The law for intersections is to take the rightmost lane going in your direction. In this case, that would be the left lane.

Man may dream in the stars but, for better or worse, we live in microcosm.

Perhaps one should continue down Benefit and head up Jenkes. Much less traffic!

You do have to design to the least common denominator: That’s like saying make highways only for Formula 1 racers, and let everyone else, timid or not, follow their example. Wait, I’m forgetting the I-way, which is pretty much designed as a demolition derby track.

But, yeah, Providence presents 2 fatal flaws in urban planning: bad (illegal) bike infrastructure, and worse signage. RIDOT supposedly helped them install a set of ludicrous signs directing cyclists to wrong destinations, to which they added a bunch of detours. I did offer a better solution, presented to planners, but was congratulated then ignored. Their fiasco sure instills confidence… not. They just want to wear you out so you’ll be too exhausted to complain… or, better, give up entirely.

In fairness, if you don’t have the infrastructure, you can’t mirror it with signage. The solution is to start with CORRIDORS that thread continuously through city from at least NESW; advanced riders can pick out safe routes NE, SE, SW, and NW and other connections. If Boston and NYC can find ways to do this, you must suspect Providence just doesn’t want to. And it’s a real shame, since it’s a small fraction of the size and smack dab between some of the best bike accommodations in the country. RI should be a bicycling mecca already, given it’s mostly flat and small enough to be crossed in any direction in less than a day.

I go through that intersection every morning on my commute (after turning right from Canal onto Thomas/Steeple). I stay in the second lane from the right and then continue straight across Memorial Blvd. onto Exchange Terr. There can be quite a bit of merging going on, but people are generally going slow enough that I don’t have too much trouble. I’ve also managed to time my commute so that rush hour is generally over by the time I get to this intersection (around 8:55) and it’s not as crowded as it is at 8:30. When the intersection is crowded, you see a lot of cars blocking the intersection and not many cars getting through a light. This can make the drivers extra crabby and impatient so it can be a little dangerous to weave through them. I used to try to barrel through there weaving around traffic as much as possible. Then I realized that this strategy saves my 30 seconds or so – not really worth the risk. I still go around the cars that are stuck in traffic, but I do it more slowly so I can be more sure of what they are doing.

I’m not sure who originally posted this – but I like the idea. I’m sure there are a few other interesting intersections around town that we could put to the same analysis. I had never really considered driving on the left side of a one-way street, but now that I’ve read peoples’ reasons for doing that, I may use that as a riding strategy on occasion.