Just a reminder we need Bike Lanes

Tim McNamara writes:

This reminds me of what I think is one of the worst situations in
traffic- having to deal with a right turn lane when going straight
ahead on the bike, in rush hour. I come across this sort of situation
fairly regularly, and there rarely seems to be a graceful way to
handle it. The cars want to get into the right turn lane, naturally
enough, and I want to get across it to the non-turning lane.

Around here it is not uncommon to see a right turn only lane and
adjacent to that a lane where the driver has the option to go straight
or turn right. These are a pain to deal with on a bike when you are
going straight through. You might think it would be easier, just ride
down the middle of the second lane, however, that is frequently the
lane most drivers want to use when turning right ('cause they can then
make a quick left into *Bucks, or whereever). The one that I had to
negotiate every morning was also at the end of a 1/2 mile uphill
section, with a freeway off-ramp at the bottom, so the speed
difference was huge. Usually I'd take the third lane and then deal
with merging back to the right after crossing the intersection,
however, getting to the third lane wasn't always easy. Fortunately,
if I couldn't go straight through, I could also get to my destination
by turning right, so I'd then proceed with plan B.

Joe