The cost of common sense

After six cyclists were killed in 2007, the City of Portland is moving ahead with a plan to install "bike boxes" at a handful of dangerous intersections. These are figurative boxes, painted onto the pavement and placed ahead of traffic, roughly between cars and crosswalks (like in that picture over there.)

The whole idea is to eliminate the "right hook" sort of crash. That's where a vehicle turning right fails to yield to a bike in a right hand bike lane.

Of course, no amount of paint can substitute for defensive driving, and any cyclist who rides assuming that cars can see him and will yield because of all the paint and signage and reflectors and yelling and fingering -- well, that cyclist will soon be converted into a non-cyclist.

As always, my feeling is that these campaigns may not save any lives but they do serve a useful secondary purpose: To advertise the fact that bikes are here, they belong, and cyclists have increasing clout with government and business.