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And other bike facilities?
I guess I really want to know who designs them.
Around here, there's lots of public discussion about whether a bike lane should be built. Anybody, including cyclists, has several opportunities to speak their mind, and the meetings are often front page news. But when it comes to the design of a specific bike lane, the process is a mystery to me.
As a cyclist, I'd like the chance to give my two cents about the design of the bike lane. I'd like to tell them that I don't want it in door zones or to the right of right-turn lanes, for example. Does anybody know how the citizen-cyclist can get involved in the design process?
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In San Diego I know there is a department in charge of making marks where bike lane stripes are supposed to be painted, and another department in charge of painting the stripes.
The real problem is that many cities default to the documents available regarding such subjects, such as the MUTCD, which indeed allows bike lanes in door zones, and in the past did not have such things such as sharrows.
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/
Here is the specific chapter on bike lanes:
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003r1/part9/part9-toc.htm
The DOT is the responsible party, be that local or state. This link is a pdf that is an excellent illustration of the guidelines published by the City of Chicago.
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/bike_lane.pdf
The real problem is that many cities default to the documents available regarding such subjects, such as the MUTCD, which indeed allows bike lanes in door zones, and in the past did not have such things such as sharrows.
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/
Here is the specific chapter on bike lanes:
http://mutcd.fhwa.dot.gov/HTM/2003r1/part9/part9-toc.htm
Thanks gene. I agree this is a crappy manual, but its designs are better than some of the bike lanes in my area.
The DOT is the responsible party, be that local or state. This link is a pdf that is an excellent illustration of the guidelines published by the City of Chicago.
http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/bike_lane.pdf
Thanks. :) This is better than the MUTCD manual, but there are still a few things I don't like. I'd like to get this to my city planners, whoever they are.
Thanks gene. I agree this is a crappy manual, but its designs are better than some of the bike lanes in my area.
Good luck... if anything, the MUTCD should be the minimum... period. Not the overall desired goal.
well, you can design bike lanes. all you need is fifty bucks worth of paint, a good stencil and some free time... say around three am. :)
and i'm only partially kidding. when i was a wee tot, a bunch of parents in my neighbourhood got together and put up a 'private' stop sign at a particularly trecherous intersection. to the best of my knowledge the local government never noticed, or if they did opted to leave it alone.
well, you can design bike lanes. all you need is fifty bucks worth of paint, a good stencil and some free time... say around three am. :)
and i'm only partially kidding. when i was a wee tot, a bunch of parents in my neighbourhood got together and put up a 'private' stop sign at a particularly trecherous intersection. to the best of my knowledge the local government never noticed, or if they did opted to leave it alone.
I love the direct democracy idea!
It's not so much that I want bike lanes (I really don't much care), but if they're going to paint 'em, they might as well paint 'em right.
I see a bike lane and I want it painted black
No stripes anymore I want them to turn black
I see a bike lane and I want it painted black
No stripes anymore I want them to turn black
I think you sing to yourself while you're riding, don't you? Me too.
I I were against bike lanes in principle, do you think it would be selling out to work to get them better? If the city council has already decided that the bike lane is inevitable, should you rage against it, or try to make it the best of all possible bike lanes?
I think you sing to yourself while you're riding, don't you? Me too.
I I were against bike lanes in principle, do you think it would be selling out to work to get them better? If the city council has already decided that the bike lane is inevitable, should you rage against it, or try to make it the best of all possible bike lanes?
I think it's more constructive to work to fix the primary flaws. Make sure they are wider than minimum standard and make sure they end (no stripe, no dashed stripe) well before all intersections. To me I'd rather compromise than stick to the ideal while pissing off other advocates.
Most important is to firmly be against any blantently poor designs, such as door zone BLs or sub-standard width.
I don't sing much to myself when riding actually. Maybe I need to start.
Al
I see a bike lane and I want it painted black
No stripes anymore I want them to turn black
now some direct democracy is starting to shape up. whoever has the most paint wins!
A far better design guide is the American Association of State Highways & Transportation Officials 'Guide for the Development of Bicycle Facilities', more commonly known as the AASHTO bike book.
MUTCD is more about markings. Both are just guidelines, rather than hard law.
