Rules to follow!

If you follow and are a regular reader of Shortcuts you know I post a lot about bicycles and the difficulties cyclists have negotiating a safe ride. A colleague of mine here at KCRW, thank you Steve, turned me onto a great piece written by Gary Kavanagh. After reading it, I would be doing you a huge disservice by not sharing and encouraging you to read his commentary.

I never have spoken with Mr. Kavanagh in person, but between following his tweets and blog, I feel like I know the guy. I selected a little sample of his post from The Santa Monica Patch to share with you. With all the stuff I have learned about bicycles, cyclists and the laws that keep them safe, I never knew this…

… One of the lesser-understood regulations concerning bike lanes is that, according to CVC 21717, drivers must merge into bike lanes before making permitted turns and never turn across the bike lane. If you think of a bike lane as another lane like any other, you would never make a right turn across another adjacent lane of traffic. But drivers do this with bike lanes all the time. It can result in a T-bone situation known as the “right hook,” where a car turns right in front of a bicyclist who does not have any room to evade the broadside of the car and has insufficient time to stop….