EVALUATION OF AN INNOVATIVE APPLICATION OF THE BIKE BOX

This paper is an evaluation of an innovative bike box (a right angle extension to a bike lane at the head of the intersection) with accompanying traffic signs, but no extra traffic signals, installed at a busy downtown intersection featuring two one-way streets in Eugene, Oregon in the summer of 1998. The box allows bicyclists traveling to the intersection on a left-side bike lane to get to the head of the traffic queue on a red traffic signal indication and then proceed ahead of motor vehicle traffic toward a right-side bike lane when the traffic signal changes to green. Cyclists traveling through the intersection were videotaped before and after placement of the box. The videotapes were coded to evaluate operational behaviors and conflicts with motorists, other bicyclists, and pedestrians. Twenty-two percent of the bicyclists who approached in the left side bike lane and then crossed to the bike lane on the right side of the street (the bicyclists for whom the box was most intended) used the box. Many more bicyclists in this target group could have used the box (i.e., they had a red signal indication and enough time to move into the box). A problem with motor vehicle encroachments into the box likely diminished the amount of use. The rate of conflicts between bicycles and motor vehicles changed little in the before and after periods. No conflicts took place while using the bike box as intended. The bike box needs to be evaluated in other kinds of intersection settings and traffic conditions.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Highway Safety Research Center
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27599

  Federal Highway Administration

  Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center, 6300 Georgetown Pike
  McLean, VA  United States  22101
• Authors:
  • Hunter, W W
• Publication Date: 2000-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 23 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Bicycle lanes; Bicycles; Highway operations; Innovation; Maneuvering; Signalized intersections; Traffic conflicts
• Candidate Terms: Bicycle boxes (Intersection element)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Terminals and Facilities; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00987645
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWA-RD-00-141,, Final Report
• Contract Numbers: DTFH61-92-C-00138
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 8 2005 12:00AM