Why the Bike Lanes In Your City Probably Aren’t Good Enough

Some time back, a video popped up on X (formerly known as Twitter) of a person biking on Interstate 85 in Atlanta. No, they weren’t biking beside the interstate. They weren’t even biking in the shoulder of the interstate. They were straight up in the middle of the highway. This is peak vehicular cycling, if you’ve ever needed an example.

In San Antonio, Texas, a 65-year-old man riding a bike was killed after being hit by a driver in a hit-and-run. He was hit shortly after leaving a nearby bike trail. The trail is well-lit, easy to navigate, and provides safety from cars. Where the trail ends shortly after, however, is technically on a four-lane highway with a 40-mile-per-hour (64 kph) speed limit and no shoulder.

There are examples all over the world of comfortable bicycle infrastructure that can empower folks to get out by bicycle. But based on a recent study of how potential bike riders experience considerable barriers from infrastructure not designed for their needs, it looks like our cities have a long way to go.

Is your city’s current bicycle infrastructure enough to encourage new cyclists? Not likely

The study published in the Journal of Transport & Health sampled a total of 40 adults living across different regions of Melbourne, Australia. Participants were asked a series of questions to understand the barriers that come with trying to ride a bike around town. People surveyed were classified as one of four types of cyclists – strong and fearless, enthused and confident, interested but concerned, or no way, no how – to show how comfortable someone is likely to be riding around town. Those who answered ‘interested but concerned’ were contacted to participate in the study.

Those who were contacted for an interview were asked a series of questions to determine what weaknesses there were in biking around Melbourne. While every city has different types of safety concerns, I bet a lot of these concerns ring true in your city, too.

“Mainly because I’m a lot slower and the cars are a lot quicker, when a car drives past you, it’s that feeling. It’s like that wind that comes off from the car, and it’s just … It’s like that present danger isn’t it. It’s like that car, it’s going way too fast, and if it hits me like it’s going there’s, like, no going back.” (18-34-year-old woman, Stratum Two)

“If I look up a map and can’t find that or think I’m going to end up riding on the road with the traffic with no bike lane, it often is the fact that makes me say, oh no, I’ll actually drive.” (18-34-year-old woman, Stratum Two)

“Like I’m glad [painted bike lanes are] there for cyclists who are comfortable, but I wouldn’t feel comfortable in just the painted lanes.” (35-54-year-old woman, Stratum Two)

“You’ll get to a big intersection and then suddenly [the bike lane] disappears right when there’s multiple lanes of traffic and it’s quite scary because then you suddenly are merging in with the traffic and there’s no lane for you.” (55-74-year-old woman, Stratum One)

There are several more quotes from the study, but these four do well to illustrate the four key learnings from the study. Several folks described that physical protection for vehicle traffic enhanced their enjoyment of the ride. They were less concerned with being hit by a car. And importantly, the dedicated space with a bike lane helped folks feel welcome on the roadway.

Parking was also a consistent theme for folks surveyed. They want to be able to park their bike when they feel it isn’t going to be stolen. The bike parking needed to accommodate a variety of bikes and physical abilities too. Context matters too: a train station should have a purpose-built space as the bikes will be stored there for long periods. Local shops need easy access parking near their destination. Biking is a flexible way to travel, and parking needs to be convenient to match.

Everyone had issues with navigating intersections. Roundabouts were a challenge for most folks surveyed (and frankly, they’re a challenge for drivers too). But add space that provides a right-of-way for every; road user and rider comfort improves.

Of course, the fourth theme was around speed. High speeds were a larger concern than traffic itself. Riders felt they were a lot slower than cars, and that speed differential could result in a far more dangerous injury than in a low-speed area.

The study isn’t perfect. The pool of adults selected isn’t massive, and it could include international contexts in the future. These results were consistent with other studies, nonetheless. Further, this study provided direct quotes that highlight the need to center bike infrastructure around people’s needs, and not just the half-baked measures that aren’t enough to encourage non-cyclists to go by bike.

What bike infrastructure works?

This study highlights a consistent preference for high-quality bike infrastructure that separates people biking from motor vehicle traffic. It also highlights the need to consider the entire experience someone riding a bike goes through, from leaving their doorstep to arriving at their destination.

There isn’t one right way to make bike infrastructure around the world. Every community is different, and one community’s travel habits – and the built environment – will assuredly be different than another. But there are similarities between the best bike infrastructure in the U.S., as seen in our list here.

Our conversation with the U.S. bicycle advocacy group PeopleForBikes discussed the similarities between the best new U.S. bike lanes of 2023. A few key themes line up nicely with what was found here.

Physical separation is important to how comfortable people feel on the road. More and more cities might go with planters or physical barriers, but the very best lanes have some level of grade separation, placing people biking at the sidewalk level above the road.

The best bike lanes are a commitment. You can tailor bike infrastructure to local needs, but that tailoring needs to be consistent enough for people to understand as they navigate.

What is clear is that while some cities can have great bike paths, that alone doesn’t make great bike infrastructure. Destinations need to connect. Folks biking from place to place need context-sensitive parking that enables folks to run errands and leave their bikes parked. But above all else, the infrastructure has to feel safe for all ability levels.

And it’s not like this qualitative data isn’t backed up with numbers: protected bike lanes are associated with a 28 percent reduction in average maximum car speeds, according to a recent study. Painted-only bike lanes are associated with a smaller 11 percent speed reduction, but only for folks turning right.

In short, getting people to use bicycle infrastructure isn’t just about painting lines on the ground and wondering why people aren’t using the infrastructure. If folks aren’t using it, there’s probably a good reason. Until bike infrastructure addresses the needs of everyone riding, we will continue to find videos of folks riding bikes in terrible locations. Worse still, you’re going to continue to see more and more cyclists seriously injured or dead.

Welcome to the Urbanist Update. My job here might be as a tech editor, but I’ve also spent tons of time studying transportation, city planning, and engineering. Here are some of the things I’ve found interesting over the past week related to biking in cities, cycling infrastructure, and urbanism.

What is urbanism? In short, it is the study of how the inhabitants of an urban area interact with their towns and cities. If you care about building sustainable communities that let you live a happy and healthy life, then this is the spot for you. See previous Updates here.