More areas are forming Metro Planning Organizations. Get involved, become a citizen member of the MPO, go to city meetings, get political. I did, and am currenlty chairman of the Bicycle committe of our MPO.
Does your city have any kind of Bike/Ped Advisory Committee (http://www.portlandbikeped.org/)? FWIW, in Portland, Maine, the Public Works department is responsible for both the planning and the painting. They have taken an initiative to put more paint on the ground, and came to our advisory group to get input. As a result, some of us have been meeting regularly with them for about a year now. Not a lot of new paint on the ground yet, for a variety of reasons, some of which is funding, but some of which I like to think is because we've been able to educate them about standards, good and bad places for bike lanes, suggested sharrows, etc., and spent a lot of time reviewing routes and treatments.
I I were against bike lanes in principle, do you think it would be selling out to work to get them better? If the city council has already decided that the bike lane is inevitable, should you rage against it, or try to make it the best of all possible bike lanes?
Exactly my dilemma. I'm on record here as saying that I am very comfortable with vehicular cycling and don't need special paint, and like to think that everyone who is going to be on the road can and should learn the same. But I also can appreciate the argument that riding totally vehicularly with no help from the infrastructure is quite a "barrier to entry" to some people more than it was to me, due to both personality and details of their ride. I think infrastructure done well can be of some help, so I think I am coming down on the side of helping the well-meaning gov't officials to do it right, or at least keep them from doing it badly, rather than giving up altogether because it is not a pure position. But I personally will also seek to advance cyclist education in every way I can, because I still think infrastructure without education is not enough, just as it is not enough for motorists.
Here in NC, they aren't designed. They evolve.
The steps are as follows:
1. A transportation plan defines bike lanes as required for a given road. An engineer may consult the available roadway width and prescribe the width of the lane.
2. When the road is built or repaved, the contractor consults the plan to determine if a bike lane is to be marked.
3. The contractor's employees in the field determine where to mark the bike lane based on where it appears to fit in the available space. It will get striped to the right of a right-turn-only lane, striped in the door zone of parked cars, striped up to intersection stop lines, striped through areas where on-street parking is popular, and anywhere else that the prescribed space exists on the surface of the roadway.
4. Where enough people complain about them, the bike lane stripes are removed the roadway (along with 1/4" of asphalt) by the contractor using a grinder.
a sharrows stencil would be easy to DIY
Here in NC, they aren't designed. They evolve.
The steps are as follows:
1. A transportation plan defines bike lanes as required for a given road. An engineer may consult the available roadway width and prescribe the width of the lane.
2. When the road is built or repaved, the contractor consults the plan to determine if a bike lane is to be marked.
3. The contractor's employees in the field determine where to mark the bike lane based on where it appears to fit in the available space. It will get striped to the right of a right-turn-only lane, striped in the door zone of parked cars, striped up to intersection stop lines, striped through areas where on-street parking is popular, and anywhere else that the prescribed space exists on the surface of the roadway.
4. Where enough people complain about them, the bike lane stripes are removed the roadway (along with 1/4" of asphalt) by the contractor using a grinder.
Yikes! I sense a little bit of sarcasm here, but yeesh, that doesn't sound like a good process. :eek:
How does the plan in step 1 determine if there is to be a bicycle lane? Doesn't sound like it takes into account all the problems that become apparent in step 3.
Here in NC, they aren't designed. They evolve.
The steps are as follows:
1. A transportation plan defines bike lanes as required for a given road. An engineer may consult the available roadway width and prescribe the width of the lane.
2. When the road is built or repaved, the contractor consults the plan to determine if a bike lane is to be marked.
3. The contractor's employees in the field determine where to mark the bike lane based on where it appears to fit in the available space. It will get striped to the right of a right-turn-only lane, striped in the door zone of parked cars, striped up to intersection stop lines, striped through areas where on-street parking is popular, and anywhere else that the prescribed space exists on the surface of the roadway.
4. Where enough people complain about them, the bike lane stripes are removed the roadway (along with 1/4" of asphalt) by the contractor using a grinder.
