Bicycle boulevard

Bicycle boulevard on Ankeny Street in Portland, Oregon

A bicycle boulevard, sometimes referred to as a neighborhood greenway, neighborway, neighborhood bikeway or neighborhood byway is a type of bikeway composed of a low-speed street which has been "optimized" for bicycle traffic. Bicycle boulevards discourage cut-through motor-vehicle traffic but allow local motor-vehicle traffic. They are designed to give priority to bicyclists as through-going traffic. They are intended as a low-cost, politically popular way to create a connected network of streets with good bicyclist comfort and/or safety.

Bicycle boulevards attempt to achieve several goals:

• discouragement of non-local motor vehicle traffic;
• low speed limits;
• low motor-vehicle traffic volumes;
• free-flow travel for bikes by assigning the right-of-way to the bicycle boulevard at intersections wherever possible;
• traffic control to help bicycles cross major arterial roads; and
• a distinctive look and/or ambiance such that cyclists become aware of the existence of the bike boulevard and motorists are alerted that the street is a priority route for bicyclists.

These bikeway design elements are intended to appeal to casual, risk-averse, inexperienced and younger bicyclists who would not otherwise be willing to cycle with motor vehicle traffic. Compared to a bike path or rail trail, a bicycle boulevard is also a relatively low-cost approach to appealing to a broader cycling demographic.

Features

A bicycle boulevard is generally marked with a sign at the beginning and the end of the bicycle boulevard. Also necessary for the road to be called a bicycle boulevard is coloring; in the Netherlands, the parts of the road where the cyclists ride on is marked in red (same color as used for segregated cycle facilities in the Netherlands). These sections of the road are called rabatstroken. Motorists also ride on this section, yet also have a non-colored part of the road which they can drive on with one half (2 wheels) of the car when they wish to pass a cyclist.

Bicycle boulevards may use a variety of traffic calming elements to achieve a safe environment. This makes it difficult for motorists to use the street at a high speed. However, they do not block access to motor vehicles completely (i.e. using bollards) which would designate the route as segregated cycle facilities rather than a bicycle boulevard.

Some bicycle boulevards have higher road surface standards than other residential streets, and encourage riders to use the full lane, encouraging parity between bicycles and motor vehicles.

Discouraging non-local motor vehicle traffic

This diverter forces motor vehicles to turn, and allows through passage for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Permeable barriers such as bollards are sometimes used to allow cycling traffic to continue through while diverting motorized traffic from using the street as a through street.

Locations

United States

Bicycle boulevards can be found in the United States, including:

• Arizona: Tucson
• California: Palo Alto, Berkeley, Emeryville, San Luis Obispo, Long Beach
• Florida: Gainesville
• Kansas: Manhattan
• Minnesota: Minneapolis, Saint Paul
• Missouri: Columbia
• New Mexico: Albuquerque
• North Carolina: Wilmington
• Oregon: Portland and Eugene
• Oklahoma: Tulsa
• Washington: Seattle
• Wisconsin: Madison

Palo Alto established the first Bicycle Boulevard in the nation. It was named for Ellen Fletcher, a Holocaust survivor and one of America's first bike activists.

In Berkeley, boulevards are mostly residential streets, but some sections pass through commercial areas. Generally there are few cars on these streets, in large part because of the pre-existing traffic calming devices that slow and/or divert traffic. Bicycle boulevards may or may not have bicycle lanes.

In Minneapolis, a grant from the federal government within the Non-Motorized Pilot Program has helped to build a bike boulevard on Bryant Avenue, and the planning of others.

Similarly in Columbia, Non-Motorized Pilot Program project has helped fund the first bike boulevard in the State along Ash and Windsor Streets. At least one other is being planned.

In Wilmington, help from a Fit Community 2009 grant through the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund enabled the City of Wilmington to construct North Carolina's first bicycle boulevard. The Ann Street Bicycle Boulevard runs from South Water Street to South 15th Street and serves as part of the much longer River to the Sea Bikeway, which connects downtown Wilmington to Wrightsville Beach.

