BIKE: Do bike lanes really improve bike safety?

[Michael Bluejay]

Why are you doing this to me?

Information about the safety of bicycle lanes is available on -- 
surprise, surprise -- BicycleAustin.

It's just comical that the website that's the mother of this email 
forum is utilized to answer questions on that forum 0% of the time.

But after nearly ten years, no one thinks to look on BicycleAustin.  
What the hell?

BicycleAustin (and its companion, BicycleUniverse) definitely don't 
have all the answers -- but they have a lot of the types of things that 
are bandied about here.

-MBJ-

P.S.  On another note, I hope everyone noticed Austin's own Monique 
Stinson (not Stimson) in the credits of the Cambridge article.


On Jan 3, 2005, at 5:15 PM, Roger Baker wrote:

> On Jan 3, 2005, at 11:22 AM, Thorne wrote:
>
>> I'm in favor of motor-assisted bikes for those who want to use them.  
>> But the
>> idea of segregating bike or motorized bikes from the rest of traffic 
>> for
>> safety reasons is a false hope.  Cyclists are safer mixed in with 
>> traffic
>> following traffic laws than they are on the segregated facilities.  
>> Getting
>> bike-centric isn't a matter of facilities so much as a matter of 
>> getting out
>> and riding.  Surely, the roadways should be designed with bicycle 
>> traffic in
>> mind, but I'll remind you that every lane you see is a bike lane.
>>
>
> [From my point of view, this link and the documentation from the 
> Cambridge Mass. website seems to document the safety advantages of 
> bike lanes pretty conclusively. I expect there will always be 
> non-believers. -- Roger]
>
>
> http://www.cambridgema.gov/~CDD/et/bike/bike_safety.html
>
> Safety Benefits of Bike Lanes
>
> Bike lanes help define road space, decrease the stress level of 
> bicyclists riding in traffic, encourage bicyclists to ride in the 
> correct direction  of travel, and signal motorists that cyclists have 
> a right to the road. Bike lanes help to better organize the flow of 
> traffic and reduce the chance  that motorists will stray into 
> cyclists’ path of travel.1, 2 Bicyclists  have stated their preference 
> for marked on-street bicycle lanes in numerous surveys.3 In addition, 
> several real-time studies (where cyclists of varying abilities and 
> backgrounds ride and assess actual routes  and street conditions) have 
> found that cyclists are more comfortable and assess a street as having 
> a better level of service for them where there  are marked bike lanes 
> present.4
>
> In summary, bike lanes do the following:
> 	• 	support and encourage bicycling as a means of transportation;
> 	• 	help define road space;
> 	• 	promote a more orderly flow of traffic;
> 	• 	encourage bicyclists to ride in the correct direction, with the 
> flow of traffic;
> 	• 	give bicyclists a clear place to be so they are not tempted to 
> ride on the sidewalk;
> 	• 	remind motorists to look for cyclists when turning or opening car 
> doors;
> 	• 	signal motorists that cyclists have a right to the road;
> 	• 	reduce the chance that motorists will stray into cyclists’ path of 
> travel;
> 	• 	make it less likely that passing motorists swerve toward opposing 
> traffic;
> 	• 	decrease the stress level of bicyclists riding in traffic.
>
> Well-designed facilities encourage proper behavior and decrease the 
> likelihood of crashes. Numerous studies have shown that bicycle lanes 
> improve safety and promote proper riding behavior.5
> 	• 	In 1996, over 2000 League of American Bicyclist members were 
> surveyed about the crashes (accidents) they were involved in over the  
> course of the previous year. From the information, a relative danger 
> index was calculated which shows that streets with bike lanes  were 
> the safest places to ride, having a significantly lower crash rate 
> then either major or minor streets without any bicycle facilities;  
> moreover, they are safer than trails and sidewalks as well.6
> 	• 	The addition of bicycle lanes in Davis, California reduced crashes 
> by 31 percent.7
> 	• 	Bicycle lanes on a major avenue in Eugene, Oregon resulted in an 
> increase in bicycle use and a substantial reduction in the bicycle  
