Explained: How Protected Bike Lanes Improve Pedestrian Safety

"In just about every way you can measure the topic, protected bike lanes have been linked to more and safer bicycling," writes Zachary Shahan.

The benefits of bike lanes extend beyond the safety of bikers, according to Shahan, to pedestrians as well: "However, protected bike lanes aren’t only protected from automobile traffic; they’re also separated from sidewalks (at least via paint, if not curbs, bushes, trees, distance, or barriers). Naturally, this protects pedestrians from bicyclists, but in a number of obvious and subtle ways, this also protects pedestrians from cars. In some areas, the improvement is dramatic."

Although the Shahan cites data to back up his claims about improved pedestrian safety on roads with protected bike lanes, much of the article avoids the technical jargon that is often necessary in writing about street configuration. Instead, Shahan relies on his own, common sense ideas and experience about why multi-modal infrastructure benefits safety.