Integrating Bicycling Into Transportation Planning and Design

Background

America's roadways are designed primarily to facilitate high-speed trips by automobile, and therefore can be hazardous for pedestrians and bicyclists. Yet experience shows that if well-designed roadways and facilities are created, more people will feel comfortable walking and bicycling, thereby alleviating some of the congestion. In fact, a traffic count conducted in Oregon found that pedestrians and bicyclists more often used well-designed thoroughfares with appropriate bicycle and pedestrian facilities than roads lacking such facilities (1).

As cities grow, many once quiet streets now carry large volumes of high-speed traffic with no pedestrian or bicycle facilities. Retrofitting these streets with walkways and bikeways will make them safely accessible to bicyclists and pedestrians once again.

Policies

1. Encourage state and local planners to integrate bicycling into the day-to-day planning, design and operation of the transportation system.
   
   To provide safe, accessible and convenient bicycling facilities and to support and encourage increased levels of bicycling, communities must incorporate bicycling into the land use and transportation decision-making process. Transportation planners can modify the existing street system, rather than create a separate system (1).
   
   Seattle's transportation plan provides a good example of how a city can modify its existing roadways to improve access to bicyclists. When road line markings are repainted or when bridges are retrofitted in Seattle, transportation experts try to allow more room for bicyclists. Seattle has created an urban trail system of both on- and off-road facilities that includes bike paths along railroad right-of-ways and bike lanes on streets. The city spends $5 million annually on bicycle improvements (2)
   
   In California, the city of Palo Alto created a bike boulevard along a popular arterial street. The city removed stop signs along Bryant Street, added signs to stop side traffic and installed barriers to stop through motor traffic, while allowing unhindered flow of bicycles. Bicycle traffic along Bryant Street doubled as a result of the bicycle boulevard. Accidents remained at a low level, traffic did not create a problem on adjacent streets and neighborhood reaction to the inconvenience of the barriers was minimal (3).
   
   
2. Mandate that local transportation departments provide safe, accessible and convenient facilities to foster bicycling as a safe means of transportation.
   
   There is a latent demand for bicycle facilities, and growing evidence to suggest that showers, bike routes and parking will increase the number of bicyclists (3).
   
   
   • In the San Francisco metropolitan area, the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) has put bicycle parking, including bicycle lockers, at many stations. Bicycles are permitted on trains during certain hours.
   
   
   
   • Palo Alto, Calif., has two bicycle park-and-ride stations connecting with local bus service and a commuter rail. In the early 1980s, Palo Alto became the first city in the nation to pass a similar ordinance, which also requires clothing lockers.
   
   
   
   • Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona require bicycle parking as well as shower facilities in new commercial buildings. In Los Angeles, CA; Seattle, WA; Oakland and Sacramento, CA, and Boulder, CO, buses carry bicycles on front-mounted racks. In Dallas, TX, and San Jose, CA, bikes are allowed inside buses. Los Angeles, CA; Arlington, VA; Boulder, CO; Madison, WI; and Seattle, WA, all have local ordinances requiring a minimum level of bicycle parking in all new developments, typically between five and ten percent of car parking spaces.
     

Effectiveness Data

Cities that provide good bikeway networks generally experience high bicycle use (3).

• Between 1992 and 1995, during which Seattle established four new bicycle lanes into the downtown area, there has been a nine percent increase in the bicycling commuting rate (2).



• After installing bicycle lanes on public streets in 1972, Palo Alto experienced a 13 percent increase in the number of cyclists, according to a follow-up survey conducted in 1993. There was also an 18 percent decrease in the injury rate on roads with bicycle lanes during the same period (4).



• Davis, California, planned for bicycles early on, putting into place an entire network of bicycle lanes and paths to the sides of streets, bicycle bridges, tunnels, traffic signals and turning lanes for bicycles. Bicycles now account for 25 percent of all trips in the city (4).
  

Resources

Oregon Department of Transportation
Bicycle and Pedestrian Program
355 Capitol Street NE, 5th Floor
Salem, OR 97301-3871
(503) 982-0800  
http://www.odot.state.or.us/techserv/bikewalk/index.htm
 
City of Seattle
Seattle Transportation Strategic Plan (TSP)
600 - 4th Avenue, 4th Floor
Seattle, Washington, 98104
(206) 684-8548
http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/td/tsp.asp
 
CDC National Center for Injury Prevention & Control
Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention
Mailstop K63
4770 Buford Highway NE
Atlanta, GA 30341-3724
(770) 488-4652
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/duip/duip.htm
 
Children's Safety Network
National Injury and Violence Prevention Resource Center
Education Development Center, Inc.
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02458-1060
(617) 969-7100, ext. 2207
http://www.edc.org/HHD/csn/

References

1. Chapter 3: Oregon Bicycle and Pedestrian Plan. The System Element: Current Conditions for Pedestrians & Bicyclists. Oregon Department of Transportation. Web site: http://www.odot.state.or.us/techserv/bikewalk/planimag/syselemt.htm.



2. Seattle Transportation Strategic Plan (TSP). Web site: http://www.pan.ci.seattle.wa.us/td/tsp.asp.



3. A Review of Bicycle Policy and Planning Developments in Western Europe and North America - A Literature Search. Director-General of Transport, Government of South Australia, July 1995.



4. Martin S. The World's Best Cities for Cycling. Bicycle Magazine, May 1992.

Acknowledgements

Barbara Alberson, M.P.H., Chief, State & Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services

Valodi Foster, M.P.H., Health Education Consultant, State & Local Injury Control Section, California Department of Health Services

Alexander Kelter, M.D., Chief, Epidemiology & Prevention for Injury Control, California Department of Health Services

Chris Miara, Associate Director, Children's Safety Network, Education Development Center

Richard Schieber, M.D., M.P.H., Technical Advisor, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, CDC National Center for Injury Prevention & Control

Anne M. Seeley, Active Communities Coordinator, Physical Activity & Health Initiative, California Department of Health Services

Roger B. Trent, Ph.D., Chief, Injury Surveillance & Epidemiology Section, California Department of Health Services

Lynn Walton-Haynes, Research Scientist 1, California Department of Health Services

Diane Winn, R.N., M.P.H., Associate Director, Injury Prevention Research Group, University of California, Irvine

Tina Zenzola, M.P.H., Assistant Director of Programs, California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention

We extend special thanks to the California Center for Childhood Injury Prevention (CCCIP) for their extensive contribution and commitment to the production of this publication.