Caution: Rumble strips installed on May Valley Road (WA)

Bicyclists need to use extra caution on May Valley Road after road crews milled rumble strips into a curvy section between the Squak Mountain Park and Issaquah-Hobart Road sometime in the past week.

There are no signs to alert the many cyclists who use this portion of road to the new hazard.

This section is typically where bicyclists can pick up some speed on a nice downhill if they’re heading east. I’d expect it would be difficult to control a speeding bike that hits these.

Even so, as you can tell from the photo, they appear to meet standards set by the Federal Highway Administration.

• The rumbles are milled into the road at intervals, so there are frequent gaps for cyclists to pass through from the shoulder to the roadway.
• The are not so wide as to completely run the width of the shoulder.
• The shoulder is wide enough for bicyclists to use the area to the right of the rumble strips. I’d note, however, that the right side of these shoulders commonly fill with debris from the trees and sand thrown out in icy conditions.

Updated standards

The transportation safety agencies like these rumble strips because they help alert drivers who are too tired, too distracted or too stoned that they are about to run off the road.

Last year, Adventure Cycling Association, Alliance for Biking and Walking and the League of American Bicyclists urged the Federal Highway Administration to make changes to the rumble strip design standards to better accommodate all road users — including bicyclists.

The new standards — Shoulder and Edge Line Rumble Strips — was issued in November. The three nonprofits publicly thanked the FHA for the new standards.

On Biking Across Kansas last year, we got to experience the difficulty and danger of riding a road with old-style rumble strips. US Route 50 has strips that go clear across the shoulder, leaving no room to ride.

Plans for Caltrans to install rumble strips on a 10-mile stretch of Highway 1 between Davenport and Santa Cruz has angered cyclists.

See also: Accommodate cyclists when installing rumble strips, say Feds.