Federal Highway Administration to Develop Guidance for Protected Bike Lanes

"Before the end of this year, the Federal Highway Administration will release its own guidance on designing protected bike lanes," reports Tanya Snyder. Such guidance would represent a major policy departure for the FHWA, which until now had adhered to AASHTO’s Green Book and FHWA’s own Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), bot of which lack protected bike lanes, for design and engineering guidelines.

According to Snyder, "the next edition of the MYTCD (expected to be released in 2016 or 2017) will have a slew of new signage and markings recommendations for bicycling." Specifically, "the updated MUTCD is expected to have everything from signage indicating how bikes should make two-stage turns using bike boxes to stripes extending bike lanes through intersections — and, of course, guidance on buffered and protected bike lanes."

More than the updated MUTCD will change the game for protected bike lanes at the FHWA, however, because the FHWA will also publish its own manual dedicated to the design of protected bike lanes. According to Snyder, "FHWA is collaborating with exactly the right people on the project. Carl Sundstrom from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center and Ryan Russo of NYC DOT, who presented alongside Goodman at Pro-Walk Pro-Bike, are both consulting on the new guidelines. Sam Schwartz Engineering and Kittelson & Associates, Inc. — firms which have developed specializations in protected bike lanes — are on the consultant team. NACTO and ITE are on the technical work group along with the League of American Bicyclists’ Equity Initiative and some forward-looking state DOTs, MPOs, and transit agencies.