More Cyclists + Better Design = Safer Roadways

New data from Portland, Oregon, shows that cycling may improve traffic safety overall, not just for cyclists, and it suggests that drivers exercise more caution with more cyclists on the road. A New York City trend reinforces this finding, pointing to a correlation between increased bicycle use and a decline in bicycle accidents. Data from around the world also demonstrates that cycling is safest in countries where bicycles are most prevalent, like Germany and Denmark. These countries also take care to design their roadways with cyclists in mind, something the SmartCode Bicycle Module, a new production of New York’s Street Plans Collaborative, aims to accomplish in the U.S.

Portland offers 300 miles (480 km) of trails, lanes, and bicycle-friendly streets to encourage bicycle use. As this network has developed, the city’s overall crash mortality rate has dropped significantly, especially when compared with national figures. According to an analysis in New Urban News, the trends in Portland can’t all be attributed to Portland’s bicycle policies. Portland has also invested in reducing automobile use through improvements in mass transit, transit-oriented development, and limits on the availability of parking downtown.

Looking to extend benefits like these, backers of the SmartCode Bicycle Module aim to encourage cycling while maintaining good urban design. The Bicycling Module and customized SmartCode may be adopted, in part or fully, as regulatory, advisory, or permissive, or as a set of auxiliary guidelines for developers and municipalities.

Intended for bicycle planning within the context of New Urbanism—which encourages sustainable, dense, walkable developments—the guide is available free at the Center for Applied Transect Studies’ website, www.transect.org. Organized by transect zone (a cross-section of development zones, from rural areas to urban cores), the module offers guidance for 18 different bikeways, bike parking, and other cyclist amenities—taking care to address new and existing roadway scenarios.

Suggestions from the Bicycle Module include the following:

Avoid wide curb lanes: they expand the width of the road and tend to increase motorists’ speed, deterring cyclists.

Use bicycle trails for rural recreation, and bicycle paths for urban utility, commuting, and recreation. (Bicycle trails are often unpaved, scenic, indirect pathways crossing minimal roadways and few destinations, while bicycle paths are usually paved and require thorough stormwater and lighting design.)

Bicycle parking should strive to meet needs in all transect zones, using metrics like unit count, number of employees, and building type. Depending on building type and location, the benefits of long-term versus short-term bike parking should be considered. Bicycle parking should be created and overseen by municipalities but implemented and maintained by neighborhoods.

The module helpfully defines specialized bicycle planning terminology, such as: contra-flow bicycle lane (a bicycle lane which goes against the flow of traffic); peg-a-track (parallel dashed pavement markings that continue a bicycle lane through an intersection); and bicycle box (gives bicyclists a head start at intersections; it is also referred to as an advanced stop line, and it makes motorists more aware of cyclists at intersections).

– Emily Catacchio

For more information:

City of Portland, Oregon
www.portlandonline.com/transportation

Center for Applied Transect Studies
www.transect.org

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