Gordon Renkes has produced a video showing conditions following restriping at Tamarack Circle in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Here’s a Google overhead view of this rather unusual circular street. Click away the caption balloon to get a better view. You may enlarge this view, or go to the full-featured Google page by clicking on “View Larger Map under the image.
The teardrop pointer is at the location of the Google Street View below, of Tamarack Circle before the restriping. (I downloaded the image instead of embedding the Google image, in case Google redoes the Street View).
Google Street view of Tamarack Circle before restriping
Before the restriping, with the very wide right lane, motorists probably parked most of the way to the corner, and many cyclists probably rode in the door zone.
Here’s the video showing condition following the restriping:
The design does encourage cyclists to ride outside the door zone of parked cars. But, as the video shows, the striping confuses motorists. Among other things, the striping instructs them to right-hook cyclists. In the video, one motorist even right-hooks another. Ohio law says:
“Approach for a right turn and a right turn shall be made as close as practicable to the right-hand curb or edge of the roadway.”
Striping which incites violations of the law risks liability claims.
Creating right-turn pockets to resolve the problems would require removal of a few parking spaces before each entering street.
If parking were on the left at the inside of the curve, sight lines at intersections with streets at the outside would be better (though worse at driveways at the inside, and for drivers exiting parking spaces, due to the curve). A combined bike lane/right turn lane (still “experimental”) would be needed due to width limitations.
