Bike lane at Willow & Highland: is this legal?

[serious-noir.livejournal.com]

I've never quite understood the auto rules for the bike lane at the intersection of Willow & Highand (one of life's little mysteries).

I was driving there yesterday approaching the light and preparing to turn right (east) on to Highland. I was in the left-most lane (to the left of the bike lane in the image). Cars were passing me on the right in the far right lane and making the right turn. Needless to say, something felt off.

Usually the right-most lane has parked cars but it was street cleaning day so it was empty.

Was I in the wrong lane to make a right turn or were the drivers passing me on the right being jerks?

Comments

[irilyth]

"Take the lane", is my advice. Be exactly where a left-turning car would be, i.e. to the left, leaving enough space for straight-going traffic behind you to pass you on your right and continue straight. Since you're narrow, you don't want to get so far over to the left that *left-going* traffic tries to pass you on your right -- you want a left-turning car to pull in behind you, just like they would if you were a car or a motorcycle.

[irilyth]

Oh, and corollary to that: If there's already a left-turning car there, pull in behind them, don't try to creep around them. Sometimes you can get away with that, but if you're not sure if you can pull alongside the car so you can both turn left together, don't bother -- the five seconds you'll save isn't worth the risk that you turn invisible by moving into a space where cars don't expect someone to be.

[keithn.livejournal.com]

I turn left from Willow onto Highland (in a car) every day and I strongly agree with this. The closest I have ever come to hitting a bike is when I was waiting at that green light to turn left, got my opportunity, and started turning only to see a bicycle flying into the intersection passing me on my left. Please don't do that.

The best option for a bicycle who wants to make that left turn unfortunately is probably to seek an alternate route, and I think almost all of them do because I rarely ever see bikes try it. It's going to be easier to make that left off Cutter (with two lanes) or even from the stop sign on Hancock.