Protected Intersections For Bicyclists

[icarus]

A lot of good things have come out of the Dutch biking culture and now, you can add one more .. protected intersections for bicyclists.

This idea seems so relatively simple but I am sure will meet with backlash from developers and administrators.





link to a video presentation:
http://vimeo.com/86721046

link to website:

http://www.protectedintersection.com/

[tufsu1]

Bike boxes (painted green areas ahead of stop bar) have started to spread in Florida

[Lunican]

Looks pretty good. The current setup in Jacksonville with the bike line between the travel lane and turn lane is terrible.

[thelakelander]

Roadway design standards need to be changed, both locally and with FDOT. We don't really have control over what the state does, but we can change our local standards, which happens to be most of the city.

Here's what Lakeland, FL has been doing with their streets:









Examples of a new highway recently built in Lakeland. In anticipation of new development, stretches of extra pavement have been included (could be used as an extra lane, for BRT or parallel parking) and a separated shared use path have already been constructed:













So, local public agencies do have some flexibility with roadway design at their disposal. They just have to care enough about other forms of mobility to make an effort at better accommodating them.

[icarus]

Nice photos.

I personally like the protected intersection places the bike lane between the parallel parking spaces and the sidewalk. 

It seems DOT keeps coming up with new and sometimes outlandish plans to bring safety to vehicles but doesn't grasp how to make roadways safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. A lot of these roadway ideas are fairly easily implemented.  The only real cost being additional right of way acquisition if required.

I'm at least glad to see Lakeland planning for the future.

[thelakelander]

Nice photos.

I personally like the protected intersection places the bike lane between the parallel parking spaces and the sidewalk.

That street is in the Lake Morton Historic District, which is Lakeland's version of Riverside/Avondale.  They took a regular two lane residential street and made it a one-way street to accommodate parallel parking and bike lanes. Vehicular traffic flow wasn't really impacted because the neighborhood has gridded streets. You'll also notice that every block has a yellow sign alerting drivers that pedestrians do cross streets at the intersections. Such a solution would probably start a fight in Jacksonville.

Although the town is smaller and more conservative, the region is somewhat different then NE Florida.  Many of the smaller cities like Lakeland (100k residents) are finding they can compete with Tampa and Orlando by focusing on improving the quality of life in their city limits. At the same time, they're still close enough to the larger cities where their residents can still enjoy the entertainment/shopping/beaches, etc. that are in neighboring communities.  Being consolidated with no real regional competition, quality of life doesn't seem as important to Jax as it does with the smaller cities in Central and South Florida.

It seems DOT keeps coming up with new and sometimes outlandish plans to bring safety to vehicles but doesn't grasp how to make roadways safe for bicyclists and pedestrians. A lot of these roadway ideas are fairly easily implemented.  The only real cost being additional right of way acquisition if required.

Every community in Florida has to deal with FDOT, so what's happening in Jax is no different than what happens in Tampa, Orlando or Miami.  However, some communities tend to stand up to their FDOT districts a little more than others.

I'm at least glad to see Lakeland planning for the future.

Jax can easily do what Lakeland and other Florida communities are doing.  However, for us to get there, we can't rely on the Mayor's Office, City Council and COJ staff to lead the way.  Residents have to fight and push for better mobility first.  Another Central Florida city that's invested heavily in bike/ped over the last decade is St. Petersburg. Here's some pics I took last year. During my stay there, I used a bike to get just about every place I wanted to go.....which included riding +20 miles to downtown Clearwater:

[tufsu1]

Looks pretty good. The current setup in Jacksonville with the bike line between the travel lane and turn lane is terrible.

that's a state (and national) standard and the space is called a "keyhole"

[thelakelander]

^Yeah, it's supposed to cut down on accidents due to cars making right turns. However, to the average person riding a bike, it's a death trap and an incentive to drive a car instead of using a non motorized mode of travel.

Personally, I may be in the minority, but I'm a believer of physically separating "fast moving" motorized and non-motorized traffic as much as possible. I believe separation is one the largest incentives you can provide to the average population to consider using bikes on a more consistent basis.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Even in they implemented bike paths on most streets I would not ride one. Its just too dangerous, drivers are so occupied with other things these days.

[thelakelander]

Would you ride a bike on something like this:

[Keith-N-Jax]

Yeah that's more like it. Biking is good exercise.

[mbwright]

I like the sign that says the bikes must stop also at the stop sign.