#1 2008-07-16 12:13:28

damicoaustin
Member
From: Austin, TX
Registered: 2008-05-27
Posts: 143
Website

MUTCD rewrites... "May Take Full Lane"

Nadia from COA orginally posted much of this info on changes to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which included great news on a new sign for bikes "May Take Full Lane." (has a bike icon with words "May Take Full Lane")

While I'm not happy about the word "May"--since it might imply that signed areas are the only places where you can take a lane--it is nevetheless a great addition. If you left out "May" it might sound like a command to do so, and some bicyclists might feel uncomfortable integrating with traffic. Then again, if it's that unsafe to be riding right that you'd need a sign, maybe "May" should be left out.

I'm also concerned about the language setting up the proper use of the sign, since it concentrates on using it in situations where road lanes are too narrow for a bike to travel to the right with a car in the lane and mentions lanes with no shoulders. While this may imply lanes with parallel parking or other impediments, I'd like to see the recommendations for use be more specific. (For instance, I think something like this would be great for use on sections with construction that wipe out shoulder space with blockades.)

There's also the inclusion of sharrows, which is more good news, although again, the concentration is on areas with parallel parking and it still carries the philosophy of making the sharrow as far right as possible under the standards. (more on sharrows in another post)

As a followup, you can review the following:
http://www.trafficsign.us/npa.html  -- Good, organized collection of revisions

Revisions affecting bicyclists (keep scrolling all the way down to see the edits proposed, followed by art for all the signs)
http://www.lobv.org/docs/part09compl.pdf

Explanation of some of the proposed revisions concerning bicycle issues
http://www.lobv.org/docs/MUTCchangesoutlined.pdf

League of American Bicyclists magazine article
http://www.lobv.org/docs/american_bicyclist_signage.pdf

A great look at some rather unusual bike treatments
http://www.ite.org/education/IBT/BikeSlides(color).pdf

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#2 2008-07-16 13:01:56

Adriel
Member
Registered: 2008-05-27
Posts: 91

Re: MUTCD rewrites... "May Take Full Lane"

I could not really navigate the site, it was too clumsy, I wanted to give some input but it was not really presented in a way that I could easily use, maybe I need to take a class on how to read these documents.

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