<p>Driving is an essential life skill. I personally failed my road test 3x when I was younger and didn’t get my license until I was over 30. As a parent you need to be prepared if you need to take your children to the hospital or doctor in an emergency. When you are in business or depending on your career, sometimes you need to go on appointments or business trips where the only way to get where you need to go are to drive. </p>
<p>Swimming is an important life skill as well and to this day both Cornell and the schools in the SUNY system require swimming and the ability to pass a swim test to graduate.</p>
<p>Our bike lanes are too narrow for cars here in CA. You signal to turn right from the right traffic lane, look to make sure there are no cyclists coming, and make your turn. If there are cyclists coming, bike lanes or not,you stop and wait for them to pass. This is important even if there are no bike lanes because we have cyclists on a lot of our roads- not just those with designated narrow strips of bike lanes.
Cars don’t belong driving in the bike lanes. I’ve never seen one wide enough for a car around here. Most cyclists just share the road and ride on the street with the rest of us.</p>
<p>Driving is important unless you plan to live your life where there is good public transit. It’s hard to imagine wanting to limit oneself in that way these days if you have the choice.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but I live in California and this is incorrect. It’s irrelevant how wide the bike land is. You merge to the curb lane. Any cyclists who were behind you and who intend to continue straight will then pass you on the left.</p>
<p>Here is the relevant part of California law:</p>
<p>Hi CD, we have a similar situation with S, he attends a magnet school about 20 miles from our home. In his case though he does frequently drive to school, navigating the a toll road and yep, the DC Beltway in rush hour traffic.</p>
<p>I have spatial problems and I had a really hard time learning to tie my shoes, too. One day my grandma tried to teach me instead of my parents and it just clicked right away, but that was well after most kids in my class had learned.</p>
<p>I remember when I was tested for dyscalculia, the doctor asked me, “do you know your right from left?” I said, “of course!” because I do. Then he said, “Okay, show me your left, and then your right,” and I did. Then he said, “okay, now show me MY right” and I got it right but I hesitated and had to think. When I don’t think about it I always get that wrong. My fiance is wearing rubber gloves to bed over hand lotion lately, and he has me hold open the gloves for him, and I am always telling him I have the wrong hand. It’s dumb, because logically I do know the correct answer. This doesn’t seem to affect my maneuvering when I drive, I always turn the wheel the right way without difficulty, but I did have a hard time learning to navigate. </p>
<p>I have no sense of “where” things are. Even now, my knowledge of my city is a series of snapshots of intersections in my head and a memorization of how each snapshot connects together to get to a certain place-- and I can’t picture anything between the intersections at all. I can picture a straight line with these snapshots in place, but I can’t picture the “grid” of the roads and how each road connects together. My brain doesn’t work that way.</p>
<p>The main part of my delay in learning the freeway wasn’t actually merging, lane changes, or anything like that, it was dread that I would miss an exit and have to get off someplace where I didn’t have any “snapshots” to know how to get back on the freeway in the correct direction and fix my mistake. Getting lost in town is scary but not the end of the world, if I get lost on the freeway I could end up in Detroit or in another state. Or at least, that was my fear.</p>
<p>Apparently I’m not in compliance with the law, but I avoid driving in bike lanes whenever possible. We have a lot of situations where there is a bike lane at a signal. If I am turning right but I have to stop, I’m not going to pull into and stop in the bike lane and force a cyclist to go into traffic on the left. I’ll just wait for the light and then carefully make the turn.
