On May 19, 9:04*am, Jay Beattie wrote:
Not withstanding bike lanes and green boxes, it is still possible to
get squashed by a truck in downtown Portland.http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/i...cyclists_death...
Now they are talking about putting in complicated warning lights.

Oddly enough, we got these green boxes and lanes exactly because a
girl got squashed by a turning truck in another part of down town.
None of this stuff is a guaranty that you are going to be seen by a
giant, slow moving truck with mirrors mounted six feet off the
ground. *I am absolutely not placing blame, but with the speed
differences in the two vehicles (nimble bike versus lumbering semi on
narrow downtown street with short blocks between lights), I always
wonder how these truck squash incidents occur.

-- Jay Beattie.

In this incident it seems the truck necessarily was turning right from
the left lane. That's pretty tricky for a cyclist who isn't versed in
these things. The truck is pointed to the left as it approaches and
goes into the intersection, in order to swing right, surprisingly
quickly. Looks like it's going straight through the intersection.

This didn't have anything to do with infrastructure as far as I can
tell, other than it was present. On an unlined street, the same thing
happens.