For North American bike networks to reach their potential, safe crossings for people on bikes are a crucial investment. Bikeway intersections require significant design attention, with careful examination of how each mode and movement will interact with one another.
Managing competing demands for space and signal time has too often maximized vehicular throughput over the safety of bikeway users. The resulting designs force people on bikes to face conflicts with turning vehicles, navigate high-speed merges, or experience excessive delays while waiting for a safe opportunity to proceed. These issues are significant sources of stress for people on bikes and even cause death and serious injury.
Geometric design and traffic control changes are necessary to manage time and space at bikeway intersections and beyond. Cities are tackling these issues with scalable flexible materials, operational changes, and robust capital investments.
Safe intersection design is possible through four related principles:
Change underlying assumptions about how intersections must operate
Give people biking and walking clear priority over turning vehicles
Reduce the approach speed and turn speed of motor vehicles
