Protected bike lanes are those that are within the public right of way and protected by some vertical element such as parked cars with a buffer zone.
Protected Bike Lane Benefits
Protected bike lanes have had a significant and positive effect on traffic safety and bicycle ridership. They have decreased crashes, deaths and injuries of all transportation modes when implemented, providing benefits to people driving, walking and bicycling. Additionally, the number of protected bike lanes has quadrupled since 2010. By the end of 2014 they are used in 24 states and 53 cities.
Resources
The Protected Bike Lanes presentation, linked below, covers the basics for design, use, benefits and outcomes of protected bike lanes and how they could be applied to Greater Des Moines. They are intended as another transportation tool in the toolbox to make our streets safer, more accessible and more productive for our cities and region
- MPO Presentation: Protected Bike Lanes – Best Practices
- Other Resources:
- Evaluating Protected Bike Lanes in the U.S. (by National Institute for Transportation and Communities)
- Winter Bike Lane Maintenance: Review of National Best Practices (by Alta Planning and Design)
- Statistics Library for Protected Bike Lanes (by People for Bikes)