This explains a lot, and it's what I'd like to avoid. Shouldn't the engineer and the contractor be following some plan such as the ones for the city of Chicago (http://egov.cityofchicago.org/webportal/COCWebPortal/COC_EDITORIAL/bike_lane.pdf)? Why doesn't the engineer ride along the route with experienced cyclists to help him/her come up with a better plan?
Forgive my naive questions. I'm just starting to get involved in the urban and transportation planning thing. My city planner said he doesn't really believe in city planning. He thinks the city should develop "organically" without any plans.
Does your city have any kind of Bike/Ped Advisory Committee (http://www.portlandbikeped.org/)? FWIW, in Portland, Maine, the Public Works department is responsible for both the planning and the painting. They have taken an initiative to put more paint on the ground, and came to our advisory group to get input. As a result, some of us have been meeting regularly with them for about a year now. Not a lot of new paint on the ground yet, for a variety of reasons, some of which is funding, but some of which I like to think is because we've been able to educate them about standards, good and bad places for bike lanes, suggested sharrows, etc., and spent a lot of time reviewing routes and treatments.
Exactly my dilemma. I'm on record here as saying that I am very comfortable with vehicular cycling and don't need special paint, and like to think that everyone who is going to be on the road can and should learn the same. But I also can appreciate the argument that riding totally vehicularly with no help from the infrastructure is quite a "barrier to entry" to some people more than it was to me, due to both personality and details of their ride. I think infrastructure done well can be of some help, so I think I am coming down on the side of helping the well-meaning gov't officials to do it right, or at least keep them from doing it badly, rather than giving up altogether because it is not a pure position. But I personally will also seek to advance cyclist education in every way I can, because I still think infrastructure without education is not enough, just as it is not enough for motorists.
Thanks, John, for sharing your impressions. :)
There's no bike/ped advisers here that I can find. The state has one, located here (the capital) and I talked socially with one of them and he seemed pretty pessimistic. Our new mayor seems to think planning just means as much development as possible, as soon as possible, with no thought to quality or impact on quality of life. Bike lanes were fully funded but turned down because the feeling was that they would impede the trucks that carry auto parts among the plants. That told me something, even though I'm not a proponent of bike lanes. Like you I try to be a pragmatist, even if it doesn't always seem natural to me.
well, 'organic' city development is pretty much a thing of the past. today there are really only two models for urban development: the city plans it and builds it, or private developers do it to city guidelines and bill the city for the infrastructure. either way there's some dude with a degree and a roll of blue paper laying everything out. the days of paving footpaths are either gone or relegated to extreme rural locales.
well, 'organic' city development is pretty much a thing of the past. today there are really only two models for urban development: the city plans it and builds it, or private developers do it to city guidelines and bill the city for the infrastructure. either way there's some dude with a degree and a roll of blue paper laying everything out. the days of paving footpaths are either gone or relegated to extreme rural locales.
By organic I think he means that any time a developer wants to build something, help him get it done, with no thought of how it fits in with the rest of the city and no long-term goals for the city. This is a shame, because developers are going to be interested in a city that's livable and well organized, because they know more people will want to live and work there.
well, 'organic' city development is pretty much a thing of the past. today there are really only two models for urban development: the city plans it and builds it, or private developers do it to city guidelines and bill the city for the infrastructure. either way there's some dude with a degree and a roll of blue paper laying everything out. the days of paving footpaths are either gone or relegated to extreme rural locales.
Up here in Grand Rapids there was a particularly nasty intersection where there had been tons of accidents. After a million or more spent on experimenting with traffic islands, signage, stripes and pavement arrangements, someone got smart, They removed the islands, stripes and everything but the stop signs, then mounted a camera on the building next to it so they could watch traffic patterns, after a few weeks of watching traffic they built islands and painted stripes to essentially direct traffic where it wanted to go anyway. since then it's been a very safe intersection, and all done organically.
Too often accidents are a result of directing traffic in contradiction to it's 'natural' flow.
bike lanes are good in most cases, but aren't always laid out by people who ride them, if you don't use it you can design one that looks good and flows well from the auto traffic viewpoint, but may leave a lot to be desired for the people who do ride it.
Ken.
The Bike Lane Fairy, of course. :D
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