Cycling

I was stopped when riding across Georgia Street on my bike, heading north on Nicola Street, in Vancouver, by a traffic cop who said I had to wait for the pedestrian walk signal.

This intersection has traffic lights on Georgia and stop signs on Nicola.

I was in a situation that could have been very ugly. I was waiting to turn right at an uncontrolled intersection. I was waiting for traffic to clear from the lane that I was about to turn into.

From the executive summary: "Safe Kids Worldwide undertook an in-depth analysis of current patterns of injury and parents’ beliefs and behaviors related to keeping children safe during four wheeled sports: bicycling, scootering, skating and skateboarding."

The US Transportation Research Board has published the Summary of the 10th University Transportation Centers Spotlight Conference focusing on Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety held on December 1, 2016. This may be of interest to those of us in Canada as our regulatory agencies tend to follow the US lead.

This video from the City of Victoria explains how to use bike boxes associated with the city's new protected cycling lanes from a cyclist's point of view. It is worthwhile viewing for drivers as it shows the movements of the cyclist at the intersection. Some movements by the cyclist may be unexpected in terms of what we are used to prior to the advent of the bike box and they are worthwhile encountering here first to avoid confusion on the road.

Many people think that you cannot ride your bicycle in a marked crosswalk. This is a holdover from the past and is no longer always the case. Today crosswalks that cyclists are allowed to ride across may also be marked with "elephant's feet," a line of squares on the outside of each solid line that forms the crosswalk.

I wonder if someone could help me understand how this intersection should work:

This case examines a collision between a cyclist, Kyle Ilett, and a driver, Leah Buckley, at the intersection of Admirals Road and Seenupin Road in Esquimalt, B.C. Mr. Ilett was riding northbound on the shoulder of Admirals Road nearing Seenupin Road. The shoulder was marked by a single solid white line on both sides of the road.

Erin Couldwell was operating his bicycle at the exit of a parking lot onto a lane near the Victoria Police Department headquarters just before 7:00 am on September 25, 2014. His bicycle had neither lights nor reflectors. Constable Horonowitsch had just commenced his dayshift and was approaching the parking lot exit in the lane driving a marked police vehicle with it's normal vehicle lighting on.

Question: I grew up in the Netherlands where riding a bike everywhere is normal. I moved to Vancouver in December, 2009 and have noticed that there is not much safety commonsense with cyclists. My main concern is their "safety" LED lights! They shine them upwards blinding pedestrians and drivers along the way.