Safety Considerations for Permitting Bicycles on Controlled Access Highway Shoulders

In an effort to meet increasing demands for travel options, highway agencies are working to accommodate non-motorists into the transportation system. Because of the challenges in constructing separate paths for bicycles, highway shoulders are the most feasible alternative in many cases, and those once prohibited for bicycle travel have been opened or are being considered for bicycle use. Although studies of the safety aspects of bicycle travel on highway shoulders have been conducted, examinations appear to focus on summary statistics of bicycle-related crashes and/or a handful of individual cases of such crashes. This study examined several aspects associated with the safety of bicyclists on shoulders of controlled access highways using empirical and theoretical analysis. The intent of the study was to determine the characteristics of a roadway segment that would require it to be designated as prohibited for bicycle use. Some of the study findings include (1) few bicyclist/pedestrian involved crashes were reported on the controlled access highways in Virginia; (2) the segments prohibiting bicyclists/pedestrians are predicted to have more run-off-right crashes, the immediate threat to non-motorists on shoulders, than the segments permitting such usage; and (3) although stopping sight distance for bicycles is not a primary concern in permitting bicycle use of shoulders in general, there are conditions such as downgrade segments with the design speed below 40 mph where it should be considered.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF20 Bicycle Transportation
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Kweon, Young-Jun
  • Lim, In-Kyu
  • Lynn, Cheryl W
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
• Date: 2012

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle crashes; Bicycle travel; Bicycling; Freeways; Geometric segments; Road shoulders
• Uncontrolled Terms: Bicycle safety
• Geographic Terms: Virginia
• Subject Areas: Highways; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01372758
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 12-4068
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jun 15 2012 4:03PM