Risk to bicyclists in a separated path from left turns across multiple lanes

At signalized intersections, permitted left turns (i.e., on a green ball, after yielding) across multiple through lanes and across a separated bike lane or bike path present a threat to bicyclist safety. A conflict study of two such intersections with a bidirec­tional bike path found that when cyclists cross while a vehicle is ready to turn left and there is no opposing through traffic to bleek it, the chance of the left-turning motorist yielding safely was only 9%, and the chance of their yielding at all-including yielding only after beginning the turn, then stopping in the opposing through lanes-was still only 37%. Motorist non-yielding rates were worse toward bikes arriving during green, toward bikes approaching from the opposite direction (i.e., riding on the right side of the road), and toward bikes facing a queue with multiple left turning vehicles. Of 1 12 cyclists who arrived on green when there was at least one left-turning car, but no opposing through traffic blocking it, 73 had to slow or stop to avoid a collision. Although these conflicts could be essentially eliminated using protected-only left turn phasing (turn on green arrow), common existing criteria prefer permitted left turns to reduce vehicular delay. A case study shows how, by consider­ing multiple signalization alternatives, it can be possible to convert left turns to protected-only phasing without imposing a substantial delay burden on vehicles or ether road users.