From: elr@trintex.uucp (Ed Ravin)
Subject: Re: T junction quandrary
Organization: Bike To Work, Even When It's Wet Outside
Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 15:03:55 GMT

In article <01010064.l71vhu@titipu.resun.com> ed@titipu.resun.com (Edward Reid) writes:
>When I was riding in Philadelphia I contended with a similar situation just
>behind the Philadelphia Art Museum.  Two busy 3-lane one-way roads merge into a
>single 6-lane road, which then splits only a couple of hundred yards later,
>with two lanes going right, three left, and one splitting..Traffic only enters
>from one road at a time due to traffic signals, but a high proportion of that
>traffic wants to cross to the other side before the split -- as did I.

I have something similar at Armory Place in White Plains, NY -- two roads
merge and then diverge, with most of the traffic wanting to do some kind of
crossing manuever rather than go straight, which, come to think of it, is
sort of a crossing manueuver itself.  My strategy is to act like a car --
that's what I do all the time anyway.  I get in the middle of the left lane
before the first traffic signal, since I'll be moving left.  When I get the
green I signal a left turn and start moving -- oncoming traffic wanting to
turn in my path sees me and usually yields to me as I move one more lane to
the left.  Now's the fun part -- the way I want to go scoots down a hill,
merges with a busy road, then goes back up again.  Again, like a car, I take
the middle of the lane, which starts out as a right hand lane, but then
becomes a left hand lane as I go back uphill.

After five years of this I have no problems with this manuever except nasty
drivers who will honk and/or yell verbal abuse at me as I go up the hill.
I think it's because they've come off a fairly fast street or the adjacent
interstate, and don't like the idea of slowing down for a plodding cyclist
going uphill in the left hand lane (I'm going to make a left turn the
next block, so I stay on the left rather than cross to the right and
cross back again).

I'm not fond of this intersection, and there is an alternate route that
costs an extra couple of minutes (and is much more level), but since this
is the fastest route for me, I take it unless I have a reason to go the
other way (like shopping stops).  If I avoided the intersection then it
would be running away from the problem, alas.  I've noticed a few other
cyclists who've learned how to cross this beastie, so it's good to know
I'm not the only one fighting the quandary.

For our correspondent at the T-intersection that started this thread, just
do like a car -- drive in the middle of the lane, signal your intentions,
move to whatever lane you need to complete your manuever, and shrug off
the inevitable verbal harrasment that will be hurled your way by drivers
unused to seeing cyclists assert themselves in traffic.

-- 
Ed Ravin- elr@trintex.uucp| I like to think (and the sooner the better!)
  elr%trintex@uunet.uu.net| Of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computers
           +1-914-993-4737| Live together in mutually programming harmony
my opinions, nobody else's| Like pure water touching clear sky.  -R. Brautigan
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.soc