In recent years, improving conditions for pedestrians and bicyclists has always been a popular topic among transportation planners. The nation’s road system is currently used and designed as an automobile-based system. Efforts have been made to improve the safety and attractiveness of riding a bike but more action should be taken in order to make people bike more. In this Op-Ed, I would like to recommend the federal level policymakers to start reform in the roadway system we currently use nationwide and move from designing streets mainly to satisfy auto use to making the streets comfortable and safety meets non-motorized travelers as well. The plan is to introduce non-motorized lanes to the roadway system nationwide. The proposed reform in federal level policymaking will provide a great opportunity to provide a perfect solution to the issue by setting a new roadway configuration as a national standard. There are countless benefits of doing so for both travelers and transportation planning agencies. The added non-motorized lane could promote biking and walking and generate positive impacts on people’s health conditions since they are exercising at the same time as traveling. Environmental reasons are also behind this. The safe and convenient travel environment for bikers provided by the non-motorized lane would definitely reduce the number of vehicles on the road as more people switch to biking and walking. Fewer vehicles on the road mean fewer emissions.
The priority of
the reform plan should be redesigning collectors and local roadways, which are the roads people
use most frequently in everyday life. By adding non-motorized lanes to local connection
roadways, they could provide a safe and comfortable place for on-street
pedestrians and bikers. Another reason to start with these local roads is
that they usually have a relatively lower volume and speed in comparison to
other types of roadways. Michael Williams, a transportation consultant who has been
involved both with the planning and design of active transportation facilities
and public works construction management for more than 25 years, also talked about
the non-motorized lanes in his study “Solving the Challenge of Non-Motorized
Infrastructure with Advisory Bike Lanes”. Williams refers to the added non-motorized
infrastructure on vehicle roadways as advisory bike lanes. The advisory bike
lanes would be able to accommodate the non-motorized lane design with roadways
that are too small or too narrow for the full-size bike facilities or where is
difficult to add a bike lane onto the street. In the design of advisory bike
lanes, non-motorists would share the same amount of lanes as motorists do. Motorists
travel in the center lane until they need to pass an approaching vehicle. In
order to pass, they merge into the edge lanes, after yielding to any
non-motorized users there. After completing the passing movement, motorists
return to the center lane. Successful
precedents in other countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands have shown
this type of road to be safe and effective.
What is more, it
is very important to get the idea of how acceptable will people be to this new
roadway design with non-motorized lanes and what are people’s thoughts on these improved bicycle and pedestrian facilities. The U.S. Department of
Transportation’s research on non-motorized lanes roadway design has been
ongoing for a while. In their publication of “Guidebook on Methods to Estimate
Non-Motorized Travel: Supporting Documentation”, they identified a few
important questions to the policy: “·
If we build a new bicycle or pedestrian facility, how many people will use it? If
we improve an existing facility or network, how many additional people will
choose to walk or bicycle? ·
What types and combinations of improvements will have the greatest impact on increasing
non-motorized travel? ·
How will improvements to non-motorized travel conditions affect motor vehicle
use?”. In my opinion, all these questions are very representative and cover
the major concerns of the public and the government on making the non-motorized
lanes standard in the existing roadway system across the nation. Adequate analysis
of non-motorists' travel behavior must be completed before any implementation
of the design in order to introduce a safe, efficient, and attractive non-motorized
infrastructure national wide.
Written by
Yingjia Zhou
References:
1. Williams, Michael. Solving the Challenge of Non-Motorized Infrastructure with Advisory Bike Lanes. ITF Research Reports. September 2018
2.
Guidebook
on Methods to Estimate Non-Motorized Travel. US DOT. https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/ped_bike/docs/guidebook2.pdf
3.
Anchorage
Transportation Planning Non-Motorized Plan. October 2021.
Yingjia, I find this argument compelling and actually surprisingly possible. The Feds have been supporters of the Complete Streets concept. It just hasn't risen to the level of official policy yet. A challenge is that Fed funding hasn't typically been widely available for local street projects, but maybe they could start to provide localities "design sweeteners" (similar to the way Obama admin initially funded many of the wayfinding sharrows you see around town) to nudge them toward more inclusive street design. Design standards or goals definitely fall w/in the Fed interest and purview.
ReplyDelete