CLEARLY the larger issue is of attitude and awareness. Drivers assert not only the right to the road, but the right to injure cyclists on the road.

Signs seem like a garnish now, but in a civilized city where cyclists are included in the traffic infrastructure they can be quite helpful, useful and good.

Got a long ways to go L.A.

Quite a long way.

the signage could be a little clearer.

Making things safer for bicycles and pedestrians really can be cheap – paint out car lanes, install plastic bollards with reflectors and trees in large planters to create virtual neck-downs and chicanes at desirable locations.

It is political will that decided to turn every street in L.A. into a car-only route. The money ain’t the problem.

This sign stuff really does not seem like an improvement in the situation. It is like fighting to place a small bush around the perimeter of a strip mall – the whole thing is designed for cars, and a little band-aid like a bright sign won’t do much to fix the situation.

I don’t want to belittle the hard work that went into this project. I’m in a bit of a negative mood, and this really strikes me as not much of an improvement.

Securing money and support for say overhauling Venice Blvd. is an enormous project outside the budget and would require a lot of support. I like to be idealistic, but I don’t think an all or nothing approach is going to work. Basically I’m saying lets not stop all the little things that can be done now while we wait for the entire paradigm to flip over.

I’m all in support of a total change to the system and agree with your sentiment though. In my ideal future nearly all commutes in the city are made by a bikes and a fast efficient public transit system.

It doesn’t get to the meat of the matter. There is a fully striped bike lane on Venice Blvd. – but cars drive by cyclists going 45 to 50 mph – that is a stupid situation.

I’ll agree that signs have a role to play, but that they entirely miss the mark when it comes to addressing what is broken about how we plan our roadways.

Ideally the signs should not be necessary because people should know bikes can use the roads, it is the law after all, but that is sadly not the case, and the sign can be one part of educating drivers. What also needs to change is our drivers education and testing, which currently glosses over bikes briefly in the handbook and never appears on the test so why bother learning about?

Signage matters, and I think in a general sense both for bikes and cars, LA does not do a very a good job providing clear road signage, which I find odd since southern California is the birthplace of the car centric life style.

Never mind that the CADOT’s manual for highway construction induces hig speed car travel on nearly every road the state funds or builds.

Never mind that the mass and size of vehicles plays no part in assigning liability in crashes.

Never mind that bicycles, pedestrians, and transit projects are uniformly denied general transportation dollars.

Never mind that bicyclists, pedestrians, and transit users are paying for free highways, free parking (both garages and zoned parking requirements) out of their pay checks.

It’s the signs! The bloody signs we need to fix. Hah! Yeah, right.

If they’ve got science to back this move up, then I am all for it. From what I know there are two things that make biking, walking, and using transit safer and more convenient:

(1) fewer cars on the roads;
(2) slower cars.

These signs don’t look like they will do much of anything to protect anyone.

Bike are allowed to take the lane when ever conditions are such that it is unsafe to be at the far right of the road throughout the state of California. This is not just an SF thing, but those signs about bikes taking the lane are very rare in most of CA, but seen in quite a few places in SF.

Here is the California vehicle code in question and if you will notice in section 3, it describes when a bike is allowed to take the lane:

21202. (a) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at such time shall ride as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway except under any of the following situations:

(1) When overtaking and passing another bicycle or vehicle proceeding in the same direction.

(2) When preparing for a left turn at an intersection or into a private road or driveway.

(3) When reasonably necessary to avoid conditions (including, but not limited to, fixed or moving objects, vehicles, bicycles, pedestrians, animals, surface hazards, or substandard width lanes) that make it unsafe to continue along the right-hand curb or edge, subject to the provisions of Section 21656. For purposes of this section, a “substandard width lane” is a lane that is too narrow for a bicycle and a vehicle to travel safely side by side within the lane.

(b) Any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway of a highway, which highway carries traffic in one direction only and has two or more marked traffic lanes, may ride as near the left-hand curb or edge of such roadway as practicable.