Chapter 6 - Bicycle Boulevards

Introduction

A bicycle boulevard is a street where vehicles are allowed, but the roadway is modified to enhance bicycle safety and convenience. In general, it is either a designated collector or local street where bicycle travel is made a priority through special signage, maintenance priorities, and intersection control. Bicycle boulevards allow bicyclists to move through a road with minimal delay due to limited stops and discouraged vehicular through traffic. The boulevard can also include diverters that prevent through car traffic, bicycle-activated signals at major intersections, and a combination of traffic calming devices to regulate the speed of all vehicles.

Purpose of a Bicycle Boulevard

The purpose of a bicycle boulevard is to improve bicycle safety and convenience by having at least one of the following conditions:

• Low traffic volumes or medium site traffic volumes with bicycle lanes.
• Discouragement of non-local motor vehicle traffic (traffic calming if needed).
• Free-flow travel for bicycles by right-of-way assignment to cyclists at intersections where possible.
• Traffic control at major streets to assist in bicycle crossing.
• A distinctive look and/or environment where bicyclists become aware of the existence of the bicycle boulevard and motorists know that the roadway is a priority route for bicyclists.¹

Goals

The first goal is to create a safe environment for people of all bicycling abilities. The boulevards should ideally be placed where anyone would feel safe riding. The second goal is to develop a network of efficient routes for bicyclists, by means of reduced stops and ease of crossing at major intersections. The third goal is to increase the visibility of bicycle paths, where residents and visitors have knowledge of and can easily find the safe routes provided by the boulevard.²

Objectives

The first objective in the design of a bicycle boulevard to be visually different from the surrounding streets and to invite safe, easy bicycling that is appealing to all ages and abilities. Secondly, it is important to minimize any changes to the existing traffic patterns on the bicycle boulevard and on adjacent residential streets. The third objective is to only utilize traffic calming devices that do not prohibit access of emergency vehicles and people with disabilities. The fourth objective is to improve neighborhood livability by incorporating pedestrian safety elements near schools, parks, and other public meeting places and pedestrian crossings.

The most cost effective strategy for the bicycle boulevard should be implemented. Once the bicycle boulevard is constructed engineers must continue the evaluation of the street on a regular basis to make sure it is functioning as planned. If needed, changes should be made.²

Appropriate Locations

Bicycle boulevards cannot be placed on just any random street. In choosing a road for the bicycle boulevard, transportation planners determine the appropriate location using the following criteria:

• Local street or low-volume collector.
• No transit or truck routes.
• Very little commercial frontage.
• Within a quarter of a mile of a major street or a high-traffic collector street.
• Spaced between ¾ and 1 ½ miles from another bicycle boulevard (the standard spacing of major streets).
• Extends over half of the cross section of the city.
• Few zig-zags with the main segments at least 0.5 miles long.
• Traffic signals at major intersections.
• Access to major destinations.
• Connections to bicycle routes in neighboring cities.²

Benefits

Benefits to Bicyclists

• Bicycle boulevards provide a quieter, less stressful bicycling environment that is especially attractive to children, casual, and inexperienced cyclists.
• The low volume of traffic, compared to a normal collector or arterial street, reduces the potential for conflicts between motorists and bicyclists that arise from autos passing bicyclists, vehicles turning in and out of driveways, and vehicles turning at intersections.
• Bicyclists can cross collectors and arterials more safely at four-way stop signs or signals that at gaps in traffic at uncontrolled crossings.
• Slower traffic makes it easier for bicyclists and motorists to avoid collisions.
• The route is more continuous and direct that most local streets.
• Bicyclists have fewer stops or delays than on other streets, reducing travel time and fatigue.

With such benefits, an increase in the number of bicyclists using the bicycle boulevard is observed. Table 6.1 shows the 12-hour bicycle counts along Bryant Street in Palo Alto before and after the bicycle boulevard was installed. Table 6.2 illustrates the volume of bicyclists at afternoon peak hours on Milvia Street in Berkeley before and after traffic calming devices such as neckdowns, and speed bumps were installed.²

Table 6.1 Palo Alto: Bicycle counts on Bryant Street

*Number of bicycles traveling through the intersection between 7am and 7pm midweek.

Table 6.2 Berkeley: Bicycle counts on Milvia Street

*Number of bicycles traveling through the intersection between 7am and 7pm midweek.

Benefits to Pedestrians

A bicycle boulevard provides benefits not only to bicyclists, but also pedestrians. Building a bicycle boulevard can provide a quieter, more pleasant environment for walking or sitting. It also makes crossing streets easy and safe due to reduced vehicle volume, speed, crossing distance, and new traffic control devices. Such benefits have special value to schools, the disabled, and the elderly. After the creation of the Milvia Bicycle Boulevard in Berkeley, for example, the afternoon peak pedestrian traffic increased from 63 to 93 persons.²

Benefits to the Neighborhood

Residents along a bicycle boulevard also enjoy the benefits of traffic calming (usually implemented with the bicycle boulevard), as well as the relaxed environment the bicycle boulevard creates. The benefits to a neighborhood are:

• Reduce through traffic.
• Safer, quieter, and more pleasant environment.
• Possible reduction of crime based on more active street life.
• Potential to enhance neighborhood appearance with new landscape, strips, medians, traffic circles, etc.²

Disadvantages

• Bicycle boulevards are often located on streets that do not provide direct access to commercial land uses and other destinations.
• If not properly implemented, they can cause traffic diversion onto other streets.
• Failure to provide arterial crossings can result in unsafe conditions for bicyclists.
• Traffic signals may be expensive.

These disadvantages can be avoided through careful planning and communication between traffic planners/engineers, nearby residents, and local businesses.²

Tools That Create Bicycle Boulevards

Transportation officials have a cohesive set of “strategies” for bicycle boulevards. They are based on general tools, which are aesthetics, traffic calming, pedestrian safety, help at crossings, and prevention of diversion. The strategies that are chosen should represent one or more of these tools.

The strategies are grouped into two categories. The first category is called the “basic tools” and they are recommended highly for all bicycle boulevards. These are:

• Signage.
• Visually dramatic markings.
• Pavement legends.
• Special street sign design (at all intersections).

The second category is called “site specific tools.” Examples of site specific tools are:

• Traffic circles.
• Bulbouts.
• Redesigned diverters to be bicycle and emergency vehicle accessible.

Maintenance of Bicycle Boulevards

Maintenance costs can be reduced by careful selection of materials and traffic calming practices. For example, permanent marking tape has been known to last as long as the pavement itself, which is roughly fifteen years. It is also the least slippery material. For these reasons, it would be considered as the first choice because normal paint lasts for only two years.

References

1. DeRobertis, Michelle and Ridgeway, Matthew. (June 2001). Planning and Design of Bicycle and Pedestrian Facilities. University of California Institute of Transportation Studies, pp. 6-29.
2. City of Berkeley’s Planning and Development: Bicycle Boulevard Design Tools and Guidelines http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/default.asp

This chapter originally written by Michael Carmen, 2002, as part of a senior project.