Complete Streets and

MUTCD Bike Facility Updates

April 30, 2015

Margaret Kubilins, PE, ENV SP

Bill DeSantis, PE

Complete Streets

Key Components

Travel Behavior

Complete Street Ingredients

Policy

– Land Use

– Transportation

Guidelines and Standards

Implementation

Travel Behavior

Why Don’t Americans

Walk Anywhere?

Answer: They can’t

– There is no sidewalk outside

the front door, school is 5

miles away, and there’s a six-

lane highway between home

and the supermarket.

– Many experts on public health

say the way neighborhoods

are built is to blame for

Americans’ physical

inactivity… and the resulting

epidemic of obesity.

USA Today

The tremendous potential of all trips

National Household Travel Survey (2009)

Americans want choices

Future of Transportation National Survey (2010)

Complete Streets Elements

Road Diets — Reconfiguration

For existing streets, there is the opportunity to simply restripe

the lanes to a specific user like a bus or the entire road can be a

new configuration.

Rural roads with shared use trails

Paved shoulders on bridges

Main Streets

Neighborhood Greenways

Angled Head-Out Parking

Emerging Designs—Separated Bike Lanes

Experimental Designs—Advisory Bike Lanes

Modern Roundabouts

Mattapoisett Multi-Use Path

Mattapoisett, MA

Transportation Corridors—Rail with Trail

Blackstone River Bikeway

Retrofitting Existing Roadways with a Road Diet

Memorial Boulevard, Newport, RI

before

Cycle Traks

15th Street, Washington, DC

Separated Bike Lane

Arlington, VA

Separated Bike Lanes

9th Avenue, New York, NY

Higher Recognition of Bike/Ped Detour Needs

Providence, RI

Higher Recognition of Bike Parking Needs

Bike Corral, Virginia Beach, VA

Perception of Cycling in the US

Biggest reason most Americans don’t ride a bicycle:

Afraid to ride on a roadway with traffic

Feel safer on separate facilities

Build it and they will come!

It’s a “fear based” approach

What is “safe”? What are the “standards”?

Bike/Ped Fatalities increased

in 2012-2014

Boston – 9 bike fatalities

2012- June 2014

– 8 at intersections

– 6 with trucks

– 1 with bus

2011—Policy for Bike/Ped Accommodation

The USDOT policy is to incorporate safe and convenient

walking and bicycling facilities into transportation projects.

Every transportation agency, including DOT, has the

responsibility to improve conditions and opportunities for

walking and bicycling and to integrate walking and bicycling

into their transportation system.

The “Standards”

Official FHWA Guidance Memo—Flexible Design dated

August 20, 2013 expressing support for taking a flexible

approach to bicycle and pedestrian facility design.

AASHTO Bicycle Guide and Pedestrian Guide are the primary

national resources for planning, designing and operating

bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

MUTCD or State Supplement.

MUTCD IA-14 Green Colored Pavement

in Bike Lanes

FHWA has issued an interim approval for the use of green

color “…within a bicycle lane or extension of a bicycle lane to

enhance the conspicuity of the bicycle lane or extension.”

FHWA IA-14 April 15, 2011.

NACTO notes “Motorists are expected to yield right-of-way to

bicyclists at these locations.” Not true!

Big difference between “enhancing conspicuity” and

assigning right-of-way.

IA-15 Alt Design for US Bike Route

Sign M1-9

2009 version Proposed improved

IA-16 Bicycle Signal Faces

Additions to MUTCD Bikes in Work Zones

Part 6 Typical Applications

for Guidance and Support to

provide bikeway continuity

through or around a

Temporary Traffic Control

(TTC) zone.

Additions to MUTCD

Additions to MUTCD

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

EXCEPT BICYCLES

Reg plaque R5-xxP

Used beneath regulatory

signs where it is desired to

exempt bicycles from the

condition depicted on

the sign.

For contraflow BL’s with

R5-1 DNE sign.

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

R3-5xp BIKE PLAQUE FOR

LANE SIGN

R3-8 ADVANCE

INTERSECTION LANE

CONTROL SIGN

Changes in 2016 Manual –

Intersection Signs

R10-15a R10-15b

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Bike Warning Plaques

Used beneath warning signs

where it is desired to alert

bicyclists that the specific

condition depicted on the

warning sign is not

applicable to them.

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Contraflow Bike Lanes

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Bike Boxes

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Buffered Bike Lane

The longitudinal marking on

the bike lane side of the

buffer shall be broken to

allow crossing.

Buffer >4’ width should have

cross hatch markings

(chevrons at travel lane,

diagonals at parking.

Additions to MUTCD Regulatory Signs

Revised M1-8 and M1-8a

Signs

Non-Numbered Bike Route Markers

M1-xa M1-xb

Pedestrian Road Safety Audit

Newport, RI

Cyclist Road Safety Audit

Bike/Ped Road Safety Audit

Resources

Complete Streets Coalition

http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/complete-streets

Status of new bike designs

www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/bicycle_pedestrian/guidance/

design_guidance/mutcd_bike.cfm

MUTCD information with links to state supplements and

interim approvals www.fhwa.mutcd.org

Bill DeSantis | wdesantis@vhb.com | 401.457.2024

Margaret Kubilins | mkubilins@vhb.com | 757.233.3217

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Offices located throughout the east coast