Regarding the parking in the bike lane during striping, in NYC, I believe the City allows this so that parking can be maintained while the floating parking is striped. It’s bit awkward, since it typically takes NYC DOT a few weeks to finish the same type of project, and the floating parking space is often used for double parking.

Thanks for the update!

Two cyclists, proceeding in contrary directions, arrive at a taxi parked in the cycle lanes. Who has priority, the cyclist going into the Loop, or the one leaving? Who should risk their life more by shifting further out into traffic?

I only ask as taxis are frequently found in the existing lane on Dearborn between the river and Illinois. Who gets the bill when the cyclist has to be scraped off the street? The taxi who caused the accident?

Regarding drivers worried about additional congestion: when biking gets safer, more people will be motivated to leave their cars at home and bike. Everyone is entitled to safe transport, including cyclists, and people will learn to work with the new system. Europeans are way ahead of us on this one. We can learn more quickly by following their example.

Dedicated bike signals and no left or right turn signals for motorized vehicles should be a standard for bike lanes on arterial streets in large US cities. The closest Los Angeles comes to this is having both no-left and no-right turn signals at intersections along the Orange Line BRT route. This makes an enormous difference for the comfort and safety for cyclists and pedestrians crossing the street from the mixed use path that parallels the bus way. Even though its legal for people to ride a bicycle on sidewalks in the city of Los Angeles, the need for cyclists to follow the walk signals and push the button for activation is a major weakness in its design for cycling, There is still plenty of time for a person on a bicycle to cross the intersection in the crosswalk when the walk signal is blinking and yet that might not be what the police would consider within the rules. This also is a annoying disruption in continuity for travel on a bicycle compared to riding in the street where the traffic signals are timed for a less disruptive travel.

The bicycle specific traffic signals on the left side of a one-way street enables the bike lanes to be kept next to the curb as the intersection is approached, instead of moved over to accomodate left-only or right-only turn lanes as is required under the MUTCD and also avoiding the potential conflicts from bus stops.

Parked vehicles provide protection for cycling in lieu of grade separation. This is protected lanes on the cheap, but it can be effective if there are vehicles parked throughout most of the day. I’ve got a feeling that there will have to be some experimentation on plastic bollard placement at the intersections to keep vehicles from entering the bike lane. I’ve seen several instances where cities in the Netherlands used to put a rigid bollard at the beginning of a bike path in order to keep vehicles from entering.

Having dotted lines through the intersection to connect the bike lanes also gives a sense of continuity for the cyclist.

Bus stops are a problem when the bike lanes are on the right-side of the street. At least one Dutch city overcame this by switching the bike lane over to a bike path that runs behind the bus stop and then the cyclist is moved back to a bike lane on the street when this is cleared This creates a uninterrupted ride for the bicyclist and avoids the potential conflicts with the much greater mass bus.
The standard treatment for bike lane installations in Los Angeles is for the stripping to disappear at virtually all the potential conflict points such as the approach to right turn lanes, intersections, driveways and freeway ramps. Its absurd to believe that this is goes towards creating a route thats within the stress tolerance level of most potential adult cyclists. In fact, its been my observation that most cyclists remain on the sidewalks where there are bike lane installations on arterial streets in Los Angeles. Bicyclists riding on sidewalks is sort of the canary in the coal mine for how safe most potential cyclists feel about pedaling on a street.
Another standard treatment in Los Angeles for new bike lane installations is to put sharrows down when intersections are approached instead of taking away a left or right turn only lane.

I’m hoping for a big uptick in the cycling rate down Dearborn St in order to encourage other cities to emphasize installing barrier protected bike lanes on primary streets. Los Angeles will probably gets its first protected bike lane just south of downtown on Figueroa St in 2014. How well Dearborn St works might encourage the LADOT to try one-way street protected bike lanes in the downtown area since they have already recently considered doing this.

My final word on this subject, John (and Gabe Klein): I want to report that as of today, the loading/standing zone across the street from me — at roughly 7:20 S. Dearbon — is *still* labeled (on the street — in white line-paint) as “Parking.” And there is no street-line indicator that the space is in any way different from the rest of the paid-parking that surrounds it. I just now saw some guys with neon vests (don’t know who they work for, doing some type of “work” on the street), and I asked them if they know if that space is a loading zone or paid parking. One guy said, “It says parking.” Another guy said, “I wouldn’t park there without paying.” They probably don’t work for the city (they became suddenly shy when I tried to find out who they were and who they worked for), but… bottom line is that I consider my loading zone still in jeopardy and it is currently *not* functional as a loading zone.