Where we live there are a lot of twisty roads, narrow roads and poor visibility, the idea of merging into a narrow bike lane seems very unsafe. The fact that cyclists are killed too frequently in Los Angeles- many in bike lanes- colors my perspective.</p>
<p>People on the autism spectrum (like my son, and probably me) frequently have spatial problems. My Aspie son took forever to learn to tie his shoes; I still had to tie his skates when he was eight or nine. He had a tough time learning to ride a bike, too, he can barely swim, and he is a poor skater considering how much he has skated. He is having a tough time learning to drive, too.</p>
<p>It sounds like the OP’s daughter has a similar type of spatial deficit. She’ll probably take a long time to learn to drive, and she’ll probably always be a cautious, deliberative driver who sometimes has to double back when other drivers would have been able to make a quick maneuver.</p>
<p>You’re telling me that illegally making a right turn across a stream of traffic, illegally cutting off cyclists, is safer than merging? Do you do the same thing when cars are to your right, or do you only cut off cyclists? What if the cyclists are fast? </p>
<p>A right-turning driver improperly failing to merge, and hitting a lawful straight-through bicyclist, is such a well-known hazard that cyclists have a name for it: “right hook.” </p>
<p>I hope in the future you stop making illegal, unsafe right turns, and begin to obey the law, moonchild.</p>
<p>I haven’t read the entire thread, so apologies if I’m duplicating advice:</p>
<p>Have you tried to find out WHY your daughter can’t drive? I ask this because this is what happened to a friend’s daughter. Good student, but one with certain learning disabilities - the way she processed information and stimuli made it difficult for her to drive. She took driver’s training but was still such a poor driver with very little self-confidence that there was no way she’d pass the test. Finally, her parents took her to Masterdrive ([MasterDrive</a> | Driving Schools In Orange County, Denver, Colorado Springs and Fort Collins](<a href=“http://www.masterdrive.com/]MasterDrive”>http://www.masterdrive.com/)) where she was assessed and where she received specialized instruction catered to her needs and abilities. She was able to pass a driver’s test and drives often - and safely. (She’s now 26)</p>
<p>See if Masterdrive is in your area, or contact them to see if they can recommend a school that offers a similar program. My own kids did Masterdrive, I was impressed by the program, which is very popular here in Denver.</p>
<p>Ema, I feel for you! I know my H and D have struggles with spatial orientation, which you describe so well. It makes them upset and embarrassed sometimes.</p>
<p>Recently, they have begun using SIRI on a cellphone for walking, and GPS with voice instructions while driving. These technologies are very helpful to them, as we’ve all moved to a new city and are often lost until we are found. Basically, they listen to the orders each time and do as the machine says. Our consolation: a recent study found “at any given time, 10% of all New Yorkers are lost.”</p>
<p>No, :rolleyes: I don’t cut off cyclists, across a stream of traffic. I do what everyone else in my neighborhood does ; wait until cyclists have passed, then turn right. Our bike lanes are about three feet wide and cyclists usually use them but also are out in part of the road as well. We try to look out for each other. </p>
<p>And I don’t think I’ll be spending any more time in bike lanes, thanks. Fortunately, you rarely have to enter a bike lane at all for turns, as they often end at the intersection and pick up again later. But even with roads without bike lanes, I’m very aware of cyclists. We have a few in our family, and I’ve been one myself. Dh and I used to ride with a Wheelman group, so I’m no stranger to what’s it’s like to ride a bike in traffic. Sometimes the letter of the law isn’t the safest thing to do in every situation, even if it’s the legal thing. In my case, I’d rather get a ticket than hit a cyclist.</p>
<p>On a sad note, the father of a friend of ours lost his life two weeks ago riding his bicycle, in a bike lane. He was hit from behind, killed instantly. I don’t take this whole subject lightly. It’s always more important to do the safe thing, which is always be aware of cyclists sharing the road. In most cases I’ve found it’s safer to signal, slow down a bit and let them pass and then make my turn rather than merging into the bike lane with them. When I’m on a bike, I appreciate it, too. Dh, who still rides, agrees.
Now, if a bike lane was actually the width of a real traffic lane, I would do it differently. But that’s not what I’ve seen here. They are wide enough for one bike rider to go single file. If the riders don’t want to do that, they ride out on the road, in a group.
I can tell you that when my friend’s dad was killed, what everyone said was, what the “heck” was a car doing in the bike lane?! It’s still being investigated, so we don’t know.</p>
<p>They end before the intersection and pick up after the intersection precisely because you are supposed to merge to the curb to make a right turn. The savvy cyclist going straight will move a foot or two to the left when approaching the intersection.</p>
<p>I hope you don’t have labelled bike lanes that are three feet wide, though I understand such facilities exist. Three feet is seriously substandard for a bike lane; I would tend to ride outside the white line if I was on a street with such a deficient “bike lane.” Caltrans guidelines call for 3.3 meters (11 feet) width if there is a rolled curb, 3.6 meters (12 feet) if there is a straight curb, and 1.5 meters (5 feet) beyond the edge of marked parking stalls, if there is marked parking.</p>
<p>I can’t understand what accident you think you would cause by merging into the bike lane as you approach your right turn. You’d be merging, so you would of course yield right of way to the cyclists already in the lane. How is this different from any other merge? Are you afraid of being rear-ended by a following car as you slow to perform the merge?</p>
<p>So maybe we’re not disagreeing at all. I do merge to the right after the bike lane ends. I just don’t do it in the bike lane. I’ll slow down, wait for the bikes to pass and then turn. I don’t have to cross into the bike lane at all to make a right turn, so the idea of “merging into the bike lane” is seems foreign to me.
