As cities across North America plan for high-quality bike lanes, there are still institutional barriers to ensuring efficient and predictable implementation of these treatments. NACTO’s City Accelerator program was designed to help cities with this very challenge. Through Accelerators, cities receive technical and organizational guidance to help them create new internal pathways, develop new partnerships, and define new goals needed to construct all ages and abilities bike corridors.

Incorporating NACTO’s practice of facilitating peer exchange, as participating city staff expand their knowledge for how to move projects from idea to implementation to lasting programmatic change, they are able to share their experience with the wider NACTO peer network.

In 2019 – 2020, NACTO is partnering with NRDC and Delivery Associates through the Bloomberg American Cities Climate Challenge to accelerate bikeway programs in cities across the U.S., confronting climate change by encouraging more trips on bicycles through increased access to all ages and abilities infrastructure.

Designs for high-quality bikeway facilities that NACTO advises on during Bikeway Accelerators are based on NACTO’s Design Guidance library. These resources, when used in concert, provide the tools cities need to build comprehensive, connected, and safe bike networks.

Urban Bikeway Design Guide

Developed by and for cities, the Urban Bikeway Design Guide outlines state-of-the-practice solutions that can help create complete streets that are safe and enjoyable for bicyclists.

Designing for All Ages & Abilities

This guidance builds on NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide and sets an All Ages & Abilities criteria for selecting and implementing bike facilities.  It considers contextual factors on streets, allows planners and engineers to determine when, where, and how to best combine traffic calming tools with roadway design changes to reduce traffic fatalities and increase cycling rates and rider comfort.

Don’t Give Up at the Intersection

Expands on the NACTO’s Urban Bikeway Design Guide, adding detailed guidance on intersection design treatments that reduce vehicle-bike and vehicle-pedestrian conflicts, including protected bike intersections, dedicated bike intersections, and minor street crossings, as well as signalization strategies to reduce conflicts and increase comfort and safety.