbridge. Maddening! The new bike lane slowed me down even more. Was the state government doing anything about this? Well, in the past five years there have been two acts regarding bicycles on the roads, and neither was intended to get me home quicker. But they are helping me cross the moat more safely.
In 2010, the “complete streets” legislation was adopted. Complete streets are roadways “planned, designed, and constructed to provide appropriate access to all legal users in a manner that promotes safe and efficient movement of people and goods whether by car, truck, transit, assistive device, foot, or bicycle.” As a result of this law (and initiatives started before the law passed), bike lanes are being installed around Michigan. They improve safety for bicyclists and motorists. They eliminate bikes dangerously weaving through the cars and cars squeezing dangerously close to bikes. MDOT has a brochure to explain how bike lanes work to keep everyone safer.
More recently, the legislature enacted another bicycle safety measure. 2014 PA 1 changed the way bicyclists can signal right turns. Since 1946, bicyclists had to extend their left hand and arm upward to signal a right turn. Now, they may extend their right hand and arm horizontally. It turns out bicyclists were already “instinctively” pointing to the right. And, studies showed that the bent left arm signal was correctly perceived by only 65 percent of motor vehicle drivers as signaling a right turn. This perception was increased to 78 percent with the straight right arm signal.
The Share MI Roads campaign is focused on developing educational resources for bikers and drivers. Watching the public services announcements prepared by AAA and others made me realize that I need to manage my drive a whole lot better. After all, I like to bike and I like to drive, particularly when it gets me home. Maybe I will wait until more of the 30,000 University of Michigan employees get back to their homes on both sides of the moat before leaving the office. Then it will be just me and a few bikes on the road home.