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Urban Bikeway Design Guide Index

Urban Bikeway Design Guide
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Changing the Street: Design, Operation, Networks

Changing the Street: Design, Operation, Networks

Not every solution that helps to create safe and comfortable bicycling conditions will be a geometric design. Creating a network of high-comfort bicycle facilities that meet the All Ages & Abilities criteria requires leveraging the full suite of design, operational, and network strategies to transform streets. Strategies can be implemented incrementally to address sources of stress and conflict, change demand for access and movement, and ultimately transform streets for all users by continuously increasing comfort and creating more opportunities to make more trips by bicycle.

Change Design

Design strategies change the cross-section of a street in order to provide bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, protected bike lanes, or other dedicated bicycle infrastructure. Creating dedicated space for bicycling— either by reducing the number of motor vehicle lanes or their width—usually does not involve substantial changes to motor vehicle volume or the types of vehicles that can use a street, and has substantial benefits for the safety of all street users. 4-to-3 and 4-to-2-lane (with left turn pocket) conversions are widely used, and many other street redesigns apply the same basic principle of organizing movements and modes into dedicated space to improve the efficiency of each space.

Examples:

  • Repurpose Motor Vehicle Lane
  • Convert from Buffered to Protected Bike Lane

Change Operation

Operational changes—such as speed reduction, signalization and other conflict management, and proactive curbside management—improve bicycling conditions by reducing the level of traffic stress on a street. Operational strategies make streets more predictable, efficient, and safe without necessarily changing the street’s cross-section or the types of vehicles allowed.

On all facility types, reducing motor vehicle speeds to 20 – 25 mph is a core operational strategy for improving bicycle comfort and meeting the All Ages & Abilities criteria. In addition, reducing speeds can also make it easier to enact other safety changes, such as changes to intersection geometry, signalization, turn lanes, and turn restrictions. Since operational changes do not impact what types of vehicles can use the street, they usually do not require significant planning beyond the street itself, and are often the easiest type of change to implement.

Examples:

Change the Network

Diverting motor vehicle traffic from a street, changing travel direction, (dis)allowing specific types of curbside access, and making other changes to the role of a street in the motor vehicle network are powerful ways to create All Ages & Abilities bicycling conditions. Such network changes allow the street to be transformed into a comfortable bicycling environment without requiring dedicated space.

Bicycle boulevards and shared streets, in particular, often rely on network changes to create the low-speed, very low-volume conditions necessary for cyclists to feel safe and comfortable. Prohibiting through-traffic (requiring all motor vehicles to turn off the street at each intersection), either through physical diverters or signage, is an effective strategy for reducing speed and volume.

Changes to the motor vehicle network can open up opportunities for better bikeway designs.  For example, converting a high volume or high speed street from two-way to one-way or removing all curbside parking can provide space for a protected bike lane.

Examples:

Adapted from the Urban Bikeway Design Guide, published by Island Press.

References

References for Changing the Street: Design, Operation, Networks: 3 found.