{"id":109633,"date":"2015-09-10T19:39:55","date_gmt":"2015-09-11T01:39:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/street-sign-wording-a-key-to-safety\/"},"modified":"2015-09-10T19:39:55","modified_gmt":"2015-09-11T01:39:55","slug":"street-sign-wording-a-key-to-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/street-sign-wording-a-key-to-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Street sign wording a key to safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A bicycle symbol painted on Main Avenue in Durango reminds drivers to share the road.<\/span>Shane Benjamin\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Misunderstandings on the road between cyclists and motorists can be deadly. But a simple change in the wording of traffic signs could help clarify how drivers and bicyclists should safely interact, according to a new report.<\/p>\n

George Hess, report co-author and professor at North Carolina State University, said signs that read \u201cShare the Road\u201d are common but can be confusing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere seems to be a prevailing notion that bicyclists have to get out of the way, they\u2019re not allowed to be in the lane. And that makes everybody feel unsafe,\u201d Hess said.<\/p>\n

The study found people who saw a sign that read \u201cBicycles May Use Full Lane\u201d were more likely to recognize a cyclist\u2019s right to be on the road.<\/p>\n

He adds, people who saw the traditional \u201cShare the Road\u201d sign responded the same as people who saw no sign at all as though people on bikes either shouldn\u2019t be there or were hogging the lane.<\/p>\n

Hess said even though traffic regulations in all 50 states give bicycles the same rights on roads as motorized vehicles, the most important factor keeping more people from riding their bicycles to work is concern about personal safety.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe think departments of transportation nationwide should reconsider the use of the \u2018Share the Road,\u2019 and think about replacing them with \u2018Bicycles May Use Full Lane,\u2019\u201d Hess said.<\/p>\n

Hess said commuting by bicycle might also be the single biggest environmental move most people could make. He says bicycles produce no greenhouse-gas emissions, and they can reduce traffic congestion, while helping to lower obesity rates and improve public health so long as everyone agrees to actually share the road.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Verbiage means safer commutes for cyclists, motorists<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109634,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,657,44],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-cycling","tag-dolores"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109633"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}