Saturday, February 27, 2010

Bicycle Boulevard Guidebook


A new guidebook has been published out of Portland, Oregon on designs and treatments for Bicycle Boulevards. Bicycle Boulevards
are low-volume and low-speed streets that have been optimised for bicycle travel through treatments such as traffic calming and traffic reduction, signage and pavement markings, and intersection crossing treatments. These treatments allow though movements for cyclists while discouraging similar through trips by non-local motorised traffic.
A link to the guidebook can be found below.


Bike Boulevards have been extremely successful in Portland and other North American cities, most of which are relatively flat and have strong grid road networks. Creating a network of Bike Boulevards can be more challenging in cities like Brisbane where few roads provide the connectivity both cyclists and motorists need.

Fortunately, non-grid networks can provide hidden opportunities for Bike Boulevards. For example, no through roads can be connected with bicycle-only pathways. And since many of these roads already feature low traffic volumes, simply improving wayfinding and some intersection crossing treatments may be all that is needed to get cyclists moving.

1 comment:

Athol Moore said...

I believe Albert Street has the qualities that would make it an excellent bicycle boulevard. The main issue with it is the pedestrian mall (and the Act) but that is an obstacle that is not insurmountable. Giving the cyclists their own space would be great but the traffic volumes are low enough (I believe) to share the space. Some traffic calming may be needed but I believe a bicycle boulevard could be delivered quickly and cheaply along this spine. Getting it in before the CityCycle scheme opens would be great.