> crash rate. The crash rate per 100,000 bike miles fell by almost half 
> and the motor vehicle crash rate also fell significantly.8
> 	• 	When the city of Corvallis, OR installed 13 miles of bicycle lanes 
> in one year, the number of bicycle crashes fell from 40 in the year  
> prior to the installation to just 16 in the year afterwards, and of 
> the 5 crashes that occurred on streets with bike lanes, all involved  
> bicyclists riding at night with no lights.9
> 	• 	In Chicago, Illinois, crash severity was reduced in one study of 
> marking bike lanes in a narrow cross section where 5 foot bike lanes  
> were marked next to 7 foot parking lanes.10
> 	• 	In Denmark, bicycle lanes reduced the number of bicycle crashes by 
> 35 percent.11 Some of the bike lanes  reached risk reductions of 70 to 
> 80 percent.12
> 	• 	A comparison of crash rates of all types in major cities has shown 
> that cities with higher bicycle use have lower traffic crash rates  of 
> all types than cities with lower bicycle use.13
> 	• 	In a national study comparing streets with bike lanes and those 
> without, several important observations were made:14
> 	• 	Wrong-way riding was significantly lower on the streets with bike 
> lanes.
> 	• 	In approaching intersections, 15% of cyclists on streets without 
> bike lanes rode on the sidewalks, vs. 3% on the streets with bike  
> lanes.
> 	• 	On streets with bike lanes, 81% of cyclists obeyed stop signs, vs. 
> 55% on streets without.
> 	• 	In Cambridge, sidewalk bicycling was cut in half after the 
> installation of bicycle lanes on Mass. Ave. in Central Square.15
> 	• 	Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon, cities with good bikeway networks, 
> have the highest number of riders and rider behavior is the best:  
> wrong-way riding is minimal, fewer ride on the sidewalk than in other 
> Oregon cities.
> 	• 	In looking at comparable streets with and without bicycle lanes in 
> Davis and Santa Barbara, California, the number of cyclists riding  on 
> the wrong side of the street was one third as much on streets with 
> bicycle lanes.
>
> Return to Top
>
> Footnotes
> 	1.  	David L. Harkey and J. Richard Stewart, “Evaluation of 
> Shared-Use Facilities for Bicycles and Motor Vehicles  in Florida,” 
> Florida Department of Transportation, March 1996.
> 	2.  	Cyclists are still permitted to travel in the regular vehicle 
> travel lanes even when a bike lane is present.  Cyclists should signal 
> and make sure they have the attention of the people behind them before 
> moving into the vehicle travel  lane from a bike lane. Motorists 
> should be aware that cyclists may merge into their lanes in front of 
> them, e.g., to avoid  an obstacle or to make a left turn.
> 	3.  	Monique Stimson, “Analysis of Commuter Bicyclist Route Choice 
> Using Stated Preference Study,” TRB,  2003.; FHWA, Development of the 
> Bicycle Compatibility Index, December 1998.
> 	4.  	Bruce Landis et al., “Real-Time Human Perceptions: Toward a 
> Bicycle Level of Service,” Transportation  Research Record 1578; FHWA, 
> Development of the Bicycle Compatibility Index, December 1998.
> 	5.  	Federal Highway Administration, Safety Effectiveness of Highway 
> Design Features, Volume VI, Pedestrians  and Bicyclists, 
> FHWA-RD-91-049, 1991.
> 	6.  	William E. Moritz, Ph.D., “Adult Bicyclists In The United 
> States  Characteristics And Riding  Experience In 1996,” TRB Preprint 
> Paper, 1998.
> 	7.  	Federal Highway Administration, Bicycle Safety-Related Research 
> Synthesis, 1995.
> 	8.  	Ibid.
> 	9.  	Ibid.
> 	10.  	Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center, Bike Lane Design 
> Guide, 2002.
> 	11.  	Danish Road Directorate, Safety of Cyclists in Urban Areas, 
> 1994.
> 	12.  	Jan Grubb Laursen, Nordic Experience with the Safety of 
> Bicycling, 1993.
> 	13.  	Peter Newman, Lecture presented at the Conservation Law 
> Foundation, Boston, MA, January 9, 1997.
> 	14.  	Federal Highway Administration, Bicycle Lanes versus Wide Curb 
> Lanes: Operational and Safety Findings,  May 1998.
> 	15.  	City of Cambridge data, unpublished.
>
>
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