From: [email protected] > Mike's comment about waiting for the light to cross Regent reminded me of my > perennial > dilemma. > > > 3. I too saw THAT Guy eastbound on the south side of the intersection > > > of Monroe and Regent last night. As I waited on the sidewalk in front > > > of the new hotel for the light to change so I could cross Regent, ... > > When traveling east on the Missing Link, should I > > (1) completely cross the crosswalk across Monroe, then wait on the sidewalk > for the walk > light to cross Regent? or (2) cross only partway, stopping in the rightmost > next to hotel) > lane of Monroe and waiting for the green light to cross? > > Pro of (1) is that's what people expect you to do, but con is that motorists > who don't > know the intersection (or who know it but still pretend there aren't cyclists > and peds > there) have a tendency to turn a right directly into all the folks in the > crosswalk that > crosses Regent. > > Pro of (2) is that one is much less likely to be "invisible" to right-turning > motorists, > con is that they may give you unkind looks and wonder what you're doing > there. (Last week, > I was forced to do #2 by a motorist who was blocking the crosswalk with his > car - had no > option of making it over to the other sidewalk. He didn't have his right turn > signal and, > when the light turned green, moved as if to to pass me on my right to go > straight across > Regent, which caused me to scream "Don't hit me" which caused his passenger > to say - if I > read lips as well as I think I do - "Ohmigod whatthef--k") > > Both options are legal, as far as I can figure out, which isn't saying much. > > Really, I preferred the intersection this summer when there was no sidewalk > there. Then > (1) wasn't a choice and when I did (2), I surprised no one.
Eastbound: If the light is green for Monroe, I'll cross Regent in the west crosswalk of Monroe, then wait at the NW corner, cross Monroe when the light changes and proceed. If the light is green for eastbound Regent, I'll ride Regent for that block, take advantage of the downslope to pick up some speed, hang a left at Mills (?), go north a block or so and pick up the path again. Westbound, it just always seems to work out to cross Monroe first, then Regent, in the crosswalks with the light sequence. But as to what that intersection needs, it needs to be treated as what it is, a six-way, three-thoroughfare intersection, with a separate green for each thoroughfare (Regent, Monroe, Path). I've seen the videos for those gizmos they have out in Seattle or Portland or wherever it is, where a path diagonally crosses an intersection, and path users ALWAYS have a red until they trip a sensor. That's tantamount to a separate drinking fountain. An intersection that has two roads and one path should have three separate greens, each cycling (no pun intended) in sequence. In this case, the green for the Path (not sure if that segment constitutes the SW or the Missing Link) should be straight through the intersection, just as the two car roads do, and just as the railroad once did years ago. If this were a six-way intersection of three car roads, you can bet your sweet bippy that there would be three separate greens in the light sequence. --------------------- Paul T. O'Leary Desktop Insurgent Madison WI USA _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://lists.danenet.org/listinfo.cgi/bikies-danenet.org
