Protected bike lanes, also known as separated bike lanes, provide a comfortable bike facility for people of all ages and abilities on all types of streets. They are proven tools for safer streets and are essential to every city’s bike network.
Protected bike lanes are separated from general-purpose travel lanes with both a buffer and a vertical element, such as a median, curb, or flexible delineators. Converting an existing constrained bike lane to a protected bike lane can be expected to reduce motor vehicle-bike crashes by over 50%.1 A decade-long look at protected bike lanes in a dozen U.S. cities found that all street users–people in cars, people walking, people biking–experience safety benefits from protected bike lanes.2 Protected bike lanes can decrease risk by 90% when compared to a major street with no cycling infrastructure.3
Protected bike lanes are appropriate for all streets, in all contexts. Protected bike lanes should be explored for all streets with daily traffic volumes over 6,000, where speeds are more than 25 mph (40 km/h), or where more than one travel lane is present in each direction.
Designing for All Ages & Abilities
When designed, constructed, and maintained well, protected bike lanes provide All Ages & Abilities safety and comfort regardless of vehicular traffic and speeds. Protected bike lanes are the only tool for All Ages & Abilities biking on streets with high curbside demand, speeds of more than 25 mph (40 km/h), multiple adjacent travel lanes, or motor vehicle volumes above 6,000 vehicles per day.
In this Section
- Federal Highway Administration. Developing Crash Modification Factors for Separated Bicycle Lanes. Publication Number. FHWA-HRT-23-078. USDOT, 2023. https://highways.dot.gov/media/33856. ↩︎
- Marshall, Wesley E., and Nicholas N. Ferenchak. “Why cities with high bicycling rates are safer for all road users.” Journal of Transport & Health 13 (June 2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2019.03.004. ↩︎
- Teschke, Kay et al. “Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A Case-Crossover Study.” American Journal of Public Health 102, no. 12 (2012): 2336–2343. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3519333/. ↩︎