Bicycle Facilities, Cycle Tracks, etc.

Last update: December 20, 2025

In City Planner-speak, bicycle “facilities” are things like bike lanes, bike paths, and the like.  Here are some examples.  You might also be interested in the history of bike lanes/facilities in Austin.

Existing facilities

• Bike lanes. See our extensive coverage of this topic.
• Bicycle boulevards. These are streets that can be used as through-streets by bikes but not cars. There are obstructions in the middle that block cars but allow passage by bikes. This reduces car traffic on the street and makes it safer to bike on.  Twenty cities in the U.S. have them as of 12/25; of course Austin is not one of them.  See Wikipedia’s article on the subject for more.
• Parking (bike racks). The easy availability of bike parking makes it twice as likely that people will bike to work. (Bloomberg 2012
• Showers. The availability of showers at work makes it five times as likely that people will bike to work. (Bloomberg 2012
• Escalators on steep hills. Here’s a video of a bike escalator in Norway. Without dismounting, you put your foot down on it and it pulls you and your bike up the hill.

Imagined facilities

These facilities have never actually been built anywhere…yet.

• Sky cycleways. This is an elevated bike highway. Think of it as a long bridge/tube combination.  Supporters tried to get one built in London in 2012, but ultimately weren’t successful.
• Wind tunnel.  An inventor proposed a tunnel with powerful fans to push cyclists along, to help them cruise up to 25 mph.  It was criticized by John S. Allen, but Allen seems to criticize everything.