And yes, we have some pretty substandard bike lanes.
The only time it’s awkward is if you’re at a stop light, and you want to turn right but there is a car in front of you and riders on your right. I stay in my traffic lane until the light changes, start out slowly and let the riders go by, then I’ll move over slowly to the right after the bike lane ends and the riders have passed. Sometimes a right turn lane leads into this naturally.</p>
<p>I see. It sounds like we are talking about the same maneuver, which finishes with you, at the curb, beginning to turn right. Sorry for the confusion, then. </p>
<p>Notice, though, that if you happened to be turning right not at an intersection but at, say, the entrance to a driveway or a business parking lot in the middle of the block, you should still be at the curb. Even if that puts you right in the middle of a marked bike lane. You don’t want straight-through cyclists to your right if you are turning right.</p>
<p>What I often see is a right-turning car already at the stop line, leaving a bike-lane-sized space to their right. Rather, the car about to turn should already be at the curb-- which it sounds like you are, moonchild.</p>
<p>GPS is the greatest invention ever and what allowed me to eventually be able to drive to more than just work and school. If I’ve never been someplace before, I CAN get there with GPS-- it still makes me nervous but I am getting less and less nervous. I keep it in my glove box even when I don’t think I need it just so that “OMG WHAT IF” panic doesn’t set in if I miss an exit or a turn. Most of the time I don’t need to use it anymore but if I have it in the car I’m not afraid. The compass on my dash board helps me sometimes, too.</p>
<p>They just put in bike lanes on a major road where I live, I had never seen them before other than MAYBE in Ann Arbor. I’ve never seen a cyclist use it and I am kind of glad because I have no clue what the rules of the road are for cyclists. I have never been taught. They put the bike lane between the right lane and the turn lane, which seems counter intuitive because I have to cross right over the bike lane to get to the right turn lane. Did they set that up correctly? It just doesn’t seem safe for the cyclist to have cars crossing over their lane to get to the turn lane. I admit ignorance.</p>
<p>Excellent job, Ema’s city! That’s exactly how the bike lane should be striped. If a motorist is turning right, and a cyclist in the bike lane is going straight, their paths have to cross. And since the cyclist is continuing straight, they have the right of way. The motorist must carefully merge through the bike lane, yielding right of way to any cyclists who happen to be in it, to get to the right turn lane. Then the right-turning motorist can turn right. If the bike lane were incorrectly striped to the right of the right-turning cars, then the cars would hit the cyclists when they turned.</p>
<p>I love GPS because I feel confident (mostly) getting to a destination in an unfamiliar city. However, I hate that my kids are dependent on the GPS as they learn to navigate in a car. They have no spatial sense of what their city looks like, no internal/mental map in their head like many of us parents do who grew up reading maps. I’ve tried to go over a real, paper map to orient them to their city, but they resist. I feel like this generation will suffer for not having a certain spatial awareness. </p>
<p>Agree with some of the posters who recognize that a teen/college kid/young adult can live free from the need to drive until they have children. Then it’s a whole new ball game. Of people I know in NYC who swore never to move to suburbia, all but one did after having kids. And then they entered the car culture for sure!</p>
<p>So let’s say I am getting into the turn lane two or three car lengths back from the intersection. I look to make sure there are no cyclists in my way, and if not I can get into the turn lane. Then they go around me to the left? Is that right? Or do I have to slow my speed to let them go past me before I get into the lane, wouldn’t that cause me to get rearended? If we are both stopped at the intersection I would always yield to a cyclist but it never occurred to me they would be to my left and not my right. They are normally to my right, but normally they are on the shoulder and not in a designated bike lane. This bike lane thing is new to me.</p>
<p>Reading this has made me realize that we do not have dedicated bike lanes. Bikes usually are in the area between the shoulder and a white line- about 2-3 feet wide.</p>