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To increase bikers safety in tunnels, a button or some other type of contact they can trigger while riding past is installed near the tunnel entrance. When triggered, a warning sign indicating that there is a biker in the tunnel lights up and stays lit for the time an average cyclist would need to get
through the tunnel. Thereby motorists could see that there is a biker ahead and be on the lookout when they go from daylight and into the dark tunnel. It's always a problem with the light transition.
Baked.
http://www.google.c...n+light&btnG=Search
Several versions in several places. [danielo, Oct 23 2007]
Double baked
http://maps.google....043d3507f00ffa8f044
Google map reference to one of these near San Francisco [danpat, Oct 23 2007]
[link]
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Good idea; but would need cyclists to stop or perform distracting feats of in-motion reaching whilst in a dangerous place [+]. |
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Also useful:
Cyclists who turn on their lights in tunnels
Tunnels with brighter lights near the mouth |
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Every bridge and tunnel I've seen around here is off-limits to cyclists and pedestrians because they are so narrow the only way a vehicle would be able to safely pass a bicycle would be for the cyclist to be within a milimeter of the wall and the car's mirrors would pass within an inch of the cyclist. Not safe by any means. And you cannot expect, during rush hour, vehicles to simply ride along behind the cyclist until they're through the tunnel. Not going to happen. I think it's best, where possible, to keep cyclists out of tunnels for everyone's safety. There are pedestrian walkways that go over and alongside bridges and tunnels. Cyclists are expected to use them. For the tunnels that are wide enough (ie, have some sort of shoulder for the cyclist to ride on) this is a good idea. But for narrow tunnels, not a good idea. (neutral) |
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I'm still not sure if they actually work or not, but several traffic lights around my area have ground loop sensors in the bike lanes. Something like this could be installed so the cyclist would not have the distraction. |
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And [21] for a reasonably short tunnel, you can expect vehicles to ride along behind, at least in most places in the US it is the legal requirement. In this case the cyclist should be riding out into the lane to block it completely, and the driver should follow until the next safe passing area. This makes the signal even more important. |
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Well, if it saves just one bicyclists, I'm voting for it...except in Seattle where bicyclists are really eco-terrorists...so we ban it in Seattle...okay? |
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Shouldn't the title be _"Bikes In Tunnel" Warning Sign_? I thought we were making subways for bikes. |
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And what [danielo] linked. Get the title right, then Google the title. |
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Add this one to the list of good ideas that already exist but the poster didn't realise. |
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(As opposed to the list of bad ideas that... of which there have been plenty too.) |
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//Well, if it saves just one bicyclists, I'm
voting for it.// No! If it saves just one
life, you should be voting against it.
People always say "If it only saves one
life".. etc, without pausing to think. |
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Suppose you decided to install this on
all major tunnels, in order to save "just
one bicyclist". Given a reasonable
estimate of work-related accidents,
you're likely to find that it'll cost more
lives than it will save. |
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Add to that the cost of doing it. It's
going to be more than enough to pay
for an extra ambulance crew, or for a
couple of extra police patrols, or for
improved lane-markings on a highway,
or for any of a hundred other things
that are going to save more than one
life. |
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So, no. If it's going to save "just one"
person, you should vote against it. |
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I just think, if there are enough cyclists in an area to warrant using something like this, simply adding a bike lane in the tunnel would work much better, and be safer. The Maple Street Bridge here in Spokane has that, and the lane continues through the tunnels at each end, too. The lane is protected by a waist-high concrete wall. |
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Thanks danielo. Good thing I didn't try to make my million on that one. |
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[21 Quest] Here in Norway there is often no other option than the tunnels due to inconvenient, though scenic, mountains and fjords. I'll send some of the links from google to the state highway department and see they can install some of these. |
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[baconbrain] Title changed. |
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Are baked ideas supposed to be deleted? |
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I don't think they have to be, so long as they were posted in good faith and are not 'widely known to exist'. Oh, and welcome to the half-bakery [m homola]. |
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Indeed, welcome. Leave the idea--it's a good one, which is why it's baked. For a first one, that's doing pretty good. Thanks for the title change. |
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