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Bicycle Priority Lanes, Bike Lanes in Commercial Areas, &
Queuing at Red Lights:
Harmony (?) between Desired Behavior, Design, and Actual Behavior
Peter G. FurthManny (Dun) MengNortheastern University
ProWalk / ProBike 2012, Long Beach, CA
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Part 1: Bicycle Priority Lane“Lane within a Lane” “Enhanced Sharrows”
Brookline, MA
Longwood Ave (May, 2010)
Washington Street (Nov, 2010)
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Intended Use vs. Actual Use
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Longwood Ave Design
• Without priority lane: bike & car tempted to squeeze
• Priority lane design
20 ft
6.5 ft
P
10 ft
P
15 ft
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Do Bikes Ride Where Intended?Before vs 1, 2, & 17 months After
• Significant increase
• Many bikes still ride near parked cars
Longwd, before
Longwd, 1_mo
Longwd, 2_mo
Longwd, 17_mo
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%All bikes
While car is passing
Percent with Wheels 4+ ft from parking
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Washington Street: Maybe a Narrower Lane Would Help!
• 18 ft (instead of 20 ft) from curb to centerline
18 ft
P
10 ft
15 ft
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Longwd, be-fore
Longwd, 1_mo
Longwd, 2_mo
Longwd, 17_mo
Wash, 11_mo (narrow
lane)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
All bikes
While car is passing
Percent with Wheels 4+ ft from parking
… but it didn’t
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Average Bike Wheel Offset from “Dominant Parked Car”
Longwd, before
Longwd, 1_mo
Longwd, 2_mo
Longwd, 17_mo
Wash, 11_mo (narrow
lane)
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
Curb offset, all
Curb offset, car passing
Parking offset, all
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Conclusions, Part 1• Shared lane treatments have some, but limited
effectiveness
• Consider advisory lanes with no centerline (a “shared road” treatment)
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Part 3: BIKE LANES IN COMMERCIAL AREAS
314 cyclists observed at• Massachusetts Ave @
Central Square, Cambridge, MA
• Beacon Street @ St. Mary’s, Brookline
• Commonwealth Ave @ Packard’s Corner, Boston
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Illegal Parking 15% Commercial unloading in bike lane 3% Taxi double parking 5% Other double parking 7%Legal Parking 15% In-out parking maneuvers 9% Door in use 6%Other Motor Vehicles 10% Bus at Bus Stop 6% Right Turning Vehicles 4%Other 7%TOTAL who had to leave bike lane 47%
47% of bikes had to leave bike lane (range = 43% to 49%) due to:
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Conclusions, Part 2• Bike lanes in commercial areas don’t achieve
their objective of protecting cyclists from the need to merge into traffic
• Consider cycle tracks
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Part 3: Bikes Queuing at Red LightsBike Position Relative to First Stopped Car
(n= 119)
First stopped
car
Even or behind car queue: 3%
Partly ahead of car queue: 19%
Fully ahead of car queue: 78%
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Bike Position Relative to Stopline and Crosswalk
Fully behind stopline: 7%
Past stop line, not fully in crosswalk: 20%
Fully beyond crosswalk: 33%
crosswalk
Stop line
Rear wheel in crosswalk: 40%
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Conclusions, Part 3
• Cyclists have a strong desire to queue ahead of motor traffic
• Single queuing treatment for bikes & cars (“stop line”) is inadequate
• Consider bike boxes, advanced stop lines, and refuge cycle tracks