Boarding islands, also known as island platforms, are dedicated spaces within the street for boarding, alighting, and waiting for the bus, streetcar, or light rail train. These are fully accessible for passengers and may be separated from the sidewalk by a bikeway or travel lane. Boarding islands enable continuous All Ages & Abilities bikeways.
Benefits:
Boarding islands allow for in-lane transit stops that improve overall service for transit users, reduce transit delays caused by pulling out and re-entering traffic, and ensure that transit vehicles can reach the curb so transit riders can board and alight from an accessible area.
Transit drivers can focus on passengers rather than having to merge with vehicular or bicycle traffic. People riding bikes remain safely within a bikeway and do not need to merge into general traffic.
Boarding islands are compatible with all bikeway types, including two-way bikeways. While boarding islands are most common on streets with protected bike lanes, they can also be beneficial on streets with constrained bike lanes and high-frequency transit.
Considerations
Boarding islands require sufficient right-of-way width to accommodate at least 13 ft (3.9 m) for both the island and the bikeway.
Boarding islands are constructed features, making them a more expensive item. Cities may use less expensive modular options though ensuring accessibility may require regrading parts of the sidewalk or roadbed.
Education and outreach programming should accompany any new boarding islands as this is a newer type of design in North America. The local disability community should be primary in those discussions.
Design Guidance
Bikeway Width
Bikeways should maintain their width between the boarding island and the sidewalk.
The bike lane alignment may shift laterally to provide the necessary boarding and alighting area width. Use a taper width of 3:1.
Narrower bike lanes of 5-6 ft (1.5-1.8 m) accommodate only single-file riding, but may reduce conflict points between transit riders and people on bikes. Account for existing and future bike volumes, grade changes, and overall roadway slope when considering a narrower bikeway. If a bikeway is narrowed through the transit stop, use a taper of 3:1. Avoid tapering the bikeway at the same time as any grade transitions.
Boarding Island Dimensions
Boarding islands should be 9 ft (2.7 m) wide or wider to accommodate the accessible boarding area1 as well as furnishings and leaning rails.
Boarding islands of 8 ft (2.4 m) can meet accessible boarding area requirements but may not accommodate any amenities.
The cross-slope of boarding islands must be less than 2.1%.2
As in-lane stops, boarding islands can be sized to the transit vehicle, making them much shorter than stops that also have to accommodate transit merging into and out of traffic.
Boarding islands must accommodate boarding and alighting from all doors of transit vehicles. On high-frequency bus routes, designs may wish to account for the likelihood that two buses may frequently use the boarding island simultaneously.
Boarding islands can traverse driveways as long as driveways are raised to the level of boarding islands and bikeways. Design and construction can be complex due to potential slope issues between driveways and the cross-slopes of boarding islands.
Boarding islands should be the same height as sidewalks, typically 3-6 in (75-150 mm).
At light-rail stops, boarding islands must provide level boarding. At such locations, islands may be 9-12 in (225-300 mm).
Detectable warning surfaces should be located at the boarding edge of islands.3
Furnishings
Shelters, seating, leaning rails, passenger information, and any other amenities must be clear of accessible boarding areas.
Leaning rails can help channel pedestrian crossings, improve comfort, and provide a continuous detectable edge when installed along the bikeway side of boarding islands. Leaning rails require at least 1 ft (0.3 m) of lateral clearance from bikeways.
Transit shelters may be installed on sidewalks or boarding islands. These should be placed consistently within any given municipality and transit service area to improve the legibility of transit stops, especially for constituents with disabilities.
Shelters vary in size. Most standard shelters cannot be placed on boarding islands that are narrower than 9 ft (2.7 m). Shelters must not overhang or extend into the street to avoid vehicle strikes.
To ensure visibility between people using bikeways and people exiting boarding islands, shelters should have transparent walls and be located on the far side of crosswalks or at least 10 ft (3 m) from the near side approaches of crosswalks.
Consider installing braille signs or tactile maps on poles to provide information about available transit services and the layout of the boarding island.
Object markers and transit stop signs may be placed at the front and rear of the boarding island where lateral clearance to both the roadway and bikeway is possible. Such signs can help drivers avoid the shared boarding island and indicate its presence to maintenance teams.
Typical Minimum Length By Bus Size 4
| Stop position | 40 ft | 12.2 m bus | 60 ft | 18.3 m bus | 80 ft | 24 m bus | 120 ft | 36 m bus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Near-side | 35 ft | 10.5 m | 55 ft | 16.5 m | 80 ft | 24 m | 115 ft | 34.5 m |
| Midblock | 45 ft | 13.5 m | 65 ft | 19.5 m | 90 ft | 27 m | 130 ft | 39 m |
| Far-side | 35 ft | 10.5 m | 55 ft | 16.5 m | 80 ft | 24 m | 115 ft | 34.5 m |
Accessing Boarding Islands
- Mark all pedestrian crossings.
- Provide detectable warning surfaces where pedestrians can expect conflicts with traffic, including bike and motor vehicle travel lanes. Add tactile directional indicators to help pedestrians who are blind or have low vision navigate to and from the front door of the transit vehicle. Install TDI perpendicular to the path of travel. TDI should be 24 in (600 mm) wide and extend across the sidewalk. At the location of the front door, apply a rectangle of TDI that is 24 in (600 mm) wide and at least 36 in (900 mm) long.
- Align pedestrian crossing of the bikeway with the front doors of the transit vehicle where feasible. Consider adding yield markings and/or a BICYCLES YIELD TO PEDESTRIANS (MUTCD R9-6) sign.
- Raised crosswalks over the bikeway are preferred. They improve pedestrian comfort and access and reinforce the priority of crossing pedestrians. Apply a chevron to the raised crosswalk in the bikeway.
- Typical curb ramps with detectable warning surfaces should be used where a raised crosswalk is not feasible. A clear area that is a minimum of 48 inches (1220 mm) square must be provided at the top of such ramps.
- Where pedestrians will cross a sidewalk-level bikeway, install lean rails, shelters, benches, or other detectable items to help channelize pedestrians to crossings.
- Boarding islands may ramp down to meet intersection crossings. Such ramps must comply with local and national accessibility requirements. The length of ramps are in addition to the necessary boarding island lengths. If at a signalized intersection, install an additional Accessible Pedestrian Signal device to provide audible and vibrotactile indication to pedestrians departing the boarding island. An additional set of pedestrian signals is not required.
- US Access Board. Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines. US Access Board, 2023: Section R309.1.1 Boarding and Alighting Areas. https://www.access-board.gov/prowag/technical.html#r30911-boarding-and-alighting-areas. ↩︎
- US Access Board. Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines. US Access Board, 2023: Section R309.1.2.2 Slope. https://www.access-board.gov/prowag/technical.htmlfr309122-slope ↩︎
- US Access Board. Public Right-of-Way Accessibility Guidelines. US Access Board, 2023: Section R305.2.6 Boarding
Platforms. https://www.access-board.gov/prowag/technical.html#r30526-boarding-platforms. ↩︎ - Cities determine preferred stop length based on available right-of-way, target speed, and agency experience. These charts
reflect a range that exists across different U.S. cities. ↩︎