A, B and C of Safe Modern Busy Street Design

Note: The U.S. dropped from first to 20th in highway safety since 1990 with today about 22,000 excess fatalities and hundreds of thousands of serious injuries each year compared to the numbers generated per mile of travel by the average of the top four nations--the UK (we were tied with them in 1990 for #1), Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.  AAA studies point to desperate need for U.S. to address its shoddy highway safety status.  AAA, AARP, Federal Highway Administration and Geico all support roundabouts for safety and converting signals to roundabouts for reducing serious and fatal injuries. 

The A, B and C of Modern Busy Urban Street Design:

the Burlington, VT Example

--yes, there are D, E, F, etc. to be covered in future analyses

Since 2000 a revolution occurred in United States modern busy urban streets design. Today there are three generic elements necessary when choosing to serve safely those who walk, bicycle, and, yes, those who travel by car on a busy urban street.

The three core busy urban street design elements are:

1. sidewalk
2. roundabout
3. cycle track (protected bike lane)

The basic design principle? Safety first!

If your busy urban street lacks one or more of these three central components—or their equivalent--by definition one or more ways of travel is unsafe, undeserviced and/or less than the desired, complete transportation street.

In many cases geographic (sharp grades like San Francisco hills), physical constraints (older narrow streets), etc., prevent fully achieving all three elements. The three elements remain the desired objective for safety! The 1000 Friends of Portland study found, essentially, the formula to walkable busy streets are a sidewalk network free of sharp grades plus ease of crossing intersections only the roundabout enables safely.

Almost by default by a neighborhood driven planning process, the Burlington, VT adopted its North Avenue Corridor Plan in 2014 where these three elements were enshrined to provide the highest level of safety for all modes: an existing sidewalk system, cycle track from end to end of the 2.6 mile corridor, and conversion of three of seven busy intersection traffic signals to roundabouts. Note the report two-page Chapter 1 vision and goals: https://studiesandreports.ccrpcvt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/FINAL-NorthAve_CorridorReport.pdf

The roundabout, birthed in the U.K. in 1966, arrived in the U.S. in 1990. By 2005 NY State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) made the roundabout which cuts serious and fatal injuries about 90% its standard based on better safety for all modes. At U.S. and Canadian roundabouts, about 10,000 today, only one pedestrian and two cyclist fatalities occurred to date. NYSDOT's 2005 action instantly fossilized the traffic signal in America. (Consider the Assam, NL design preferred by many in the U.S. with a separate walk and bike lane: https://www.google.com/search?hs=ylX&q=assam+roundabout+design+netherlands&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYqdO8_s_iAhVkRN8KHbZODNIQsAR6BAgFEAE&biw=784&bih=462 )

Historically cycle track is the newest and most rapidly adopted generic street element—the first cycle track network in North America being installed in Montreal in 2007.

Cycle track adoption here includes its appearance statewide bike plans like the first Illinois state bicycle plan in 2014 and by 2017 in the form of a cycle track network in

Burlington, VT's planBTV Walk Bike: https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/planbtvwalkbike The “old” bicycle provisions of paint on street may have been help to the then prevalent young adult male cyclists. But paint on streets excluded most less skilled, old and young, and women concerned with personal safety. Simply, paint on asphalt is not a safety device and offers minimal safety benefit compared to cycle track while leaving most of the potential bicycle riding community unwilling to ride two wheelers.

Yes, there are some additional wrinkles. Led by Vermont bikepath pioneer, now Dr. Anne Lusk, Harvard School of Public Health, the cycle track alternative location on sidewalk level where there are business or other mixed use areas emerged. Dr. Lusk led the first safety studies showing the superior safety performance of cycle track in Montreal early this decade. Here is the 2010 Lusk study report: https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/17/2/131

Japan cities feature widespread use of sidewalk level cycle track (though only now adopting roundabout technology). Bicycling is a natural part of Japanese urban neighborhood travel activity (and connecting to subways in major cities) with pedestrians and cyclists of all ages mixing in a low speed cycling context on sidewalk spaces and street crossings. (Up to 10% of Japanese bicycles are E-bikes.)

Among other features, sidewalk level cycle track favors adjacent businesses with easier access and added flexible space between the business and vehicle travelways. Cycle track not on vehicle travelway may be at sidewalk level or at a separate level between the sidewalk level and vehicle travelway. Sidewalk cycle track examples:

https://www.google.com/search?hs=pNs&q=sidewalk+level+cycle+track&tbm=isch&source=univ&client=opera&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi_w9DW_c_iAhWGT98KHRe9Ah8Q7Al6BAgFEA0&biw=784&bih=462

There are a few other variations in street design of note, particularly “shared space” where all modes mix, coexist in a low speed and safe context https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_space One reason busy street urban Japan cycle track works so well is the presence of shared space neighborhood “local” side streets as described in the Wikipedia entry.

These major changes in safe busy urban street design took place since 1990 when the U.S. began its drop from 1^st to 20^th in highway fatality rates, now 22,000 yearly excess highway deaths compared to the average of the top four, the U.K. (co-leader with U.S. in 1990), Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Safety first!

Tony Redington  June 7, 2019

TonyRVT99@gmail.com @TonyRVT60 TonyRVT.Blogspot.com