Wanted: Six Cities Yearning to be Bike Friendlier!

For cities that want protected bike lanes but lack the expertise to implement them, the Green Lane Project is soliciting applications to offer technical help (sorry, no funding) now that the initial six recipient cities have implemented cycle tracks.

October 21, 2013, 8am PDT | Irvin Dawid

As we described here last August, "protected bike lanes, also referred to as 'cycle tracks' - are a special class of premium bike infrastructure where the bike lane is separated from car traffic by several possible means. It could be a row of parked cars or plastic bollards; sometimes it's just striped paint" (about a foot-wide as opposed to a single, striped line, in which case it may be called a 'buffered bike lane').

Angie Schmitt writes that the Green Lane Project initiative comes by way of "PeopleForBikes, the bike industry-supported advocacy organization."

In the first round, six cities — Washington, Portland, Austin, Memphis, Chicago, and San Francisco — were selected to help advance their next-generation bike infrastructure.

While 39 cities have been invited to apply for round two, any city with a population 80,000 is eligible.

The last round saw 42 applications from places as varied as Wichita and Pittsburgh. A new round of six cities will be selected for assistance in 2014 and 2015.

How popular are protected bike lanes among bike riders?

A recent poll of New York City cyclists circulated by Transportation Alternatives found overwhelming support for protected bike lanes over preferences for conventional bike lanes, sharrows, or street-riding with no lanes. Michael Anderson of the Green Lane Project writes on Oct. 17 that "a whopping 84 percent said protected lanes were the best".

While Green Lane "does not provide funding for infrastructure, [they] offer small grants (likely $20K to $25K) to the focus cities to aid in the implementation of protected bike lanes", according to the FAQ.

Interested? Applications are now being accepted from governmental agencies only. Submit a letter of intent to apply by November 15, 2013. Applications are due by January 14, 2014. Winners will be announced in March, 2014. Here's what Green Lane Project director Martha Roskowski is looking for:

The winning cities will have a mix of political will, committed staff, and community support to implement ambitious plans for protected bike lanes during the two-year campaign period.