Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
Bicycle Infrastructure

Bike Signals Get the Green Light From Engineering Establishment

1:39 PM EST on January 6, 2014

Think of it as a Christmas gift: On December 24, the gatekeepers who determine which street treatments should become standard tools for American engineers decided to add bike signals to the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, sometimes called "the bible of traffic engineering."

Cities will no longer have to undergo expensive additional engineering studies to install bike signals. Image: ##http://bikeportland.org/2011/12/27/on-january-1-bike-traffic-signals-get-the-green-light-in-oregon-64283## Bike Portland##
Cities will no longer have to perform expensive engineering studies to install bike signals. Image: ##http://bikeportland.org/2011/12/27/on-january-1-bike-traffic-signals-get-the-green-light-in-oregon-64283##Bike Portland##
Cities will no longer have to undergo expensive additional engineering studies to install bike signals. Image: ##http://bikeportland.org/2011/12/27/on-january-1-bike-traffic-signals-get-the-green-light-in-oregon-64283## Bike Portland##

The decision should lead to more widespread use of bike signals, which can be used to reduce conflicts between people on bikes and turning drivers, give cyclists a head start at intersections, or create a separate phase entirely for bicycle traffic. They are often used in tandem with protected bike lanes.

Prior to the Christmas Eve vote by the committee that updates the MUTCD, bike signals were considered "experimental." Communities seeking to install them first had to fund expensive engineering studies.

But no longer. In a memo regarding the approval, Federal Highway Administration officials noted that bike signals have been shown to improve safety outcomes as well as compliance with traffic rules by cyclists. Crash rates involving cyclists have been reduced as much as 45 percent following the installation of bike signals, FHWA reports.

Michael Andersen at People for Bikes' Green Lane Project notes that bike signals reduce the risk to cyclists at intersections, which are where most collisions occur.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Why We Care About Some Transportation Tragedies More Than Others

Why do we respond to major transportation disasters with so much urgency — and why don't we count our collective car crash epidemic among them?

March 28, 2024

Take Thursday’s Headlines Home, Country Roads

Heat Map reports on why rural Americans are resisting electric vehicles, and why it might not matter much for the climate.

March 28, 2024

Wednesday’s Headlines Missed Connection

The Biden administration is spending billions to reconnect neighborhoods torn apart by urban freeways. But the projects seem to simply paper over the problem, Governing reports.

March 27, 2024

Mega-Cars Violate Brooklyn Bridge Weight Ban with Impunity

The city does virtually nothing to stop the onslaught of excessively heavy vehicles on our roads and bridges.

March 27, 2024

Survey Says: American Walking Data Is Getting Worse

The National Household Travel Survey has never given a full picture of how often Americans get around on foot. But a recent change in methodology may have made made matters worse.

March 27, 2024
See all posts