Who is a vulnerable road user?

This post is a follow-up to another one about the same intersection. The earlier post describes a bicycle ride through the intersection. This post asks what defines a vulnerable road user.

On January 31 of this year, my son Jacob and I drove through the intersection in a car. Yes, I know, but the computer stuff we were buying wouldn’t fit nicely on a bike, and it was a wet day. The car is an electric car, if that makes you feel any better.

We haven’t been driving often enough in Cambridge to get used to the traffic there, and we had an interesting encounter. Our dashcam captured the video below.

In a slow-speed collision like the one that fortunately didn’t happen, our Nissan Leaf’s seat belts, air bags and robust construction might provide some protection as long as we can get out and the battery doesn’t catch fire, but there is no telling.

Vulnerable road user = victim?

Our incident with the bus holds a lesson about the meaning of the term “vulnerable road user”.

A vulnerable road user is typically described as someone lacking the protection of a metal shell. Often weight is mentioned, as in “a bicycle is no match for a two-ton car.” Or in this case, “our 1.8 ton car is no match tor a 15 ton bus.” Actually, the premise about weight itself is faulty — momentum, not weight, figures in most collisions.

Even drivers of semitrailer trucks are vulnerable. That is why there are runaway-truck ramps. Motorcyclists are frequently not described as vulnerable, despite the considerable risks of motorcycling.

What, then, is the common denominator for “vulnerable road user.”? It is a perception of victimhood — of smallness and helplessness. Size and speed overturn it even though they don’t eliminate risks. Drivers who sit up high have a better view of the road, and may have a feeling of dominance, but on the other hand, their vehicles are prone to rollovers.

Let’s try a different definition: a vulnerable road user is one who lacks strategies to prevent bad things from happening, regardless of the transportation mode. These strategies are empowering. They prevent crashes and build confidence.

Refining strategies

Now let’s look at my strategies and my son’s.

I have a toolkit of CyclingSavvy strategies which work wherever the normal rules of movement apply. One is to choose a lane position before reaching an intersection to avoid conflict with other traffic.

That rule does not not apply at Mount Auburn Street and Putnam Avenue.

When I rode my bicycle through the intersection, it confused me, as I described in the earlier post. I kept myself safe, but I encouraged a driver to turn right, possibly right hooking another cyclist. Only lucky timing prevented that.

The bike ride was my first time through the intersection since it got its unusual lane configuration. Next time, I’ll know that I have to look behind myself, if I choose to use the bus and bike lane — as I might, because traffic backs up in the overloaded left lane.

In the drive-through in a car, the intersection confused a bus driver. If my son and I had waited for the bus to depart, we would have also had to wait till we got the right-turn signal again. Instead, we chose to become vulnerable road users and cautiously turn across in front of the bus. It was an uncomfortable choice. We couldn’t be absolutely sure that the bus driver was waiting specifically for us.

When we drive into Cambridge again, we’ll avoid turning right at that intersection. There is no way to do that without possibly right-hooking a bus or bicyclist — or being right hooked when turning illegally from the bus/bike lane.

For reference

The Google Street View image below, from October, 2020, shows signs, signals and markings at the intersection, in case you didn’t see them long enough in the video. There is a right-turn arrow under the car. The two-stage turn queuing box on the far right corner, shown in the video, had not yet been painted. No other signs, signals or markings have changed.

A Google camera car moves forward, shooting a 360 degree view every few seconds. A Street View sequence can contain a lot of information.

In the image above, the special bus signal is in its triangle (yellow-light) phase and the light for through traffic is yellow. A pedestrian is crossing against the light. The cyclist in the left lane is using lane control and will turn left. A few seconds earlier, the bus signal was in its vertical bar (green light) phase, and the light for through traffic was green. Here is the sequence of Street Views in order: One, two, three, four.

A closer look

Here’s a closer look at some of the signs and signals. Because bicyclists can legally turn right on red, and use any lane, they can legally turn right from the middle lane in front of buses and other bicyclists. They can also legally turn right from the right-hand lane into the narrow right-hand lane of Putnam Avenue at the same time as motor vehicles are turning right from the middle lane.

Vulnerable road user, or vigilant?

In the images below, the arrows are the colors of the traffic signals. (Textured white is for a bus signal with a vertical white bar, the equivalent of a red light for buses. We’ll assume that it means the same for bicyclists, though nothing indicates that.).

With the unusual lane assignments in this intersection, the two movements shown in each image below are legal at the same time. They require either a bicyclist or a motorist to yield to traffic coming from behind. If lane assignment has you crossing other traffic in the intersection, be extra vigilant, not vulnerable. Or use a lane which doesn’t pose this challenge.

This is not even to speak of the disregard for traffic signals and lane markings by bicyclists and motorists at this intersection.

How about other intersections? Like us, you you may need to amend your strategies. You may need to be extra-vigilant when intersection design violates the normal rules of movement, and in particular when streams of traffic cross each other inside an intersection. Try to get it right the first time.

And now for something completely different

A bus stop after an intersection is preferable because pedestrians cross behind rather than ahead of the bus. A pedestrian signal phase could follow the green light here, as it already does. A bus would then merge into an empty lane after picking up and discharging passengers. Bicyclists could pass the bus in an empty lane while it is waiting at the stop, and get to the bike lane farther ahead. There would be no rationale for odd lane assignments in the intersection or special traffic signals for the bus. There could be a mixing zone where the bus stop is now. The bus shelter would have to move here, to identify people waiting for the bus, though the overhang of the building also provides shelter. Seriously, what’s not to like about this?