In Portland, a $600 million plan for the years 2010-2030 has the goal of making 25 percent of trips in the city be by bicycle through the establishment of 700 miles (1,100 km) of new bikeways; one of the projects within the plan is to combine the work on street features that reduce stormwater runoff with the construction of curb extensions and other components of bicycle boulevards.

In Albuquerque, a city with over 400 miles (640 km) of on-street bicycle facilities and multi-use trails, the grand opening of the first bicycle boulevard in the state of New Mexico was held on April 14, 2009. The bicycle boulevard runs from San Mateo Blvd SE, west along Silver Ave SE/SW to 14th St SW. It then continues north on 14th St to Mountain Rd NW. The last leg of the boulevard continues west on Mountain Rd NW to the Paseo del Bosque Recreation Trail which parallels the Rio Grande.

In Madison almost every major artery has a bike lane in which bicycles have a protected place to bike in the street. The first full bicycle boulevard spans East Mifflin Street in Madisons Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood, a second spans the entire length of Kendall Avenue in University Heights and the Regent Neighborhood.

In Seattle, the city's first cycle track is slated to open in the summer of 2013, with others to follow on.

Naming conventions

The City of Berkeley, California, is credited with coining the phrase "Bicycle Boulevard" in the late 1980s, but not every jurisdiction has adopted this term. As of November 2011, the City of Boston has decided to use the term "Neighborways" instead of Bicycle Boulevards. This just adds to a growing list of terms for Bicycle Boulevards since Portland has been calling them "Neighborhood Greenways" and Seattle has named them simply "Greenways".

Other commonly used terms for bicycle boulevards include:

• Bike Boulevards
• Quiet Streets
• Neighborhood Byways
• Bicycle Friendly Streets
• Bicycle Friendly Corridors
• Bicycle Parkway
• Neighborhood Parkway

Similar road designs outside the USA

Road designs similar to the American concept of bicycle boulevards can be found in Canada (Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg), the Netherlands, Germany and Belgium.

In the Netherlands they have a similar road design called a fietsstraat (bike street) — although most residential streets in the Netherlands that do not have either on-road bike lanes or segregated bike lanes come under the American definition of bicycle boulevards. A fietsstraat in the Netherlands can link dedicated bike-only paths, service roads, and other types of bike-friendly street configurations to complete a route. (Extensive amount of information has been written on these facilities at the Pedal Portland blog and the Northeastern University webpage.)

In Amsterdam for example, around 40% of journeys are by bicycle and transport planners at the Dienst Infrastructuur Verkeer en Vervoer (Directorate Infrastructure Traffic and Transport) have adopted a bicycle policy that blends many different bike-friendly street designs such as segregated bicycle lanes, on-road bicycle lanes, and fietsstraat streets, among others. The general concept here is that cyclists can integrate relatively safely with vehicular traffic that is travelling at, or below, 30 km/h (19 mph) but that segregated bike lanes should be installed along roads with a higher speed limit. With these, and many other, bike-friendly policies in place, Amsterdam has the highest rate of cycling of any capital city in the world.

Bicycle boulevards are also on the rise in other cities within the country, like Utrecht.

In Germany they have a similar road design called a Fahrradstraße (bike street), introduced into the Highway Code in 1997.

In Belgium, the rue cyclable (in French) or fietsstraat (in Dutch) was introduced into the Highway Code with effect from 13.2.2012. However, there was already one in the Visserij in Ghent (Gent/Gand) in the summer of 2011. The first one appeared in Brussels in 2013, on a service road alongside avenue Louise.

In Spain, bicycle boulevards are known as ciclocalles .

See also

• List of cycling topics
• Cycling infrastructure
• Shared lane marking

External links

• Fundamentals of Bicycle Boulevard Planning & Design
• Portland’s Bike Boulevards Become Neighborhood Greenways by Streetfilms
• Berkeley’s Bike Boulevards by Streetfilms