When it comes to bike networks, cities—and the staff who power them—are key sites of innovation, from the first protected bikeways in North America to work with bike share and shared micromobility, low-traffic streets, protected intersections, and planning for equity.

The Cities for Cycling network gathers the planners, engineers, and practitioners working to make biking better in their cities and in the wider transportation field. Through practice-informed publications and design guidance, peer network events like design charrettes, and technical conversation on our members-only listservs, NACTO creates a forum for city staff to engage with one another and rapidly raise the state of practice for bikeway design in North America.

Over a decade ago, cities banded together to develop a first-of-its-kind document: bikeway design guidance developed by cities, for cities. Released in 2011, the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide sparked a design revolution in cities across North America. City streets are now understood as key elements in confronting the intertwined safety, equity, and climate crises.

It’s time for an updated standard for designing streets for bikes. The third edition of the Urban Bikeway Design Guide–developed for cities, by cities–sets this standard, capturing lessons learned and new practices that have emerged in the decade since NACTO published the second edition.

The Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition, will be published on January 14, 2025. (But you can already pre-order it here!)

The Urban Bikeway Design Guide, Third Edition, will help city leaders and street designers create bikeable cities for people of all ages and abilities. It is a blueprint for implementing safe, connected, and equitable bike networks. It covers city policy, network planning, community collaboration, program and project evaluation, bikeway design, curb management, intersection design, maintenance, and operations. Designs and concepts are spotlit with precise, actionable illustrations and diagrams.

As U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg put it: “the newest edition of the Urban Bikeway Design Guide will be an important resource for communities as they improve safety and design for cyclists, pedestrians, and everyone who uses our streets and roads.”

Working Papers 

Over 2022 and 2023, NACTO published seven working papers covering best practices for data collection, network design, equitable network design, and scaling success to better meet the challenges of our time. This work helped inform the new edition of the Urban Bikeway Design Guide.

Below, check out the working papers.

Read Making Bikes Count

Read Breaking the Cycle

Read Shared Micromobility

Read Moving Together

Read Designing for Small Things With Wheels

Read Complete Connections

Read Material Success

NACTO’s bike design guides offer national-level guidance focused on the unique needs of urban areas, outlining city-approved engineering techniques to build safe, comfortable urban streets for the bicyclists that use them.

Read the Urban Bikeway Design Guide

Read Designing for All Ages & Abilities

Read Don’t Give Up at the Intersection

Since NACTO started running the Cities for Cycling network in 2010 while developing the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, we have tailored spaces for peers to regularly meet to discuss experiences and lessons learned from their work, assist with the development of design guidance, and participate in highly-tailored programming opportunities. These have included in-person and virtual trainings, roundtables, and roadshows across North America, where we brought cutting-edge treatments from the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide to:

Trainings

Roadshows & Roundtables

Endorsement Campaign

66 cities, counties, and states have endorsed the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide. This unified endorsement enabled federal and state governments to recognize these best practices, and ultimately make it easier to build safe, active, and livable streets. Read about the campaign.

Bikeway Accelerators

NACTO’s City Accelerator program helps cities rapidly implement high-quality transit or bike corridors, from design to build out. The program was started in 2014 as a way to provide in-depth, on-the-ground support to member cities implementing new street design projects that may depart from existing practice.

Whether a red bus lane or protected bike lane, undertaking new projects requires changing business as usual. Under Accelerators, NACTO cities develop the new partnerships and pathways needed to implement these projects, bringing together the rich peer network to help cities move projects from idea to implementation through lasting programmatic change. Learn how NACTO cities accelerate high-quality bikeway implementation.

Blog Posts

Public Webinars & Workshops

Press Releases & Statements

Press